Where do I go if I have a question about HMIS?

The Institute for Community Alliances (ICA) maintains a variety of resources to help agencies and users effectively utilize HMIS. Take a look at the resources listed below to see if one of them meets your needs.

Check the HMIS Knowledge Base

The Minnesota HMIS Knowledge Base is a collection of some of our frequently asked questions with answers from the team at ICA. Everything is sorted into topics and is searchable using the built-in search. It even works well on smartphone and tablet screens!

If you don’t know exactly what you are looking for, or just want to gain more insight into HMIS, you can click around to your heart’s content and read any articles you find interesting.

Contact the HMIS Helpdesk

What is the Helpdesk?

At ICA, we understand that sometimes, you just need someone to assist you with your HMIS problem. Never fear - the Helpdesk is here!

Every Monday through Friday, from 8:30am - 4:30pm Central Time, ICA staff are available on our Helpdesk. The Helpdesk is closed for holidays, and we will notify users through the newsletter and on our website in advance of these closures.

To reach the Helpdesk, fill out the contact form or e-mail mnhmis@icalliances.org. Your Helpdesk request will be routed to the appropriate team member and they will respond within one business day. We utilize this system of emails and forms to enable us to efficiently prioritize requests and to prepare the most effective responses.

Why don't you have a phone number that I can call?

ICA staff are available to assist users over the phone if a question cannot be satisfactorily answered via email. However, the first contact users have with the Helpdesk is typically made over email; some reasons for this are shared below:

The volume and complexity of cases we receive makes it difficult for us to field a high number of phone calls.
Email enables us to route requests to the appropriate subject-matter expert, ensuring users get the best response.
Creating written documentation enables users and Helpdesk staff to revisit resolved cases, should the need arise.
User surveys have shown high levels of satisfaction with the Helpdesk's response time. At least two people staff the Helpdesk every day, with additional coverage during busy reporting seasons.

What types of questions does the Helpdesk field?

The Helpdesk is available to respond to a variety of cases, including those related to Coordinated Entry, funder reporting requirements, user and agency management, and password resets. In the event that the Helpdesk is unable to answer a question, our staff will do their best to route you to a person that can.

How can I get the most out of my Helpdesk experience?

While ICA’s system administrators love answering questions, contacting the Helpdesk will ensure that you get the fastest possible response. To further improve the speed and quality of the answer you receive, please include the following:

Client ID
- If there is a specific client ID you are emailing about, please include the client ID number. Or, if you have some example client IDs for an issue you are seeing, please include an ID or two for us to look into.

Provider Number
- Please note, client identifying information should not be shared via email, so please be sure to exclude any client names, social security numbers, etc. Sending screenshots can be extremely helpful, just a reminder to obscure any identifying information that may be included.

Report Information, including report name and the parameters you are using to run it.
- Let us know the name of the report and where and when you ran it. Is it an ART report or a canned report that was run in ServicePoint? This information will help us locate the report more quickly and ensure we are digging into the correct issue. If it is an ART report: Schedule the report to your ART inbox. This will allow us to see the report exactly as you do. If you View the report, we are unable to see the report you have run. Schedule the report in Excel format. We are able to much more quickly troubleshoot reporting issues when a report was run in Excel as opposed to as a PDF.

Visit Minnesota’s HMIS Website

hmismn.org is the place to go to find helpful resources, including data collection forms, legal documents, and data visualization tools. We recommend checking out these bookmark-worthy pages:

Administrative Documents: Visit this page to locate legal documents, like the Agency Agreement and HMIS Release of Information.
Coordinated Entry: Go here to find instructions for completing Coordinated Entry functions in HMIS and report guides for CES reports.
Forms and Instructions: Data collection forms, program-specific user guides, and general data entry instructions can all be found here.
News: Read the most recent newsletter articles and revisit old favorites.
User Training: New and returning users can learn more about gaining access to HMIS on this page.
Reporting: Find information about mandated annual federal reports and explore visualization tools that leverage the data collected in HMIS to tell stories about homelessness in Minnesota.