CASE STUDY

Project Turnaround Leads to Country’s First Modernized Unemployment Insurance System

SETTING THE STAGE

Across the country, agencies tasked with delivering services pertaining

to unemployment insurance, such as Indiana’s Department of Workforce

Development (DWD), are relying on large, outdated legacy mainframe systems.

Operating on aging technology, these systems either have or will soon run out

of support.

The antiquated systems, which are hard to maintain and require a significant

investment of time and resources from technology staff, have become a

hindrance. In a world that requires on-demand information, the systems often

show their age as their ability to serve citizens and employers begins to wane.

Indiana wanted to ensure its citizens and employers were receiving the

resources they needed in a timely manner. Modernizing one of its core

applications was the first big step for DWD to meet this need.

So began the State of Indiana’s efforts to modernize its unemployment insurance system.

The Indiana Department of

Workforce Development

is charged with delivering

services to citizens and

employers alike, including

unemployment benefits for

job seekers, tax collection

and maintenance for

Indiana Employers, and

an Appeals process that

provides recourse for both

parties.

CASE STUDY 1Project Turnaround Leads to Country’s First Modernized Unemployment Insurance System

THE PROBLEM

With technology that was holding back the potential of

the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, the

State of Indiana was ready to modernize its operations.

The right legislation to provide the necessary funding was

passed, and Indiana deemed it time to replace the legacy

mainframe system, which had been implemented in the

1980s.

The State of Indiana, one of the first to attempt to refresh

its unemployment insurance (UI) system, developed the

following goals:

• Modernize UI systems and replace the outdated

technology;

• Provide new online self-service offerings to employers

and citizens;

• Create a comprehensive UI system that centralizes

each business function into a singular application.

THE ROADBLOCK

With clear priorities established, DWD engaged a vendor

to begin the UIM project in 2003. Shortly thereafter,

complications arose that led to contract termination. After

a three-year delay in the UIM project, DWD engaged a

second vendor in 2006. The project was initially off to a

good start with some “quick win” release deployments,

but five years passed and DWD had yet to transition off

the mainframe legacy system in 2011. Struggling with

transparency into project status and trajectory, DWD

hired KSM Consulting (KSMC) to perform Independent

Verification and Validation (IV&V) services over the

development.

The KSMC team established four guiding goals:

KSMC TO THE RESCUE

Facing major gaps in transparency of the current status of

the project, DWD executives sought to understand where

the project stood, where it was going, and when they

would bring the project to successful completion.

In order to ensure success, the KSMC team understood

that several steps needed to be taken. First, the team

developed dashboards and established metrics that

accurately depicted the status of project efforts as well as

provided insight into the effort left to cross the finish line.

By centering the team around these dashboards, all parties

were aligned on project status in relation to successful

implementation. To achieve success, KSMC had to gain

buy in from several parties including state executives,

project team members, and business resources, as well as

contractor project management and technical resources.

Despite KSMC providing transparency to the project team

as a whole and several recommendations to the contractor

project resources, the state-contractor relationship

continued to deteriorate. As the pace of the project

continued to flag, DWD decided it was once again time to

end things with its current contractor team. In late 2012,

DWD asked KSMC to take over management of the project

and be accountable for its successful delivery.

Federal Bills Enacted

The Reed Act and House Enrollment Act was passed by the Federal Government in order to allocate funds to state workforce

departments around the country to modernize core unemployment insurance applications, later referred to as Unemployment Insurance Modernization (UIM).

CASE STUDY 2

Accurately report project status to provide

transparency and a better understanding of

“where we are;”

Improve interactions between state and vendor

project resources to repair project culture

Develop recommendations for improving project

processes and approaches in key areas of the

software development lifecycle

Provide key metrics to understand if the existing

project plan was achievable and realistic

Transparent Reporting

KSMC delivered dashboards that provided transparency into project

status for every resource involved.

Project Turnaround Leads to Country’s First Modernized Unemployment Insurance System

STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH

Steady State

Officially tasked with the successful launch of the UIM system, the KSMC

team immediately jumped into action and began interviewing DWD resources

to analyze project team members’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. Once

determined, reorganization of the team went into effect, placing highly capable

individuals in the most important technical roles.

With the right team in place, the project shifted gears to refine the processes

needed to successfully support a team of this size. Processes touching the

entire software development life cycle were updated to ensure efficient and

accurate quality of work. In addition, a detailed communication plan was

developed for continued alignment among key stakeholder groups.

Efforts then went into identifying the scope of work for a minimally viable

product (MVP) the team would strive towards. The MVP represented the basic

functionality required by the business to take the system live while maintaining

its core day-to-day business processes. To accomplish this, stakeholders were

aligned to the long-term vision for the product - understanding that the base

system would be built up and enhanced in the years to come.

At a time when tolerance for failure was low, a concise project plan with clearly

defined benchmarks was put into place, including 30-day milestones to track

progress. By establishing and meeting the milestones, the team began walking

the long road to rebuilding the executive leadership’s confidence in project

success. Later, this became vital in making the decision to take the system live.

LaunchThe team maintained a steady track record of success in completing milestones

for the next several months. Nearly ten years from the project’s original

initiation, and only one year after KSMC took ownership of the project team, the

agency’s modernized Unemployment Insurance System, Uplink, was successfully

launched on January 19th, 2014.

January 19th 2014:

Indiana Department of Workforce Development launches modernized unemployment insurance system.

CASE STUDY 3Project Turnaround Leads to Country’s First Modernized Unemployment Insurance System

IMPACT

Over the last several years, many states and state consortiums all across the

country have attempted to modernize their unemployment insurance systems

to integrate Tax, Benefits, and Appeals into a single cohesive system. Indiana’s

experience proved the complexity involved. Even with millions of dollars

invested to launch the integrated systems, to date, success nationwide has

been limited at best.

Working with KSMC, the State of Indiana was the first state to successfully

modernize a system that integrated Tax, Benefits, and Appeals at launch.

With the launch of UpLink, the unsupported technology that had presented

significant risk to the agency was eliminated. Instead, the new system was

developed to meet the current and future business needs of DWD. UpLink was

designed to be modified in response to changes in agency UI policy as well as

federal and state laws to support the system into the foreseeable future.

Additionally, the launch allowed DWD to realize a wide range of benefits for

claimants, employers, and the internal DWD staff utilizing the system.

The project has moved into a steady state phase of defect and change

management to continually support DWD. In a nutshell, KSMC took one

year to turnaround a project that had stalled for 10 years and was ready to

be written off as a failure into a project that was successfully launched and

continues to be an asset for DWD, citizens, and employers.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

Due to the strong relationships established between KSMC and DWD, DWD

continues to retain KSMC’s project management expertise to oversee the

successful support, maintenance, and enhancement of UpLink. Focused on

three pillars including fraud prevention, reducing improper payments, and the

effective collection of liabilities, the team strives to continue delivering value

to DWD’s internal business users as well as Indiana’s claimants and employers.

CASE STUDY 4

Claimants now enjoy 24/7 online access as well as increased

accuracy and timeliness in regards to benefits.

Employers have access to tax and liability information 24 hours

a day and benefit from near real-time transactions, eliminating

processes that took multiple days to complete.

Internal staff have an increased ability to detect fraud, successfully

complete collections, and stop improper payments.

Working with KSMC, the State of Indiana was the first state to successfully modernize a system that integrated Tax, Benefits, and Appeals at launch.

Project Turnaround Leads to Country’s First Modernized Unemployment Insurance System

CASE STUDY 5

ABOUT KSM CONSULTING

KSM Consulting, LLC (KSMC) is a technology, data, and management consulting firm founded almost 10 years ago.

The firm offers services from nine practice areas, including the Project Turnaround practice. The Project Turnaround

practice helps organizations implement the necessary changes through an unbiased perspective to get projects on track

for success. Aligning people, processes, and technology, the team helps organizations create a roadmap designed to

achieve their goals.

© Copyright 2017 KSM Consulting | Part of Katz, Sapper & Miller Network

References to “Katz, Sapper & Miller,” “Katz, Sapper & Miller Network,” “KSM” and “KSM Network” (collectively herein referred to as the “KSM Brand”) are brand names associated with the various legal entities rendering a wide range of professional services to national and international organizations. State, national and international laws, along with professional regulations, require the provision of various accounting and consulting services to be performed under distinct legal entities. The “KSM Brand” does not provide services directly to organizations. Rather, the “KSM Brand” is used as a branding and organizing mechanism to align the strategies, goals, risk and quality of all legal entities which fall under the “KSM Brand.” While different accounting and consulting services are performed under various legal entities, these entities, in many instances, work collaboratively in the provision of professional services to organizations. When a legal entity within the “KSM Brand” engages an organization, nothing therein induces or prescribes liability for any other legal entity unless that legal entity is specifically engaged by that organization.

PROFILE

Josh Wakefield serves the public sector through the management of large-scale technology

projects and his leadership of the project oversight practice.

With an extensive technical and business knowledge base, Josh’s skillful oversight has driven

the successful completion of many technology projects, including those previously considered

abandoned or out-of-compliance.

To learn more, visit: www.ksmconsulting.com/consulting-services/project-management/

Project Turnaround Leads to Country’s First Modernized Unemployment Insurance System