Driving transformation for California’s workforce (WPS322)

Here is a detailed summary of the video transcription in markdown format:

Ed Next: Modernizing California's Employment Development Department

Introduction

  • Tony Driver, an AWS Account Manager, introduces the session on Ed Next, California's multi-year modernization effort for the Employment Development Department (Ed).
  • Ed is one of the largest state departments in California, with almost 10,000 employees and 225 office locations.
  • Ed provides billions in unemployment, disability insurance, and Paid Family Leave benefits, and collects 40% of the state's general fund, making it the largest personal income tax collection entity in the U.S. after the IRS.

Modernizing Ed: A Customer-Centric Approach

  • Nancy Foss, the Director of Ed, discusses the department's modernization project, Ed Next, and its mission to transform the customer experience.
  • The pandemic exposed the limitations of Ed's legacy systems, which were overwhelmed by the surge in claims. This led to a reconsideration of the modernization effort to put the needs of customers first.
  • Ed is implementing several initiatives to improve the customer experience:
    • Migrating to Amazon Connect for its contact centers, enabling self-service options, call-back capabilities, and multilingual support.
    • Establishing a customer experience team and a voice of the customer program to understand and address customer needs.
    • Modernizing its tax application and migrating it to the AWS Cloud for better performance and disaster recovery.

Ed Next: A Phased Approach to Modernization

  • Ron Hughes, the Deputy Director of the Ed Next project, outlines the various work streams and the phased approach to modernization.
  • Key initiatives include:
    • Implementing a shared customer portal (My Ed) on the Salesforce cloud.
    • Migrating to AWS Connect for its contact centers, enabling features like virtual hold, scheduled call-back, and interactive voice response.
    • Modernizing the document management system to handle the millions of paper documents received annually.
    • Replacing the 45-year-old mainframe-based integrated claims management system with a new cloud-based solution.
  • The modernization efforts are prioritized based on customer impact, with the most critical projects being addressed first.

Demonstrating the Contact Center Solution

  • Chris Carter, an AWS Connect Specialist, provides a detailed demo of the self-service capabilities implemented for the disability insurance program.
  • The demo showcases features like:
    • Automated language detection and prompt playback in the customer's preferred language.
    • Spam call prevention through a verification code.
    • Natural language understanding using Amazon Lex for customer inquiries.
    • Seamless integration with backend systems to retrieve claim status and other information.
    • Call-back functionality to maintain the customer's place in the queue.
    • Integration with Salesforce for claims management and agent workflows.

Conclusion

  • The session emphasizes the importance of a customer-centric approach to modernization, the value of cloud-based solutions, and the phased implementation strategy adopted by Ed.
  • The speakers express their pride in the Ed Next project and their commitment to continuous improvement and customer feedback.
  • The audience is encouraged to reach out for further discussions and to provide feedback on the presentation.

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