Technology Modernization Fund announces investments upgrading customer experiences in housing and Social Security services

October 22, 2024

WASHINGTON - The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) announced its latest round of investments totaling $50.2 million, aimed at modernizing critical services across two federal agencies. These initiatives span a wide range of improvements, including a major enhancement to identity and access management at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and three modernization efforts at the Social Security Administration (SSA) focused on digitizing forms for an improved customer experience, streamlining beneficiary communications, and leveraging artificial intelligence to support disability claim processing. Through these investments, TMF continues to champion a vision of government that is more agile in its operations, more efficient in its processes, and more attuned to the needs of the American people.

"These investments represent a pivotal moment in our ongoing efforts to modernize government services," said Jessie Posilkin, TMF Acting Executive Director. "By focusing on critical areas such as housing and social security, we're making investments that do two things at once, improving our government security while improving access to services and laying the groundwork for a more secure, efficient, and user-centric government that better serves all Americans."

"The American people want government interactions that address their needs quickly, accurately, and securely so they can do business and get back to their lives," said Clare Martorana, Federal CIO and TMF Board Chair. "SSA has been burdened by paper processes for too long, impacting their ability to upload documents, adjudicate claims online, and communicate digitally with their customers. HUD recognized the need to bolster their security posture to protect their critical mission and presented a sound technical plan to achieve success. These TMF investments will enable both agencies to drive secure digital transformation forward, demonstrating a new way of modernizing government services and providing interactions that meet today's expectations."

"These investments reflect GSA's vision of a federal government that's not just keeping up with technology, but leading the way," said Robin Carnahan, General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator. "We're setting new standards for security, efficiency, and customer service in the public sector. By investing in agencies like HUD and SSA, we're helping over 1 million people take advantage of SSA's services and more than 540,000 applicants and private lenders who access HUD's digital technology."

Department of Housing and Urban Development: Transforming identity and access management

HUD is dedicated to creating strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all Americans. However, HUD's current digital infrastructure, managing over 230 system applications accessed by approximately 10,000 internal users and 540,000 external users, is inefficient and struggles to keep pace with evolving security threats and user needs.

To address these challenges, HUD will use $19.8 million in TMF funding to implement a comprehensive Enterprise Identity, Credential, and Access Management (EICAM) solution, coming off of a successful pilot. This modernization effort is expected to yield significant benefits, including strengthened security governance, enhanced system access controls, increased productivity efficiencies, improved customer satisfaction, and operational cost savings through the decommissioning of legacy systems. It also represents a follow on TMF investment, taking a smaller scale TMF investment and bringing their success agency wide.

"Through the EICAM project, we are not just upgrading technology; we are transforming our organizational culture to prioritize security and efficiency at every level. This initiative will enhance our overall security posture through rigorous trainings and a shift in management practices to promote shared accountability," said Gregg Kendrick, HUD Chief Information Security Officer. "The cultural change we are fostering will enable HUD to not only meet today's security demands but also anticipate and effectively respond to the challenges of tomorrow. Our investment in EICAM is an investment in the future resilience and reliability of HUD's services, ensuring that we continue to meet the needs of the communities we serve with unwavering dedication and improved efficiency."

Social Security Administration: Digitizing forms and documents while enhancing customer experience

For nearly 90 years, SSA has supported financial security for millions of Americans. However, SSA's reliance on paper-based processes has led to high-volume queues, strained resources, and burdens on claimants, beneficiaries, and people applying on their behalf.

With $19.5 million in TMF support, SSA aims to transition to a more efficient, user-friendly service featuring electronic signature capabilities and a robust online document upload platform. By 2028, SSA anticipates reducing paper mail volume by roughly half and saving over 600 staff work years annually. For the public, this could potentially save customers up to 1.3 million hours in travel time.

"We're eliminating as many pain points as possible across forms that Americans use most often, and the TMF funds will help us accelerate that work", said Martin O'Malley, Commissioner of Social Security. "This means faster and more error-free processing and better service to our customers, which Americans deserve."

Social Security Administration: Modernizing beneficiary notifications

SSA sends hundreds of millions of notices each year to inform people about their benefits and required actions. However, many notices are hard to understand and poorly designed, leading to confusion and increased calls to SSA. Furthermore, most notices are sent by mail, which is expensive and increasingly not preferred by customers.

SSA plans to use $9 million in TMF support to create user-centered design guidance, build new digital tools, and modernize current backend systems for an enhanced customer experience. This effort aims to simplify notice language, create more digital options for receiving notices, and transform how SSA connects with applicants and beneficiaries.

"Our notices need to provide clear, actionable information to the public in their preferred communication mode," said Betsy Beaumon, Social Security's Chief Transformation Officer. "We're excited to be using this funding to build better experiences and stronger relationships with millions of Americans."

Social Security Administration: Using AI to support disability claim processing

As medical records grow increasingly complex and staff resources remain limited, SSA faces challenges in processing disability claims efficiently. To address this, SSA intends to use $1.9 million in TMF support to enhance several key systems, including the National Case Processing System and the Intelligent Medical-Language Analysis Generation tool.

"We are committed to reducing the amount of time people wait to receive a decision on their disability claim, and new technologies are part of the answer," said Brian Peltier, Social Security's Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chief AI Officer. "Responsible use of AI helps by quickly analyzing case data and other information and providing our technicians with instant feedback on claims, resulting in faster and more accurate decisions for our customers."

Through the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence, SSA aims to tackle a growing backlog of cases and reduce processing times. This technological upgrade will provide adjudicators with real-time feedback and decision support, potentially saving thousands of work hours annually.

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About the TMF: The Technology Modernization Fund is working to transform the way the government uses technology to deliver for the American public in an equitable, secure, and user-centric way. The TMF invests in technology projects across government, providing incremental funding, technical assistance, and oversight throughout execution to ensure the success of its investments.

The TMF is overseen by the Technology Modernization Board, which is composed of government IT leaders representing proven expertise in technology, transformation, and operations. TMF investments have supported projects ranging from modernizing the payment system used by the government's second largest revenue-collecting agency to helping to develop a new customer relationship management platform to maintain crucial international partnerships. For more information, visit tmf.cio.gov.

About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing over $100 billion in products and services via federal contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA's mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.

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