Capgemini builds leading unemployment insurance benefits processing SaaS platform for state agencies

Problem statement

Multiple US states require a highly capable platform for processing unemployment insurance (UI) claims and providing timely benefits services to citizens. As economic swings occur with more frequency, this places severe strain on legacy systems and frequently results in failures and delays in processing UI claims. Thus, many states need to replace their legacy platforms with a modern, cloud-based system that provides high scalability, zero downtime, a rich new feature set, and reduction of high technical debt.

Capgemini, in consultation with several states, designed and developed the leading SaaS platform for providing UI benefits services. Feature rich and with proven scalability, the system is targeted to all US state UI benefits agencies. The platform is currently in operation at several state agencies including the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.

Proposed solution and architecture

Capgemini proposed a phased roadmap approach to develop a SaaS platform that would not only meet all the functional requirements but would also open new revenue channels, with features that will enable the product to be commercially offered to other customers. Thus, a solid foundation of multi-tenancy, tenant separation, security, and a highly capable billing and metrics subsystem are all critical requirements of the system architecture.

Tools and technology used included Oracle RDBMS, modular and domain-driven design, microservices-based (SOAP and REST APIs) application architecture hosted on AWS, integrated CI/CD pipeline for development and deployment operations, integration with AWS Connect for call-center call deflection, Capgemini proprietary accelerators, and the Capgemini Cloud Platform for operations and management services

Outcome of project and success metrics

The project is highly successful and is Implemented on AWS GovCloud. Two of the key target metrics are zero downtime and scalability with infinite capacity. We proved the scalability during the COVID-19 pandemic where the system was easily able to scale up to handle a 98 percent load increase overnight, processing over $100 million in FPUC disbursements in one day and with zero downtime. Overall, the system processed and paid out the first billion dollars in claims during the first six weeks of operation, a testament to the stability, resiliency, functionality, and scalability of the system. We also have an active product roadmap with several new features being implemented this year.

Describe TCO analysis performed

The product planning and funding were subject to a rigorous stage-gate process by the customer as well as Capgemini’s senior management team, and the business plan carefully considered multiple financial metrics including TCO, TAM, and ROI. Capgemini actively helped the customer compute all the components of TCO including annual infrastructure costs (AWS ARR ), development costs, and annual operational costs before we could obtain development funding.

Lessons learned

Advantage of opening a SaaS product to multiple customers in the market. Building SaaS products is expensive but provides opportunities for creating new revenue streams for the customer. In this case, one of our customers was willing to open the system to other state agencies. Capgemini helped the customer devise the business plan and commercial models.

Phased transition approach is key to success. The system architecture is complex and a big-bang approach to modernization is too risky. We developed a carefully planned and phased roadmap, and transitioned components based upon early value realization and subsequent acceleration of ROI.