Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

 DAVID Y. IGE
GOVERNOR

ANNE PERREIRA-EUSTAQUIO
DIRECTOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2021

STATE ANNOUNCES UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE SYSTEM MODERNIZATION

New Unemployment Insurance (UI) Platform and Management

System to Transform Delivery of Essential Services

HONOLULU — The Hawaii State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations (DLIR) today announced that it has executed a contract with vendor Solid State Operations, Inc. to replace an aging, legacy mainframe system designed in the 1980s with a web-based application. The cloud-hosted, software-as-a-service application with superior technology, lower total costs, and more flexible capabilities will transform the way the DLIR provides essential services to unemployed workers, to employers of the state of Hawaii, and to the United States Department of Labor.

“We are building upon previous legwork with the State of Idaho and personnel at Solid State involved in an effort that ended with the onset of the pandemic,” said DLIR Director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio. “We are excited to work with Solid State and Alabama’s Department of Labor to renovate our system and expect to achieve the tremendous results Alabama accomplished.”

Hawaii’s project follows Solid State’s successful renovation of Alabama’s UI system, which launched in January 2020. In September of last year, Alabama ranked #1 in the nation in benefits payment timeliness, and by the end of the year, the system had paid over $4B in benefits payments.

“Many of the hard-won lessons that we’ve learned in Alabama are now incorporated in the features of this system,” explains John Demas, IT Director, Alabama Department of Labor. “Alabama is excited to be instrumental in providing Hawaii a head-start in achieving some of the exceptional results that we’ve experienced. This kind of state-to-state sharing is key to providing good government services to our citizens.”

The DLIR Data Station will replace all current essential Benefits, Tax and Appeals UI functionality with cloud-hosted, software-as-a-service application. A cross-functional team of Solid State and DLIR personnel will collaborate and deliver the ultimate solutions. Solid State will supply software development, business analysts, DevOps experts, project management, functional testing, and infrastructure resources. DLIR will provide business users, user acceptance testers, product champions, and IT integration assistance.

The enhanced platform is easier to use, offers more automation than its predecessor, and will:

• Save money on IT costs, staff hours, and training costs
• Prevent UI-related fraud, waste, and abuse
• Provide timely, uninterrupted benefits to unemployed workers of Hawaii
• Provide accurate charges and modern services to Hawaii employers.

 

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https://labor.hawaii.gov/blog/category/news/

Media Contact:
Bill Kunstman
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations
(808) 586-8845
[email protected]
https://labor.hawaii.gov