State of Indiana Improves Constituent Service with Joint Thunderhead IBM Solution

State unemployment agency saves more than $1 million in annual print-related costs by moving from print to electronic communications

Thunderhead, the leading provider of enterprise communications products, today announced that the US State of Indiana Department of Workforce Development (IDWD) has successfully implemented the company’s Thunderhead NOW technology to improve constituent service, reduce costs and modernize its technology infrastructure.

Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development (IDWD) is responsible for administering the State’s unemployment insurance program. The agency serves more than three million civilian workers and produces an average of 7,000 documents daily, with a peak of more than 150,000 documents per day for tax, benefits and constituent appeals. As part of an agency-wide modernization project, IDWD sought to streamline processes, eliminate delays and enable easy, online access to relevant information and documents for employers, claimants and agency staff.

IDWD implemented the Thunderhead NOW platform, in tandem with the IBM FileNet P8 platform for automated workflow and document retrieval, as part of an integrated solution based on Tier Technology’s UI Connect integrated solution for unemployment insurance benefits, tax and appeals.

“Using the multi-channel capabilities of Thunderhead NOW, IDWD was able to eliminate more than one million printed notices, many of which were converted to XML-based documents for electronic delivery,” said Tim Peterson, vice president Tier Technologies. This resulted in savings of more than $1 million in annual print-related costs. In addition, the joint solution using Tier’s UI Connect, Thunderhead NOW and the IBM FileNet solution has enabled IDWD to automate exception review and handling, resulting in faster adjudication of benefit claims.

“This new unemployment insurance solution, based on technology from Tier, IBM and Thunderhead, has enabled us to significantly reduce costs, streamline processes and enforce data integrity in an efficient manner,” said Pam Grenard, project manager at IDWD. “We’ve also been able to eliminate most of the complexities that exist in our legacy environments when it comes to generating and storing constituent correspondence.”

“The State of Indiana’s implementation of a joint solution from Thunderhead and IBM is a perfect example of our ability to easily integrate with ECM, BPM and enterprise applications,” said Glen Manchester, chief executive officer of Thunderhead. “The State’s initiative has eliminated unnecessary complexity and cost, enabled higher service levels and dramatically improved communications.”

“This project highlights Thunderhead’s successful move into the public sector,” added Manchester. “Government agencies, like corporations, need to respond quickly to constituent inquiries with accurate and relevant content in the right language and format. We are delighted to be able to work with agencies like IDWD to deliver services that make a difference.”