Social Security confronts significant technology challenges

While the Social Security Administration faces well-known problems with insufficient data center capacity, its inspector general recently reported that the agency faces many other technology problems, including outdated systems, applications and phone systems.

In an annual report on the state of the agency, the inspector general listed investment in information technology infrastructure to support current and future workloads as one of the top management issues SSA confronts in 2011.

By 2012, the agency's existing data center, built in 1979, will be unable to support new technology the administration expects to acquire for handling a surge in benefit applications from retirees and Americans suffering financial hardship. Yet the program to replace the data center is behind schedule and a new facility is not likely to be operational by 2015, the IG told SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue in a letter accompanying the report.

In addition to challenges with the data center, SSA's legacy systems and applications must be modernized, the IG said. Although SSA developed some of the most complex COBOL-based software in the world, it's now considered a dead or dying language. The software is difficult to maintain, but a 2002 Gartner study said replacing all of SSA's COBOL applications at once would be too costly and risky.

The report also found that calls to the agency's toll-free telephone network have surpassed SSA's ability to keep pace with the workload, despite a push to urge the public to use Web-based services in an effort to reduce the burden. According to the report, only 35 percent of the public's retirement applications were filed online. That must increase to 50 percent by 2013 to keep SSA field offices from being overwhelmed.

The agency tried to alleviate pressure on the call centers by installing Voice over Internet Protocol telephone systems, which transmit telephone calls through the Internet, allowing SSA to integrate its computer and phone systems.

But the IG warned that in offices where VoIP has been installed there have been service issues, including long wait times, disconnected or dropped calls, and poor sound quality.

"If our experiences are representative of VoIP functionality, this raises serious concerns about the level of customer service provided to individuals SSA's field offices," the report said.

SSA did not return a request seeking comment.