Accenture to update New Jersey's unemployment benefits system

New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development

New Jersey state government officials awarded a $39.9 million contract to Accenture to modernize a system that will better administer and deliver unemployment insurance benefits.

Under the contract, the company will integrate the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Department’s unemployment claims interfaces with back-end document management systems to establish the New Jersey State Unemployment Compensation Claimant and Employer Service System.

“This new system is designed to allow claimants to reduce the time spent on the claims process and focus their efforts on finding work, make it easier for employers to communicate with the state, and enable the state to better control operational costs by modernizing the claims process,” John Maguire, managing partner of Accenture’s State and Local practice, said in a press release.

The system will better integrate the Internet and telephony systems that employers and claimants use to contact and communicate with state workers. Although the current system supports both telephony and the Internet, duplicate data exists in the systems and processing Internet claims is slower.

Furthermore, the current system has several other limitations that the new system will address. For example, individuals can submit an initial claim through the Web, but then must interact with a person after that. The Web channel also cannot track transactions about claims started by phone. Additionally, the current system allows employers to use only the telephony system and not the Web.

The state will continue to allow claimants and employers to contact the state via mail or in person. With the new system, state employees will be able to better respond to inquiries and process and pay claims faster.

Accenture’s team includes First Data Government Solutions for telephony implementation services and Chicago Systems Group for technical and programming services.