Taxpayers, disabled to gain as paper pushers go digital

With one of the largest content management systems ever built, the Social Security Administration is reaping the rewards of migrating to a paperless office.

With one of the largest content management systems ever built, the Social Security Administration is reaping the rewards of migrating to a paperless office.

In 2006, SSA will complete the rollout of an $800 million all-digital system - known as eDIB, for Electronic Disability System - to process disability claims at nearly 1,500 locations nationwide. SSA says eDIB will save more than $1.3 billion when compared with the cost of creating, mailing and storing paper folders. Once eDIB is fully deployed, SSA hopes to slash 100 days out of the average time it takes to process a disability claim - a claim took as long as three years before the eDIB deployment.

The goal of eDIB is to speed disability claims processing by reducing delays in creating, transporting and locating paper files. The new system aims to provide a secure, centralized Web-based repository of medical and other documents associated with disability claims. SSA and state agency employees process these claims using a customized desktop environment.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

With one of the largest content management systems ever built, the Social Security Administration is reaping the rewards of migrating to a paperless office.

In 2006, SSA will complete the rollout of an $800 million all-digital system - known as eDIB, for Electronic Disability System - to process disability claims at nearly 1,500 locations nationwide. SSA says eDIB will save more than $1.3 billion when compared with the cost of creating, mailing and storing paper folders. Once eDIB is fully deployed, SSA hopes to slash 100 days out of the average time it takes to process a disability claim - a claim took as long as three years before the eDIB deployment.

The goal of eDIB is to speed disability claims processing by reducing delays in creating, transporting and locating paper files. The new system aims to provide a secure, centralized Web-based repository of medical and other documents associated with disability claims. SSA and state agency employees process these claims using a customized desktop environment.

"We will spend $800 million over seven years ending in 2009," says William Gray, SSA's deputy commissioner for systems. "Our return on investment will be $1.3 billion by 2011. The costs of this system are front-loaded, but the benefits increase as you go into the out years and beyond."

The eDIB repository is adding 32 million documents each year, which takes 7T bytes of data storage space. In addition, the repository will house audio and video transcripts from disability claims hearings that will occupy an estimated 45T bytes of digital storage media annually.

The system will have 65,000 users, including 10,400 concurrent users. The users come from SSA's 1,477 offices and 135 hearing offices that hear appeals on disability claims. Each state and territory in the U.S. has its own office for determining disability claims for SSA, and these offices are linked into eDIB, too.

"This is the biggest Web content management system in the world that we've seen in terms of the number of users and the wide variety of users," says Jon Prial, IBM's vice president of content management.

SSA handles more than 2 million disability claims each year, and until now this process was all on paper.

To file a disability claim, an employee would go to one of SSA's 1,300 field offices nationwide, fill out an application form and submit medical data in support of the claim. SSA would send a paper folder to the appropriate state office, which would arrange for a doctor to review it. The state would make a determination on the claim and then mail the folder back to the closest SSA field office. Employees denied disability claims could file for a hearing at one of SSA's hearing offices. After the legal proceedings were done, the disability folder often would be several inches thick.

"There were many things wrong with this process," Gray says. "It was extremely labor-intensive and paper-intensive, and an enormous amount of time was lost in the process. Only the person that had the paper folder could do any work. There was lots of time lost with people finding, managing and mailing these folders."