摘要：The COVID-19 public health emergency caused widespread economic shutdown andunemployment. The resulting surge in Unemployment Insurance claims threatened tooverwhelm the legacy systems state workforce agencies rely on to collect, process,and payclaims.In Rhode Island, we developed a scalable cloud solution to collect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims as part of a new program created under the Coronavirus AidRelief and Economic Security Act to extend unemployment benefits to independent contractors and gig-economy workers not covered by traditional Unemployment Insurance.Our new system was developed, tested, and deployed within 10 days following the passage ofthe Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, making Rhode Island the first state inthe nation to collect, validate, and pay Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims.A cloud-enhanced interactive voice response system was deployed a week later to handle the corresponding surge in weekly certifications for continuing unemployment benefits.Cloudsolutions can augment legacy systems by offloading processes that are more efficientlyhandled in modern scalable systems, reserving the limited resources of legacy systems forwhat they were originally designed. This agile use of combined technologies allowed RhodeIsland to deliver timely Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits with an estimated costsavings of $5o2,00o (representing a 411% return on investment).
关键词：Unemployment insurance;pandemic unemployment assistance;COVID-19;CARES Act;cloud managed services;legacy systems
