SSA Urged To Upgrade Online Services

A Press Release From the National Academies:

WASHINGTON -- The Social Security Administration should make a clear, strategic commitment to upgrading its online services for an increasingly Internet-savvy clientele, says a new report from the National Research Council. Although SSA's present computer and database systems continue to operate and do not jeopardize the current delivery of benefits, enhancing online service offerings and maintaining the systems will become increasingly difficult without significant changes.

The SSA developed an "e-government" strategy in accordance with the President's E-Gov Initiative and asked the Research Council to form a committee to review the strategy. The committee found that although SSA offers some online services, it does not strongly promote use of the Internet as an alternative to its traditional methods of customer service. The online services SSA does offer lag behind those offered by private financial institutions, and the agency has not kept pace with technological improvements supporting electronic services, the report adds. SSA has a long-standing tradition of individualized customer service delivered in person or over the phone, which is very labor intensive. However, the new wave of baby boomer clients for SSA benefits and services, unlike previous generations, is more comfortable with computers and electronic commerce.

The report recommends that SSA follow the example of large firms that have successfully rolled out electronic services by giving a high-level office responsibility for developing and managing electronic information and service delivery. To be successful in developing and upgrading its electronic services, the SSA also needs to undergo a shift in organizational culture toward embracing change -- by regularly evaluating emerging trends in technology, business practices, demographics, and public expectations -- as a constant factor in how it does business.

Because the underlying databases are essential to delivery of electronic services, the report also examines SSA's plans to update its more than 20-year-old "MADAM" database system, which is well-behind current commercial technology, and which has not been replaced despite warnings from as far back as 1986 about the risks of maintaining it. This obsolete, custom technology requires highly specialized expertise that is in increasingly short supply. SSA personnel with this expertise will begin retiring in greater numbers and replacing them will be difficult because the required skills are no longer in the mainstream. Moreover, it is much easier to implement electronic services with a modern database system. The report recommends that SSA give considerable weight to the efficacy of electronic delivery of services and remain open to the incorporation of new technologies when planning for conversion and upgrade. Because modernization of MADAM is critical to the SSA's mission, and because the committee has concerns about SSA's current plans for updating MADAM, the committee also recommended seeking technical advice from a broader range of experts in undertaking a conversion.

SSA's approach to balancing risks and rewards for modernization is overly cautious, the committee concluded. It recommended a more appropriate balance that better recognizes the risks associated with failing to modernize and the benefits of modernization such as cost reduction, fraud prevention, and customer satisfaction.

I think I can tell the National Research Council why Social Security does not promote its online services more. It is because they do not work very well. So far, most people find them frustrating to use and there is little or no savings to the agency when they do. Of course with enough money, Social Security might be able to make its online services work better, but since Social Security was struggling just to keep its doors open a few months ago, enough money to greatly upgrade the agency's online capacity may be a pipe dream at this point.