Meet the EDDNext Deputy Director

Ron Hughes is the Deputy Director of EDD’s newest organizational branch, the EDDNext Modernization and Innovation Branch. He is spearheading one of the largest modernization projects in the history of the EDD and the State of California. His mission is to deliver exceptional customer experiences by modernizing every aspect of how the EDD delivers services. Our Public Affairs team recently sat down with Ron to ask him about the effort and his plans. 

Q: Please tell us a bit about the purpose of the projects under EDDNext.

A: First of all, we learned a lot during the pandemic. We went from hundreds of thousands of people on unemployment benefits to millions. That really exposed the limitations of our legacy systems. EDDNext is a direct result of the lessons learned during that timeframe.

There were more than 200 successful IT projects delivered during that time. However, the work was often reactive and delivered on an emergency basis. EDDNext takes a deliberate and proactive approach to transforming the legacy systems that were exposed during the pandemic and using technology to improve the overall customer experience.

Q: Is this another IT project?

A: It’s a lot more than a technology project. It’s really about changing the way we interact with the public and our employees. We are taking a holistic approach evaluating every contact point our customers have with the EDD. These projects encompass people, policy, and our procedures as well as modernizing the technology.  

Q: Can you share an example of the type of improvements that are underway?

A: All our improvements are really aimed at simplifying access to information needed for both claimants and EDD employees. Our strategy was to prioritize the projects that would have the biggest impact on the public. So, we focused on two of the biggest problem areas: the claims intake process and the contact center. We implemented the new shared customer portal one year ahead of schedule and are modernizing the contact center two years earlier than planned. 

We launched myEDD, a Salesforce based customer portal, that seamlessly integrates with our new contact center solution. It is a modern, flexible, and scalable solution that can handle an unexpected increase in the number of customers and provides for an improved customer experience. Additionally, we implemented multi-factor authentication and a number of ID proofing and fraud prevention technologies. 

We are also in the process of modernizing our contact center from a legacy system to Amazon Connect, a modern, cloud-based solution. We’ll offer additional improvements that will enhance customer experiences when calling in and make it easier for our employees to access all claim information they need in a single, agent console. This will allow our agents to focus on what is most important, responding to the callers accurately and quickly. Improvements will include giving the option for a scheduled callback if callers don’t want to wait on hold, and presenting all of the data on a claim to our employees as soon as they connect on the call. 

Q: What are you doing to keep this project on track?

A: Having worked on and provided oversight on many technology projects in the past, I understand the challenges associated with keeping a project on track. Particularly large IT projects that span multiple administrations. 

Taking a modular approach, we broke the project up into different workstreams, thus reducing the complexity and mitigating risks. For example, the contact center modernization is a separate workstream, and the customer portal is another. We are also upgrading our document management solution, implementing a new ID proofing solution, redesigning our forms, and modernizing our Integrated Claims Management System. All are separate workstreams allowing us to manage them separately and concurrently. This not only reduces the risks significantly, but also allows us to deliver benefits to the public and to our employees more quickly.

Q: How can people keep track of the status of the project?

A: Californians can keep updated on modernization efforts and improvements through our bi-monthly newsletter and the Department’s EDDNext webpage.