Massachusetts unemployment surge no problem for modernized system

State IT leadership across the country has for the most part been widely praised for stepping up during this coronavirus pandemic and successfully implementing continuity of operations plans almost seamlessly. However, one area of concern which affected scores of states has been the surge of unemployment insurance (UI) claims and its devastating impact on legacy applications. At least one state’s fortuitous UI modernization effort a few years ago has spared it from much of the turmoil affecting so many others. Ask the CIO: SLED Edition spoke with Anthony Fantasia, the chief information officer for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.