(1) To the extent that funds are appropriated for each phase of the Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System by the Legislature, the Department of Economic Opportunity shall replace and enhance the functionality provided in the following systems with an integrated Internet-based system that is known as the “Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System”:

(a) Claims and benefit mainframe system.

(b) Florida unemployment Internet direct.

(c) Florida continued claim Internet directory.

(d) Call center interactive voice response system.

(e) Benefit overpayment screening system.

(f) Internet and Intranet appeals system.

(2) The Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits System shall accomplish the following main business objectives:

(a) Wherever cost-effective and operationally feasible, eliminate or automate existing paper processes and enhance any existing automated workflows in order to expedite customer transactions and eliminate redundancy.

(b) Enable online, self-service access to claimant and employer information and federal and state reporting.

(c) Integrate benefit payment control with the adjudication program and collection system in order to improve the detection of fraud.

(d) Comply with all requirements established in federal and state law for reemployment assistance.

(e) Integrate with the Department of Revenue’s statewide unified tax system that collects reemployment assistance taxes.

(3) The scope of the Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System does not include any of the following functionalities:

(a) Collection of reemployment assistance taxes.

(b) General ledger, financial management, or budgeting capabilities.

(c) Human resource planning or management capabilities.

(4) The project to implement the Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System is comprised of the following phases and corresponding implementation timeframes:

(a) No later than the end of fiscal year 2009-2010 completion of the business re-engineering analysis and documentation of both the detailed system requirements and the overall system architecture.

(b) The Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Internet portal that replaces the Florida Unemployment Internet Direct and the Florida Continued Claims Internet Directory systems, the Call Center Interactive Voice Response System, the Benefit Overpayment Screening System, the Internet and Intranet Appeals System, and the Claims and Benefits Mainframe System shall be deployed to full operational status no later than the end of fiscal year 2013-2014.

(5) The Department of Economic Opportunity shall implement the following project governance structure until such time as the project is completed, suspended, or terminated:

(a) The project sponsor for the Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System project is the department.

(b) The project shall be governed by an executive steering committee composed of the following voting members or their designees:

1. The executive director of the department.

2. The executive director of the Department of Revenue.

3. The director of the Division of Workforce Services within the department.

4. The program director of the General Tax Administration Program Office within the Department of Revenue.

5. The chief information officer of the department.

(c) The executive steering committee has the overall responsibility for ensuring that the project meets its primary objectives and is specifically responsible for:

1. Providing management direction and support to the project management team.

2. Assessing the project’s alignment with the strategic goals of the department for administering the reemployment assistance program.

3. Reviewing and approving or disapproving any changes to the project’s scope, schedule, and costs.

4. Reviewing, approving or disapproving, and determining whether to proceed with any major project deliverables.

5. Recommending suspension or termination of the project to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives if it determines that the primary objectives cannot be achieved.

(d) The project management team shall work under the direction of the executive steering committee and shall be minimally comprised of senior managers and stakeholders from the department and the Department of Revenue. The project management team is responsible for:

1. Providing daily planning, management, and oversight of the project.

2. Submitting an operational work plan and providing quarterly updates to that plan to the executive steering committee. The plan must specify project milestones, deliverables, and expenditures.

3. Submitting written monthly project status reports to the executive steering committee which include:

a. Planned versus actual project costs;

b. An assessment of the status of major milestones and deliverables;

c. Identification of any issues requiring resolution, the proposed resolution for these issues, and information regarding the status of the resolution;

d. Identification of risks that must be managed; and

e. Identification of and recommendations regarding necessary changes in the project’s scope, schedule, or costs. All recommendations must be reviewed by project stakeholders before submission to the executive steering committee in order to ensure that the recommendations meet required acceptance criteria.

History.—s. 1, ch. 2009-73; s. 359, ch. 2011-142; s. 9, ch. 2012-30; s. 44, ch. 2013-39.