Technology

The proof is in the testimony

The COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for countless changes. One example is how state and local agencies support workers, especially in times of need.

“Before the pandemic, our agency’s focus revolved around being an efficient and effective provider of unemployment assistance benefits,” wrote Beth Townsend, director of Iowa Workforce Development, in a testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means in June 2024 . “Assistance with reemployment was left to the individuals to seek and request it, especially early in the process.”

Like many state agencies, Iowa Workforce Development is now placing a greater focus on getting people back to work as quickly as possible. Leveraging software developed by Geographic Solutions, a leading provider of online employment systems for state and local workforce agencies, Iowa introduced a new Reemployment Case Management (RCM) program in 2022. With the launch of this program, Iowa Workforce Development hired and trained 18 Career Planners to promote a smooth transition of the new system and to provide one-on-one job search assistance to help match claimants’ skills and abilities with the job postings.

“Launching the Reemployment Case Management program has helped us become a true reemployment center,” Townsend testified. “Through this program, Iowa Workforce Development has shortened the average time Iowans spend on unemployment by more than 30 percent, boosted Iowa’s available workforce, and saved employers’ unemployment taxes in the form of lower unemployment tax rates. We believe our RCM program is a national model for helping put people back to work after unemployment sooner rather than later and helps those individuals find the best possible careers and job opportunities they may not have otherwise even considered.”

The enviable results are what Paul Toomey envisioned when he founded Geographic Solutions.

“We saw an intrinsic value in a solution that married both labor exchange and unemployment insurance operations into a single, online system,” Toomey says. “One that encourages individuals claiming benefits to actively search for a job and to obtain employment more quickly, saving states millions of dollars in trust funds.”

Doubling down on job placement

Following the pandemic and resulting employment crisis of 2020—when Geographic Solutions leaned on Cisco data center technologies to handle a 5000 to 6000 percent increase in traffic hitting its systems and distribute a historic $41.9 billion in unemployment compensation—Toomey says his company redoubled its efforts to facilitate and accelerate job placement.

“The faster people can find employment, the better it is for everyone—individuals, families, employers, and local economies,” he explains. “We’ve been very busy the past three years bringing new systems and capabilities online and scaling the systems already in place.”

To do so, the company has modernized its data center infrastructure with Cisco Compute solutions, including the Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System and Cisco Intersight IT operations platform. According to Helvey Johnson, director of operations at Geographic Solutions, the powerful technologies have increased the company’s computing performance by 30 percent and capacity by 54 percent while reducing the number of physical servers his team manages.

“The density of UCS X-Series and high core count of 5th Gen Intel Xeon® processors have enabled us to scale without additional cost, space, or administrative overhead,” Johnson says. “And Cisco Intersight allows us to manage everything through a single pane of glass.”

That includes 54 physical servers and 3000 virtual machines (VMs) across three data centers. Despite the addition of 1200 new VMs since the pandemic, the entire environment continues to be managed by a lean, six-person team.

“The granular visibility and automation of Intersight is fantastic,” Johnson says. “Firmware updates that used to be implemented by several people over the course of multiple weeks are now completed in a weekend by a single person. We can push firmware and patches to all of our physical and virtual servers instead of updating them one by one.”

Customization, isolation, and protection

Today, Geographic Solutions provides workforce systems for more than 40 states and U.S. territories, each with a customized and discrete version of the company’s software, which contains 103 separate modules.

“We’ve created and now manage many versions of our core system,” Toomey says. “All of which have to be fully isolated and secured on a state-by-state, agency-by-agency basis.”

Geographic Solutions uses the segmentation and subnet routing capabilities of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches to separate and protect the bespoke instances of its software, he adds, which include new versions for correctional institutions and vocational rehabilitation agencies. Despite the network-based isolation, the company is preparing to introduce AI-driven capabilities that provide more connectivity and better guidance for individuals using state, federal, and agency-specific workforce systems.

“The more we can connect these systems and help people navigate them, the more reach and impact they have,” Toomey says. “None of this can be done without the very best technologies on the back end, and we certainly appreciate the support and partnership we continue to receive from Cisco.”