Social Security Administration

Risks Associated With Information Technology Investment Continue Gao ID: AIMD-94-143 September 19, 1994

The Social Security Administration's (SSA) proposed acquisition of intelligent workstations, i.e., personal computers, and local area networks has not been driven by plans to identify how and where SSA can best use its new technology and other resources to handle increasing workloads and improve public service. SSA ultimately plans to introduce a system of more than 90,000 personal computers and 27,000 local area networks at a cost of billions of dollars. GAO has encouraged and supported recent SSA efforts to reengineer its disability determination process and set overall service delivery goals because they are important steps in identifying future resource needs. However, national implementation of intelligent workstations and local area networks is proceeding independently of these initiatives and at risk because SSA has not adequately defined its technology needs.

GAO found that: (1) future SSA ability to serve its recipient base will depend on whether it is able to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its work processes; (2) although SSA has begun to acquire new information technology, reengineer its disability determination process, and develop business and service delivery plans, its IWS/LAN system implementation continues to operate with unnecessary risk because these efforts are not being carried out in proper sequence; (3) SSA planning and reengineering efforts are not sufficient to identify new SSA information technology requirements; (4) SSA may be incurring unnecessary risks by constructing a network of over 90,000 personal computers because it has not justified its short- or long-term requirements for these computers or established measurable cost and performance goals; (5) without linking its new technology acquisition to its evolving requirements, SSA may spend up to $10 billion on technology solutions that may not support operational needs or substantially improve public service; and (6) SSA and its oversight authorities are not able to ensure that planned systems and other resources are helping SSA staff process future workloads and deliver improved service to the public because SSA has not defined its technology needs.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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