Few agencies are facing a tidal wave like the one approaching the Social Security Administration. The agency estimates that 10 million people will retire in the next five years, but it doesn’t expect its workforce to grow along with the expanding base of customers. Technology is the only way to meet this demand. One of the technologies SSA will lean on is voice over IP. In March, the agency awarded a $300 million contract to Nortel Government Solutions to build a VOIP network for its 1,600 field offices. Thomas Hughes, chief information officer at SSA, spoke recently with Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman about VOIP and its potential to transform operations.

Q: Why is VOIP so important to SSA?
Hughes: Our new commissioner, Michael Astrue, has challenged the agency to transform itself, and VOIP is the foundation of that. It is the [information technology] pillar of his strategy.

We need to drive electronic services more effectively to our citizens. We make about 8 million external phone calls a year and 80 million internal phone calls. In the future, those will be part of our VOIP solution.

We are not just replacing 65,000 phones. It really is about trying to build a business strategy.

Q: What is VOIP’s benefit?
Hughes: From a purely return-on-investment perspective, the agency saves money on phone calls. But from a business perspective, it is a transformational effort. We have to find a way to service [the growing customer base]. We can’t do it in the traditional way of people walking into the office.

VOIP allows you to do voice, video and data down the same line. It allows you to do much more intelligent analysis of your customer. It allows you to be much more dynamic as to how you want to transfer information, and it allows you to offer a much more integrated suite of solutions.

For example, we have about 2 billion health care records. If we can more effectively integrate all that data to serve our customers, that is a big deal.

Q: What are the challenges?
Hughes: VOIP has different issues surrounding data security and information security. As we transition to the VOIP environment, we have to effectively address those. The other thing is that it requires a close relationship with Nortel. We have got to make sure that we partner.

The third thing is to work with Nortel and the other vendors. Our stuff goes from Plantronics to Cisco. We have handsets, servers, routers, switches and phone lines. All of these contractors have to understand their dependencies to each other.

Q: What lessons can other agencies learn from this project?
Hughes: You have to know why you are doing this. Executives at any agency need to understand where they are trying to take their agency. We are trying to drive a particular type of service delivery to our citizens. We realize voice, video and data are all bits, and we see the value of having all those components together when we go about solving a problem for our customer.

It is not a technology project. It is a whole different way of doing business and of how you communicate.

Q: Will a lot of people be watching this project?
Hughes: Congress will keep an eye on this. Social Security is going to be one of the more important agencies serving the country going forward. I am just very happy that we have made the right decision to go forward with this technology.