SSA deployed the SSA Mobile Wage Reporting application, the agency’s first ionic framework hybrid mobile application, which allows approximately 100,000 users per month to report wages to us in a timely manner.  This new application takes advantage of new-to-SSA technology like allowing the user to take a picture of their paystubs and automatically input that information using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) without technician involvement.  

 

This first release provides a user-friendly interface for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries, parents, spouses, or representative payees to report wages timely without the need to visit an office, call to submit wages, or mail paper forms.  It also helps ensure timely processing of those wage reports which can greatly reduce improper payments. There was a team that worked to implement this, but two people above all others were critical to making this happen –  Kate Hammen, the lead project manager, and William (Bill) O’Brien, IT Specialist. 

 

Kate is the project manager leading the implementation of a new mobile wage reporting application for SSA.  She worked tirelessly to keep the project moving and constantly addressing whatever challenges needed to be resolved.  She also did this while leading the CTO’s Office training and communication outreach initiatives including providing training to thousands of SSA employees about new and emerging technology and how that can be utilized to improve citizen service at SSA.

 

Bill driving force who would not take no for an answer for whatever technical challenges presented themselves.  He worked tirelessly to resolve technical challenges with the implementation of a new mobile wage reporting application for SSA.  He spearheaded addressing all the technical challenges and went above and beyond to ensure success with this new initiative including resolving technical problems and providing training on how he solved those problems to other Systems areas.