The mission of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is to generate economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the Social Security Administration (SSA). Its programs and operations prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. To accomplish its mission, the OIG directs, conducts and supervises a comprehensive program of audits, evaluations and investigations relating to SSA's programs and operations. OIG also searches for and reports systemic weaknesses in SSA programs and operations, and makes recommendations for needed improvements and corrective actions.

OIG strives for continual improvement in SSA’s programs, operations and management by proactively seeking new ways to prevent and deter fraud, waste and abuse. OIG wanted to develop a new electronic system for the collection of investigative and related information in order to provide greater flexibility and ease of information access. It had previously been using a mainframe-based case management system housed at another agency but that system had limited functionality, and the OIG relied largely on outdated manual methods of tracking that had become extremely costly.

Its vision for the new system was to develop something that would effectively and efficiently execute the mission of the OIG – including supporting investigative management activities and day-to-day administrative management needs. OIG required a solution that would accommodate multiple business units across the country to easily move its workload around the organization and at the same time have the ability to monitor it in real time.

After careful research into the available technologies, OIG selected Metastorm BPM™ as the platform for deploying a centralized information system. A key reason for this decision was the ease of use that Metastorm provides in addition to its ability to get multiple processes up and running quickly.

OIG is currently using Metastorm’s BPM software suite as the basis for its National Investigative Case Management System (NICMS). The NICMS is used by SSA to track detailed information pertaining to allegations and cases of fraud, waste and abuse in SSA programs. NICMS is used by approximately 500 OIG personnel to create and store records/files, obtain queries, perform case analysis, and generate reports from a centralized database containing investigative information. NICMS was developed in the fall of 2004 and the agency reports it had Metastorm BPM deployed in record time.

NICMS is comprised of approximately fifteen different processes that were automated using Metastorm BPM. It documents OIG review of allegations and complaints concerning SSA programs and operations; aids in civil and criminal prosecutions, civil monetary penalty actions, and other litigation relating to OIG investigations; tracks investigative and litigation activities; documents the activities which were the subject of investigations; facilitates the reporting of results of OIG investigations to other SSA components for their use in operating and evaluating SSA programs, including administrative sanction proceedings; and serves as a repository and source for information necessary to fulfill statutory reporting requirements.

OIG has also deployed Metastorm Insight – a fully integrated component of Metastorm BPM for advanced process intelligence. By using Metastorm Insight, OIG is able to leverage the development already completed and eliminates the extensive coding required to integrate future reports into the existing Metastorm implementation.

OIG has added Metastorm Insight to the NICMS application as a fully integrated component of Metastorm BPM currently in use. Since Insight can be accessed from Metastorm’s existing process management portal, the full set of business intelligence capabilities reflected in Metastorm Insight are linked directly to the Metastorm process database, allowing SSA OIG to leverage its capabilities immediately against existing processes and databases.

OIG is extremely pleased with the state of the project, and its users have fully embraced the new system. Metastorm has enabled a standardization of OIG’s investigative processes which saves time and also helped improve collaboration and knowledge sharing among employees across the country.

There are a number of initial benefits that OIG has realized and it believes more measurable results will come once it has more experience with the system. OIG reports that by deploying Metastorm BPM, it has immediately saved $1.5 million – the cost of maintaining the old offsite mainframe system.

OIG has been able to increase the productivity of its investigative and legal staff which has led to a decrease in processing times. Metastorm has also enabled OIG to implement more discipline, structure and accountability while at the same time increasing operational efficiency.

With Metastorm BPM, users now have information at their fingertips. Users no longer have to worry about tracking down work, as the BPM system automatically ensures the appropriate actions are completed at each stage, and the originator is kept informed via a “watch list” dashboard.

Moving forward, OIG will continue to increase functionality and is also looking at other available tools to integrate with Metastorm. Its new strategic plan also outlines key performance indicators it will use to assess the level of performance of the investigative community. With Metastorm BPM in place and working so successfully, the OIG has set higher goals for the organization – goals it feels are now achievable due to the increased productivity and improved processing times it has realized from its initial BPM initiatives.