BearingPoint to update Minn. unemployment insurance

BearingPoint Inc. won a $16 million contract from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to provide business process redesign and technology modernization services, the company announced this week.

Under the contract, BearingPoint of McLean, Va., will provide services to help the department prepare for growth and change, eliminate unnecessary business processes and migrate to new technologies as part of the Unemployment Insurance Technology Initiative Project.

The company will implement a complete unemployment insurance tax system along with employer and claimant self-service applications.

To achieve the planned objectives, BearingPoint will use its Unemployment Framework for Automated Claims and Tax Services solution.

The solution is an industry-specific framework designed to help unemployment insurance organizations provide a wide range of services to diverse constituents while complying with federal and state regulations. It's built around four software application services: benefits, tax, integration and administrative services.

The new system will provide enhanced customer services by creating self-service channels and reducing delays caused by manual processing, state officials said.

BearingPoint's team includes Tier Technologies Inc., IBM Corp., FileNet Inc., iLog Inc., and Crystal Decisions Inc.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development was established to provide a temporary partial wage replacement to state residents who had become unemployed through no fault of their own. In 2002, the department provided unemployment benefits to more than 200,000 citizens.

BearingPoint has about 9,300 employees and annual sales of $3.1 billion.