Stabilizing and Streamlining Our Core Processes and Platforms

IT core processes and platforms form the backbone of VA.

The work we do behind the scenes supports critical functions across the Department and ensures smooth interactions between systems for a better Veteran experience. In 2017, we took a hard look at improving our core processes. From our help desk support to financial management, from providing laptops to employees to consolidating data centers, and from decreasing our physical building footprint to expanding our cloud footprint, we’ve made tremendous progress.

White House VA Hotline

In addition to streamlining and improving service to those experiencing technical difficulties within VA, we also needed to improve the experiences of our Veterans when they called VA for assistance. VA did an inventory of the number of contact centers within the organization, and the numbers were staggering; we had more than 205 individual contact centers with 1,000 different phone numbers.

In support of a White House priority, OIT partnered with the Veterans Experience Office to establish a dedicated, comprehensive hotline to field requests for information, support services, and complaints from Veterans. The White House VA Hotline launched a pilot program on June 1, 2017 that became fully operational, staffed by live agents 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year, in October 2017. This hotline is the first non-clinical, non-emergency, around-the-clock Veteran call center.

VA and the White House created the hotline to modernize, improve, and simplify the way Veterans contact VA. The hotline is staffed by more than 60 agents with extensive training in VA programs and services. In response to feedback that Veterans preferred to speak to agents who could relate to their experiences, approximately 90 percent of hotline agents are Veterans or employees who have a Veteran family member.

In the future, Veterans will be able to communicate with the hotline via chat, text, email, fax, and video. VA will document the hotline responses, referrals, and resolutions with tracking software to regularly update and train agents based on current trends and Veteran needs. VA will use that data to respond to systemic inefficiencies and empower employees to quickly resolve Veteran concerns.