Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s journey to modernization

March 13, 2020, was no typical Friday.

On that day, then-United States President Donald Trump declared COVID-19 a national emergency, sending shockwaves through the nation. By Monday, grocery shelves were empty, businesses faced existential threats, and millions of Americans found themselves unable to work. The U.S. government implemented pandemic assistance programs through state unemployment systems, leading to an unprecedented surge in claims.

By April, the U.S. unemployment rate had spiked to levels unseen since the Great Depression—an estimated 70 million workers were affected. Outdated state unemployment systems buckled under the pressure.

But things played out differently in Indiana.

The state’s unemployment rate skyrocketed from 3.2% to 17.5%—the highest in its recorded history. Nearly 300,000 claims flooded the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD). Thanks to some well-timed foresight and an exceptional team effort, they were prepared to respond.

Long before the pandemic, DWD had begun modernizing its system, adopting domain-driven design (DDD) and event-driven architecture to improve resilience. Their dedicated developers, testers, and business analysts worked tirelessly, deploying updates weekly to meet evolving demands. Software Engineer Wayne Hoskins reflected:

“Scaling up our applications was painful, but the team’s prior efforts in DDD and events made it possible. We were already positioned to take it to the next level when Andy [Whitaker] returned and introduced AxonIQ in 2021.”

The pandemic tested the limits of DWD’s system, but the team’s groundwork ensured they could survive the surge. The next step? Implementing AxonIQ to thrive.

Before the pandemic, DWD relied on a monolithic unemployment insurance system—one of the only fully integrated state systems in the country. While this structure set Indiana apart from other states, it also posed challenges. The system managed everything from claims processing to court appeals, but its outdated coding practices created a breeding ground for inefficiencies.

“If one app wasn’t running, everything stopped,” Wayne explained. This fragility was one reason notice generation was prioritized for modernization. Running a large number of notices used to slow down or even bring down the IWF app, forcing the team to schedule processing outside business hours. Now, it runs seamlessly during the workday with no disruption.

Deployments were another major pain point. The system’s tightly coupled architecture meant even minor changes required extensive analysis to prevent breaking other components. “It wasn’t just that deployments took six hours,” Wayne clarified. “It was the sheer amount of analysis needed before implementing a new feature, just to make sure we didn’t break something else.”

“The system handled the claims during the pandemic because of how well the entire team worked together," Andy said. "But it became clear we needed to do things better. The team had already started using DDD and events—we just needed a way to bring it all together.”

Recognizing the need for a more flexible and resilient architecture, DWD’s leadership, including Director Rick Bedel and Development Manager Scott O’Mara, championed the modernization effort. With support from management, Wayne and Andy led two key initiatives to prove the viability of a new architecture: Secure Document Upload and Notice Generation.

On June 23, 2022, DWD launched notice generation as a microservice. In the following month, the team deployed 16 updates to address integration challenges with the legacy monolith. Adopting a "Fix Forward" mentality instead of rolling back changes allowed them to adapt quickly. Since deployment, DWD has generated over 15.3 million notices using the new system.

Another major breakthrough was shifting from batch processing to an event-driven approach powered by AxonIQ. “We can generate 100K+ notices throughout the day now instead of relying on overnight batch jobs,” Andy explained. This change dramatically improved efficiency and resiliency.

The impact of Secure Document Upload was equally significant. In the first six months, DWD saw:

• A two-day improvement in first-time payment timeliness.
• Claimant issue resolution improved by three days.
• A 6% increase in quality across all determinations.
• 650 staff hours saved by the Imaging team.

With clearer, color documents available, follow-up requests to claimants were greatly reduced, further streamlining the claims process.

AxonIQ played a critical role in this transformation. “The best thing about Axon is that it just works,” Andy emphasized. The stability of Axon Framework and Axon Server meant minimal reliance on external support. When an issue arose—like a node temporarily losing its events—Andy resolved it in ten minutes using Axon’s reference guide.

Beyond the technology, AxonIQ supported DWD with training and disaster recovery planning. “AxonIQ helped us train our team, which made onboarding much easier,” Andy noted.

Indiana DWD continues its modernization efforts, working towards a fully cloud-ready microservices architecture. “We’re building something that other states can learn from,” Wayne said.

Indiana DWD is now recognized as a leader in UI modernization efforts nationwide. Their innovative approach led to an invitation from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to participate in the Open UI Initiative, a collaborative effort with NASWA and Georgetown University aimed at improving state unemployment systems. By embracing modularity and digital transformation, Indiana is helping to shape the future of UI technology.

Additionally, DWD’s UI Modernization Team was awarded the Governor’s Public Service Achievement Award for their groundbreaking efforts in breaking apart the monolith, upskilling staff, and adopting microservices. Instead of outsourcing the work, Indiana invested in its own talent, ensuring a sustainable and scalable modernization process. Their efforts are not only improving government service in Indiana but also serving as a model for other states looking to modernize their systems.

“We’ve built a system that’s not just surviving—it’s thriving. We’re ready for whatever comes next, and Axon has been a big part of that," Andy said.