  The name Frances was chosen in honor of Frances Perkins, the first female presidential Cabinet member and the longest serving Secretary of Labor in the nation's history, who summed up her work's purpose by saying: “The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.” Frances Perkins was born in 1880 and was a life-time advocate for working Americans. She was instrumental in the formation of the Social Security Act and establishing unemployment insurance in the US. Frances' life work captures the intention of both Unemployment Insurance (UI) and our new Paid Family and Medical leave Insurance (PFMLI) programs. To learn more about Frances Perkins, visit the Frances Perkins Center. |
The new system will support the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program and the brand new Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (PMFLI) program in one integrated system. Frances will give you one point of contact with the Employment Department. This means you will have just one account to manage payroll reporting for both UI Tax and PFMLI contributions. Frances will also provide more personalized services, including online self-service and mobile-responsive technology. Visit www.oregon.gov/EMPLOY/modernization to learn more about OED's modernization project. Definition | Complete - Definitions are the details of what the system needs to do to meet the business objectives and requirements.
- For example, OED business areas and the Modernization team worked to define:
- Registration processes
- Oregon Quarterly Report and Form 132 processes
- Financials - interest, penalties, and adjustments
- Collection and billing cycles
Base Configuration | Current – December 2021 - Base Configuration phase overlaps with the Definition phase so the team can use the established definitions to configure the system to meet the needs of each of the functional areas. The base configuration phase is wrapping up this month with a series of presentations to verify the foundational system is correct and ready to move forward.
Development | Current – May 2022 - This phase has just started. In the development phase, we will continue to configure the system in even greater detail to meet Oregon-specific business and technical needs, as well as develop and fine-tune letters, reports, and interfaces.
Conversion | Current – September 2022 - We've completed our second Full Mock (full Customer Data set) Conversion. This means we took the full customer data set, a total of 474K taxpayers, from the existing system, convert it, entered the data into Frances and then verified it converted properly. These practice runs ensure we're ready for the official "cut-over" of Rollout 1, the UI tax and PFMLI contributions phase of the project.
Organizational Change Management (OCM) | Duration of project - As we identify changes to the business processes, our Change Management team is recording them and will map out the new processes as the system is configured. When the new processes are complete, the team will share those changes with the managers who work in those areas so they can share them with their staff.
Question | Answer | What does “rollout” mean? | Rollout is the term for when users transition from doing their work in existing system to doing their jobs in the new system, Frances. The rollout date for the UI tax and PFMLI contributions implementation into Frances is Sept. 6, 2022. The second phase of the project, Rollout 2, will include UI and PFMLI benefits. Rollouts may also be referred to as “go-live” date. | If UI tax and UI benefits have different rollout dates, how will the systems communicate? | Similar to the way the tax and benefits systems communicate today, there will be an interface between Frances and existing benefits systems until go-live with Rollout 2. The Modernization team will work with OED IT and impacted business units to develop any needed temporary processes for the time between Rollout 1 and Rollout 2. | Can users personalize their screens in Frances? | Yes. Both OED staff and our customers will be able to personalize their experience. A few examples of personalization in Frances includes changing the font size, switching to a high-contrast theme, and repositioning the sidebar. | Will claimants and employers be able to upload documents into Frances? | Yes. Customers will be able to upload documents using the customer facing e-services portal. |
 The very warmest wishes to you and yours
from all of us on the OED Modernization team! |