Month: May 2020

A scuba diver is underwater, inspecting and working on a submerged pipeline. They are wearing full diving gear, including an oxygen tank, a mask, and fins. The surrounding seabed has clusters of coral formations.

Hawaii’s Internet Relies On Increasingly Tenuous Undersea Cables

May 31, 2020
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Private Cable Owners Don’t Need To Disclose To The Public “To Burt Lum and many members of the Hawaii Broadband Hui, which Lum organized in March at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, a fundamental problem in Hawaii is that the three critical submarine cables are all owned by private companies reluctant to discuss their … Read more

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IT Overhaul Crucial to Handling State Funds, Hawaii Missed An Opportunity To Fix Its Benefits System Before COVID-19 Struck, Med-QUEST, and more

May 12, 2020
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A person with shoulder-length hair and wearing a suit smiles at the camera. They are standing in an atrium with railings and greenery visible in the background.

Column: IT overhaul crucial to handling state funds

May 11, 2020
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  Hawaii expects to receive nearly $5 billion in sorely needed federal stimulus funds, thanks to the collective work of our congressional delegation, state leaders and advocates from every corner of the economy. Even with that staggering influx of funding, Hawaii is sure to feel the gaping hole in our economy caused by a pandemic … Read more

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A building entrance is shown with large red letters on the glass doors that read "BUILDING CLOSED." To the right, a white sign provides information for unemployment insurance claim filing and password reset with two phone numbers: 808-762-5751 and 808-762-5752.

Hawaii Missed An Opportunity To Fix Its Benefits System Before COVID-19 Struck

May 10, 2020
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“Nearly a decade ago, as Hawaii climbed out of the Great Recession, some state officials sought to create an IT system that would make it easier to apply for government benefits – including unemployment insurance – during tough times. Specifically, they aimed to create an online portal, shared across multiple agencies, where locals who needed … Read more

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Logos for the Department of Human Services and Quest Hawai'i. The Department of Human Services logo features an abstract human figure with a laurel wreath background. The Quest Hawai'i logo includes the Hawaiian islands in green, overlaid on a monstera leaf silhouette.

Med-QUEST: An Agency’s Transformed to Online Services

May 6, 2020
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Kaua’i County’s emergency proclamations are among the state’s most stringent. Of course, coronavirus caught much of the world and Hawai’i off-guard. However, in the private sector, small businesses rose to the occasion by digitizing their sales while some of our favorite restaurants quickly pivoted to offering online ordering and curbside pick-up through their websites. But … Read more

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A large room filled with rows of tables, each holding desktop computers and monitors with blue screens. Some individuals are seated and working at the computers, while others are walking around. The room has carpeted floors and large projection screens.

How An Antiquated IT System Failed Thousands Of Hawaii’s Unemployed

May 5, 2020
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The nearly quarter of a million unemployment insurance applications that Hawaii has received during the COVID-19 pandemic are being processed on a government mainframe that was installed in the early 1980s, back when Pac-Man was a cutting-edge video game. It’s fragile and slow, with technology so obsolete that it predates using a mouse, officials say. … Read more

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