The Bureau of Employment Services Support (BESS) is responsible for the development, maintenance, and enhancement of all operational support systems supporting the major program areas that are administered by the Office of Unemployment Compensation (OUC), the Office of Workforce Development (OWD), and the Office of Local Operations (OLO).  Current major employment services systems being supported by BESS are:

• Ohio Job Insurance (OJI):
  The Ohio Job Insurance system administers unemployment compensation benefits. This administration includes: accepting and processing unemployment claims, maintaining employer records, determining monetary and non-monetary eligibility, requesting separation information, issuing determinations, charging employers, charging the mutual account, processing appeals and issuing re-determinations. It is viewed as one of the best Unemployment Systems nationwide. The UC Benefits program provides services to approximately 700,000 individuals filing for unemployment benefits and processes over $1 billion in benefits per year.  Check it out at http://unemployment.ohio.gov/.
  
  
• ohiomeansjobs.com
  This employer-driven job matching system will utilize cutting edge technology to ensure delivery of the highest quality of services.  The mission of ohiomeansjobs.com is to provide all Ohioans with the ability to locate jobs throughout the state and to aid employers in finding qualified employees.  The system will be designed to centrally capture nationwide job opportunities and labor market information enabling a wider understanding of salaries and trends in the labor market as it relates to electronic job openings.  The electronic resume database feature of this project will offer national exposure and accessibility.  Check it out at http://www.ohiomeansjobs.org. 
  
  
• Sharing Career Opportunities & Training Information (SCOTI):
  The Sharing Career Opportunities and Training Information system consolidates all of the support activities of the Workforce Investment Act and the Wagner-Peyser Act into one homogeneous system for use throughout the state. It is a key system in the implementation of the "One Stop" service centers allowing integrated case management of the applicant for Workforce Investment and Wagner-Peyser Act benefits. These programs allow employers and job seekers to be matched together for employment opportunities.  Check it out at https://scoti.ohio.gov/scoti_lexs/.
  
  
• Employer Resource Information Center (ERIC):
  Employer Resource Information Center (ERIC) is the web based application currently being developed to replace the current Employment Security Tax Accounting System (ESTAS). The current system was designed in the 1970s. The ERIC application will improve business processes within the Bureau of UC Tax and enable customer driven methods of service by providing employers and third party administrators the ability to do business with the Office of Unemployment Compensation (i.e., registration, reporting, account maintenance, etc) through the internet. The result will be increased services to customers and a more efficient means for staff to deliver those services.  ERIC is targeted for production deployment in the third quarter of calendar year 2008.
  
  
• Employment Security Tax Accounting System (ESTAS):
  Employment Security Tax Accounting System (ESTAS) is the current unemployment tax delivery, reporting and accounting systems that are in process of being replaced by ERIC (currently in development). ESTAS provides support to a broad category of internal customers.  As of 12-31-07 there were 226,744 employer accounts.  There were 25,621 new business accounts established during CY07.  Total contributions collected during 2007 amounted to $1.1 billion.
  
  
• State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Application:
  The State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) application provides the agency the ability to actively determine potential SUTA dumping in compliance with the Federal and State legislation. It was developed and pilot tested by North Carolina to provide the required functionality utilizing the core employer and wage data available through extraction from the existing legacy system.
  
  
• RC Express
  RC Express will be the new UCRC system that will provide paperless support of the UC review process.  RC Express is targeted for production deployment in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2008.
  
  
• Unemployment Compensation Review Commission (UCRC) Case Management System:
  The function of UCRC is to review and resolve appeals for unemployment compensation cases. This Case Management System (CMS) application has been developed to maintain all related case information. CMS assigns docket numbers and manages cases from pre-docketing through a decision and closing. CMS also records all voting records for a case. One part of the CMS application is the Document Generating System (DGS) that is used to create documentation (i.e. subpoenas and decisions), as the case goes through the system.
  
  
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC):
  The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) system supports two tax credits administered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services - Work Opportunity Tax Credit and Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit. These tax credits are designed to give Ohio employers a tax credit against their federal tax liability for hiring individuals from nine target groups of disadvantaged job seekers. There were 33,500 WOTC certifications in program year 2007.  There are 250 Ohio employers serviced each week.  $100 million a year in potential tax savings to Ohio employers.  Through innovative thinking and automation this program area continues to be viewed as a national pacesetter.
  
  
• Standard Services:
  BESS supports the internal systems of the Offices for which BESS provides support which includes virtually every Employment Service Office within ODJFS for Web Sites, Forms and Notices, and Data Exchange.
  
  

Last Updated: 04/26/08