{"id":73432,"date":"2025-10-29T15:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?post_type=podcast&p=73432"},"modified":"2025-11-19T15:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T20:53:02","slug":"how-kansas-lost-the-weird-shortcodes-and-modernized-its-ui-system","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/radio\/how-kansas-lost-the-weird-shortcodes-and-modernized-its-ui-system\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kansas lost the ‘weird shortcodes’ and modernized its UI system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Star Wars and disco were hip when Kansas built its previous unemployment insurance system and it was \u201csufficient,\u201d Kansas Labor Secretary Amber Shultz says. But on the latest episode of StateScoop\u2019s Priorities Podcast, Shultz describes how, over the course of two years, the state transformed that system into a modern one, with a modern user interface. A system that had to be taken offline constantly \u2014 \u201ca house of cards\u201d \u2014 has been replaced by one that has nearly perfect uptime, she says. \u201cOur contact center representatives, they couldn\u2019t use a mouse, and they had to memorize all these hundreds of weird shortcodes for abbreviation back in those days, and then the code was not documented,\u201d she says. Today, the state heralds a different story<\/a>, one in which call centers see 60% fewer calls and processing time has been reduced by 80%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top stories this week:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

New York City this week announced a new pilot program<\/a> that integrates a new emergency alert system with the city\u2019s public schools. The system, which leaders claim is the first of its kind in the United States, provides an automated method of contacting 911 in the event of active shooter scenarios or other threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the federal government shutdown stretches on, state agencies are grappling<\/a> with technical, financial and policy adjustments following a federal directive to pause processing of SNAP benefits next month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly all states and territories<\/a> have submitted their final proposals to the federal government detailing how they plan to spend their allotments of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Given recent adjustments to how the program is administered, though, the current proposals could leave roughly half of the program\u2019s $42 billion unspent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New episodes of StateScoop\u2019s<\/em> Priorities Podcast<\/em><\/a> are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on<\/em> Apple Podcasts<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Google Podcasts<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>Soundcloud<\/em><\/a> or<\/em> Spotify<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas Labor Secretary Amber Shultz outlines a two-year project that transformed the state’s unemployment insurance system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":73433,"template":"","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":null,"display_author_bio":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23264],"tags":[254,2885,4788,23287,25400,25944],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4678],"show":[23743],"class_list":["post-73432","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-priorities-podcast","tag-kansas","tag-department-of-labor","tag-it-modernization","tag-unemployment-insurance-systems","tag-state-news","tag-amber-shultz","author-statescoop-staff","show-priorities"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Kansas lost the 'weird shortcodes' and modernized its UI system | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kansas Labor Secretary Amber Shultz outlines a two-year project that transformed the state's 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