Testing | AI | Open Source | Continuous Delivery | Accessibility | Partners Modernizing Online Passport Renewal: Vidya's Success at the State Department July 29, 2024

Neil Chaudhuri (He/Him)

LinkedIn

In an era where digital transformation in government is paramount to deliver the most value to customers in America and around the world, Vidya has played a major role in modernizing crucial government services. Our collaboration with the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs has provided new opportunities for efficiency, user experience, and technological innovation.

Transforming essential services

The Bureau of Consular Affairs provides essential services for customers worldwide. Here are just a few:

• Issuing Certificates of Birth Abroad (CRBA) for children born to American parents overseas
• Processing visas for international visitors
• Providing passports for U.S. citizens embarking on global adventures

To provide these services over the years, the State Department has constructed an elaborate software and data architecture to automate as much as possible. As all large organizations inside and outside government understand, it is critical to invest in modernization to improve user interfaces, performance, and security and ultimately make the user experience as efficient and intuitive as possible for both State employees and customers.

The modernization challenge

In 2019, Vidya joined the most recent modernization effort as software architects. Anyone who has worked on large-scale modernizations knows they aren’t just about updating a few lines of code. Modernization is about reimagining entire systems while ensuring uninterrupted service delivery to customers who depend on it.

For those less familiar, there are techniques like feature flags, blue/green deployments, and canary deployments. You probably know Martin Fowler as one of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto, and it seems like half his website is dedicated to modernization with discussions of seams and integration among many other related topics.

On top of technology, it is essential to create a culture of innovation with disciplines like product management, continuous deployment, and organizational psychology. For all these reasons, modernization is one of the most challenging feats in our field.

Pioneering success: eCRBA and Online Passport Renewal

Our first major triumph was the launch of eCRBA, streamlining the process for American parents to obtain birth certificates for their children born overseas. This service has been a game-changer, offering unprecedented convenience and efficiency.

The crown jewel of our modernization efforts, Online Passport Renewal (OPR), is now live in limited beta – and it’s turning heads! The most recent analysis of OPR revealed some welcome accomplishments:

• Processing thousands of passports daily
• Boasting a remarkable 98% customer satisfaction rate
• Generating neutral to positive social media sentiment

Don’t just take our word for it! Sean Hollister at The Verge had a good experience with OPR. Forbes Magazine highlighted its innovative approach as well.

The road ahead

While we at Vidya celebrate these milestones, we’re far from done. There is much more work to do:

• Scaling up OPR to handle full production workloads
• Modernizing additional State Department services
• Continuously refining and optimizing our solutions

There may be even room for AI here, but as urgent as it is to promote safety in AI in general, it’s infinitely more so for government systems. We will need to explore how to maximize safety and explainability while minimizing hallucinations and toxicity to protect our customers because AI vendors themselves will not.

Whether it’s AI or any number of other innovations we have in mind, we look forward to working with the State Department to see how we can best leverage their capabilities for our mission.

Your partner in government modernization

At Vidya, we don’t just build software. We revolutionize processes. We enhance user experiences. We even bring a touch of humor to even the most complex projects. Our success with the State Department is just the beginning.

Join us as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in government modernization. With Vidya, the future of streamlined, efficient government services is not just a possibility. It’s a reality we’re creating every day.