5
Days to pay a clean claim.
Measured as the monthly median from filing to first payment for claims that need no adjudication.
Missed in any month, we credit the Department $60,000.
Take a number. Get paid in five days.
Wickett Systems' response to the State of Carrow Department of Labor, RFP DOL-UI-2026-03. A new unemployment insurance claims system that pays a clean claim in five days, holds fewer eligible people for fraud checks, and switches off the 1993 mainframe without missing one Thursday payment run.
$46,000,000Firm fixed price over six years
31 to 5Days to a first payment
0Missed payment weeks at cutover
wickettSystems
State of Carrow Department of Labor
Submitted October 23, 2026
1Every evaluator on this panel has stood in a Carrow field office and pulled a paper number, or watched claimants do it. The Department's RFP talks in backlogs and days. We turned that into one ticket and one person, so the whole response has a face the Secretary can retell in a sentence.
1RFP
A letter to the evaluation panel.
To the evaluation panel, State of Carrow Department of Labor
Every Carrow claimant we interviewed for this response described the same month. A layoff on a Friday, a portal that times out on Monday, a field office line, a number on a paper ticket, and four weeks of waiting for the first payment. This response is built around one of those tickets, number 4417, and what it takes to pay her in five days.
We'll move Carrow off the mainframe in four waves over 31 months, none of them between November 15 and February 15, and the mainframe keeps paying until the Thursday it's switched off. The price is fixed at $46,000,000 over six years. Every optional line is priced on its own in Form C-2, so the Department can award less without asking us to rebid.
We comply with 29 of the 33 requirements in Attachment B, meet 3 in part and take one exception. Each is stated in §7 with our reason, and we've answered every question the panel sent us in §10.
Hal OstrowPresident, Wickett Systems, Inc.
Authorized to bind the company
Authorized to bind the company
2RFP
Three promises, each with money behind it.
RFP §2 asks for an executive summary. Ours is three numbers the Department can hold us to, each tied to a service credit in §9.
10
Days at most on a fraud hold.
A hold that reaches day ten goes to a supervisor automatically. Median hold time today is 23 days.
Every hold past day ten costs us $250.
0
Missed Thursday payment runs.
From the first wave to the day the mainframe is powered off, every weekly run goes out on time and matched to the cent.
Miss one and we refund that month's subscription.
2Panels score in the RFP's order and against its weights, usually with the scoring sheet open beside the response. We put the weights on the page and made each one a doorway to the exact sections that answer it, so nobody has to hunt for where Technical approach was addressed.
Where each scoring criterion in RFP §12 is answered.
The bar is drawn to the RFP's weights. Pick a criterion to see the sections that answer it.
3Every figure on this board comes from the Department's own RFP, §1.2. We added none of ours. A panel trusts a vendor who has read its numbers more than one who brings new ones, and the quotes underneath play the RFP's words back with the section that answers each.
3RFP
The Department's numbers, read off its own board.
Every figure here is from RFP §1.2, the statement of need. We've only changed the typeface.
Claims waiting for a decision38,214
Average days from filing to a first payment31
Percent of calls answered the same day41
Eligible claimants on a fraud hold this week4,600
Year the benefits mainframe went into service1993
Department staff who can change its code3
“The backlog has grown in each of the last six quarters, and claimants wait an average of 31 days for a first payment.”RFP §1.2, Statement of need
“The Department will not accept a transition plan that interrupts any weekly payment run.”RFP §1.4, Transition risk
Answered in §5.2.
“Current fraud controls stop eligible claimants more often than they stop fraud.”RFP §1.5, Program integrity
Answered in §4.3.
4One claimant, end to end, beats any process diagram. The Secretary will retell Renee's month at a press conference, the UI Director can check every step against her own floor, and the Legislature sees 26 days come back to one person. The ticket button is there because pulling the number is where every claimant's month starts.
4.1RFP
Follow number 4417 from filing to first payment.
Renee, a machinist laid off from a bearing plant, files on a Monday. Pull her number, then drag through her month. The top lane is the Department today, the bottom lane is Wickett.
Today
4417 Filing by phone
With Wickett
4417 Filed and verified
Day of her month
Today 31 days
With Wickett 5 days
26days sooner for number 4417, and for every clean claim after hers.
5The fear inside every unemployment agency is the next layoff wave, because that's when the 2020 stories get written. A static capacity claim doesn't calm it. Letting the panel draw the wave themselves, as large and as sudden as they like, does. Everything in the model uses the RFP's own volumes.
4.2RFP
Drag the next layoff wave and watch the queue.
Pick a wave or drag its peak anywhere on the chart. The lower panel shows claims waiting each week, starting from today's 38,214, under the mainframe and under Wickett.
Drag the red handle
New claims a weekWaiting, mainframe todayWaiting, with Wickett
4.3RFP
Stop the fraud at the door and let eligible people through.
Each square is ten claims out of a thousand. Black squares are held for a fraud check, red squares are held people who turn out to be eligible.
Today, 110 held, 90 of them eligible.
Holds last 23 days at the median. Most stop a real claimant.
With Wickett, 30 held, 20 of them eligible.
Holds last four days at the median, and none can pass ten without a supervisor.
Paid without a holdHeld, confirmed fraudHeld, eligible after all
1
Identity, checked while she files.
Verified in the same session on her phone. Anyone who can't verify online is booked into one of the Department's 19 field offices that week, never sent a letter.
2
Wages and new hires, matched daily.
Every claim is checked against the state wage file, the new-hire directory and corrections records each night, so a returning worker is caught in a day.
3
The employer asked the same hour.
A layoff the employer confirms in its portal is the strongest signal there is. Most clean claims clear all three gates by day two.
5.1RFP
Four waves, and none of them in layoff season.
Award in March 2027, mainframe off in October 2029, operations through February 2033. The hatched bands are November 15 to February 15, when Carrow's claims peak and nothing goes live. Pick a wave for its detail.
Build and testParallel payment runManaged operationsNo go-live window
6The one failure the Legislature will never forgive is a missed payment week, so we gave the payment run its own strip and let it fill as the programs move. The panel scrolls through 31 months and watches the count of missed Thursdays stay at zero the whole way down.
5.2RFP
Ten programs leave the mainframe and Thursday's payments never stop.
0of 10 programs moved
Paid on timeBoth systems paid and matched to the cent
7Each evaluator scores alone before the panel meets, and each one reads for a different question. RFP Attachment E asked us to address them by role, so every window is titled with that person's question and carries a small tool that answers it without a call to us.
6RFP
Five windows, one for each member of the panel.
RFP Attachment E asks respondents to address each evaluator's concerns by role. Step up to your window.
What can I tell the Governor and the press, and when?
Window 1, Secretary of Labor
Three numbers carry this program in public. Days to a first payment, claims waiting, and calls answered the same day. Each one moves at a wave, so you'll know the month you can say it, and each is backed by a credit in §9 if we miss.
Our delivery lead, Joanne Arkwell, is in Carrow three days a week from award to the day the mainframe is off, and briefs your office before every wave goes live. Wickett's platform already pays unemployment claims in four other states, and you can call any of their directors from the reference list in Form F-6.
Months after award18
5Days to a first payment
6,000Claims waiting
90Percent of calls answered same day
What do we connect, who owns the data, and how do we get out?
Window 2, Chief Information Officer
The platform runs in a government cloud region inside the United States, in a tenancy the Department owns. The Department holds the encryption keys. Every record can be exported in open formats on any business day, and the contract gives you twelve months of exit help at no added fee.
Six interfaces carry the program. Pick one to see how it runs today, how it runs with us, when it moves and what happens if it fails on a Thursday.
Is the response complete, and does every price tie to Form C-2?
Window 3, Procurement
Every required form is signed and attached in §11. The compliance matrix in §7 follows Attachment B line by line, and our one exception and three partial answers are stated with reasons, never buried in a footnote.
The bid on Form C-2 is $46,000,000 with every line in. The configurator in §8 lets the panel see what each optional line costs if it's left out, and this check stays honest about the difference.
Submission checklist0 of 7
What happens to my adjudicators, and to the hard claims?
Window 4, Unemployment Insurance Director
Nobody loses a job to this system. The clean claims your adjudicators decide by hand today are decided by your own rules in the platform, and those 2,900 hours a week go to the claims that need a person, quits, discharges and appeals.
Federal weekly and monthly reports come straight from the new system from wave 2, and your staff train before each wave on their own claims. Pick a claim type to see how it moves.
In plain words, what does Carrow get for $46 million, and how will we know?
Window 5, Legislative oversight committee
A claims system that pays simple claims in five days, holds fewer honest people for fraud checks, and replaces a computer older than most of the staff who use it. You'll know because the wait times go on a public page every week, and because Wickett pays the state when it misses.
Flip the switch to read our four main commitments as they're written in the contract, or as we'd say them at a hearing.
What the state pays each contract year$46.0M
8Procurement officers trust a response that names its own gaps. So the matrix opens with filters for Partial and Exception, every one carries its reason in the row, and the counts in the letter, the matrix and Procurement's window all come from the same data, so they can never disagree.
7RFP
Attachment B, every requirement and where we answer it.
Thirty-three requirements, including the one Addendum 2 added. Filter by status or area, or search.
| Req. | Requirement | Our response | Section | Status |
|---|
No requirement matches that filter.
9In a public bid the price is fixed the moment it's submitted, so the configurator can't be a haggle. It shows the panel which lines the Department can decline without a rebid, and says plainly what each one costs claimants if it goes. The recommendation is written in words because a badge can't explain an order of cuts.
8RFP
Form C-2, priced line by line.
Lines 1 and 2 are the base and can't be split. Every other line is priced on its own, so the Department can award fewer lines without asking us to rebid. Each one says what changes if it goes.
Six-year price$46,000,000
9RFP
The contract terms in plain words.
The State's standard terms apply except where Attachment B shows an exception or a partial answer. Those are listed underneath, with our reason.
9.1
The price is fixed.
$46,000,000 over six years for every line in Form C-2. No change orders for anything Attachment B already describes.
9.2
Paid when a milestone is accepted.
The Department pays on acceptance, and holds back 20 percent of each wave's fee until 90 days after it goes live.
9.3
Service levels with credits.
Five days to pay a clean claim, ten days at most on a fraud hold, 99.95 percent uptime each month. Credits are capped at 12 percent of a year's fees.
9.4
The state owns the data.
Every record, in a tenancy the Department owns, exportable in open formats within ten business days of asking.
9.5
Twelve months of exit help.
If the Department moves to another vendor, we run the system and help the move for twelve months at no added fee.
9.6
Ending the contract.
The Department can end it for convenience with 90 days' notice and pay only for accepted work and the current month's subscription.
Our exception and partial answers, with reasons.
10RFP
Every question asked, answered and dated.
The addenda, the questions we asked during the Q&A period, and the clarifications the panel has sent since we submitted. We keep this log current until award.
11RFP
Required forms, signed and attached.
Each form RFP §11 requires, in the order it asks for them. The PDF prints them on their own page.
Signed for Wickett Systems.
We agree to the terms in §9 and hold the prices in Form C-2 for 180 days from October 23, 2026.
The panel's next step.
RFP §13 invites shortlisted respondents to an oral presentation. Hold a slot and we'll bring Renee's month, the surge model and the cutover plan to the room.