IBM to Upgrade Customs & Immigration Computer Network

The United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS), an organization within the Department of Homeland Security, awarded a five year contract to IBM for modernizing their system to process immigration requests. Federal Computer Weekly reports that the contract is worth almost $500 M. The program will be paid for by the fees that applicants pay as part of the process.
The current system relies mainly on forms and paper being routed among the cognizant individuals at the necessary agencies. It is hoped that with the upgrade provided by this system that claims and status determinations will be done in a faster and more efficient manner. The Federal Government has spent billions of dollars over the last thirty years transferring various traditional, paper processes for things like this to new computer systems. In some cases, like the FBI Fingerprint System in the 1990's, it has been a complete and utter failure with schedule and cost issues. In others it has done so smoothly and effectively. The Department of Defense has a whole group whose job is just to study the business processes of the department and recommend improvements. They have been doing this since the 60's.