In April 2005 the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Department of Labor reported there are 7.7 million unemployed people nationwide. The government pays out $45.6 billion annually in benefit payments to unemployed workers or workers disabled as a result of work-related injuries or illnesses.

"Government agencies that administer benefits and services struggle to respond to high volumes of claims in a timely manner and comply with security and privacy mandates," said Eugene Lee, vice president of product marketing for the Intelligent Document Business Unit at Adobe, as Adobe and Covansys announced they are working together to deliver benefits and services administration solutions to federal, state and local government agencies.

By combining the business logic and data exchange capabilities of XML with the visual fidelity, security and reliability of Adobe PDF, Adobe LiveCycle will make it easier for organizations to reate and share information effectively across the extended enterprise.

The combination of Adobe LiveCycle software and Covansys systems integration and consulting services is aimed at making it easier for agencies to automate benefits enrollment, extend processes beyond the network to field workers and service providers, and comply with privacy and security mandates.

The first outcome of this relationship will be a solution for delivering unemployment benefits and services to constituents: with the joint Adobe and Covansys solution constituents will be able to download and fill out intelligent forms at their convenience, and submit them electronically or by paper.

"As a result of Adobe’s collaboration with Covansys, agencies will be able to transition from paper to electronic processes, while leveraging their investments in current systems - resulting in improved services to constituents, streamlined processes and compliance with regulatory mandates," said Lee.

"At Covansys we are focused on providing solutions that help state and local governments meet both their enterprise and domain-specific IT needs," said Bryce Haws, senior vice president, Covansys Public Sector Practice. "With Adobe LiveCycle software, Adobe is uniquely addressing the process management and document security requirements, essential to benefits and services administration solutions."