The Oregon Employment Department’s new technology system will go live March 4, about 15 years after the state received federal funding to replace its obsolete technology.

The $106 million computer system will enable the employment department to more easily handle claims and questions online and will be more flexible to changes to benefits programs. The employment department says it will also be more secure, helping guard against fraudulent claims that are bogging down claims processing.

“It’s more user-friendly. It’s easier for self-help. It’s easier for us to update,” said David Gerstenfeld, the agency’s director. “It’s much more adaptable.”

The employment department will stop taking calls and claims on Feb. 28, two workdays before the new system goes online. Claimants won’t be able to contact the department during that time and will have to set up an account on the new system, called Frances Online, when it goes live at 8 a.m. March 4.

Oregon’s new Paid Leave Oregon program, which is run by the employment department and already uses Frances Online, will be offline during the same period.

The current computer system, which dates to the 1990s, is notoriously rigid and was responsible for many of the employment department’s failures during the COVID-19 recession and its difficulties in promptly paying claims in 2020 and 2021.

Oregon received $86 million from the federal government to modernize its technology in 2009, but dysfunction in the employment department — documented in successive state audits and investigations by The Oregonian/OregonLive — prevented the agency from updating its system for more than a decade.

Three consecutive department directors were fired or forced from their jobs during that period, when infighting and poor prioritization also hamstrung the agency and hobbled its customer service.