CalSTRS says Benefit Connect ready for September 23 go‑live after soft launch; independent reviewer flags triage of known defects

CalSTRS project leaders told the board on Sept. 4 that the pension system replacement, branded Benefit Connect, is on track to go live on Sept. 23 after a soft launch and a period of final conversion work.

Anthony Sweeney, pension solution project director, said the project’s six major workstreams are in green status and that an eight‑week soft launch exposed issues that were fixed before cutover. "By the end of this soft launch period, over 650 staff had accessed the system," Sweeney said, adding that the team processed employer contribution files and ran monthly batch jobs during testing.

Chris from Guidehouse, the independent oversight team, told trustees that testing indicates primary system functionality is ready for production but that a backlog of known defects remains and has been triaged into items required for go‑live and items deferred to post‑go‑live releases. "For the knowns, we participated in the meetings that were set up as a triage process... and then how would we allocate those either for go live or post go live," the consultant said.

Trustees asked whether deferred defects included any high‑ or medium‑risk items and whether workarounds were required; project leads said deferred items were not categorized as high risk and that workarounds had been documented and included in training materials. The team described staffing plans for cutover week (on‑site subject matter experts, escalation paths, daily leadership check‑ins) and estimated follow‑on maintenance funding would come from an existing $104.7 million maintenance and operations allocation that had been authorized previously.

What’s next: Data conversion will begin before the Sept. 23 cutover; the executive steering committee will make a final decision to move into cutover in the days leading up to go‑live and project oversight will continue post‑launch.