Modernization of the Lifeline Program Application for a US Wireless Company

Summary

A US wireless company that serves low-income subscribers across 15+ states received most of its Lifeline discount-program applications through a website form, but that channel was the hardest to fact-check, forcing managers to verify and register every applicant by hand. INNERLUXES built a three-part solution — a web service, a local database, and a WordPress plugin — that ingests form data, verifies it against LexisNexis and NLAD to block fraud and duplicate claims, guides applicants to correct mistakes, and automatically registers approved customers in the CRM.

About the Client

The Client is a socially conscious US company that provides wireless telephone services for low-income individuals in more than 15 states.

A Popular Web Form That Could Not Be Verified at Scale

The Client's prospects could apply for available Lifeline discount programs in person at an office, by phone, or by filling out a Formstack form on the company website. The web form was the most popular channel but also the most problematic for fact-checking and claim processing, so the company's managers had to check and register each new customer in the CRM manually every time a form was submitted. To fix this, the Client looked for a reliable custom software development partner to enhance the application process on its website.

A Web Service, Database, and WordPress Plugin That Automate Verification

INNERLUXES delivered a solution made of three elements — a web service, a local database, and a WordPress plugin — built so that data capture, fraud checking, and customer registration happen automatically:

• Automated intake — the central web service starts the workflow when it receives a Formstack notification about a new form; integrated with Formstack, it gathers the prospect's data, adds it to the local database, and sends a notice that the claim is pending approval.
• Fraud and duplicate checks — in the background, the web service queries LexisNexis and the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD) to verify the prospect's data and discard forms with fake personal information or duplicate Lifeline claims; if the calculated risk level is acceptable the workflow proceeds, otherwise the prospect is notified that the application was rejected.
• Mistake-tolerant validation — because applicants can easily make spelling errors that NLAD would reject, the web service was tuned to flag those cases for manual review by managers, and the application form was split into steps so that each time a prospect presses Next, the entered data is instantly validated by LexisNexis, prompting applicants to double-check their details before submitting and reducing rejections caused by misspellings.
• Automatic CRM registration — for successful candidates, the web service integrates with the Client's CRM to register new customers, record their tariff plans and loyalty programs, attach the provided certificates, and generate PDFs with order details, while the customer receives a successful-registration notice through the website.
• WordPress plugin — to connect the web service and the website smoothly, the team implemented a WordPress plugin that redirects applicants to the relevant pages at each stage of the application.

Automated, Fraud-Resistant Lifeline Applications

• The Client received a system that automatically processes submitted forms.
• Data checks through NLAD and LexisNexis prevent trickery and duplicate claims for the discount programs.
• The online application process for the Client's Lifeline discount programs is significantly improved, with far less manual work for managers.

Technologies and Tools

PHP (Symfony 2, Doctrine), PHP daemons (queue), MySQL, WordPress.