On June 14, the Code of Support Foundation (COSF) launched PATRIOTlink®, the nation’s first cloud-based resource for cost-free veteran services. The launch was commemorated with an event at the National Press Club, which featured a welcome from MG Alan B. Salisbury, USA (Ret.), COSF Chairman & CEO, and a panel discussion with contributors to the effort, including Yasamin Sekandari, a project manager at Noblis.

PATRIOTlink® enables any user free access to vetted, direct, cost-free, veteran services. That means that service members, veterans, caregivers, families, social service agencies, and government organizations can find results specifically tailored to their need, based on a number of eligibility requirements. This streamlines the process for finding the “right” service and takes away countless hours spent searching for resources that might not even be available to the user due to various requirements.

As a nonprofit, Noblis is committed to making enduring, scalable contributions to our federal clients and causes that impact our communities. That’s why partnering with the COSF to advance and accelerate PATRIOTlink® just made sense— using technology for good is at the cornerstone of Noblis’ mission.

Kristina Kauffman, Executive Director of the COSF, stressed that “case coordination drove development,” at the June 14 event. That means it was imperative to build a workflow where improvements could constantly be made based on feedback from the end users.

That’s where Noblis expertise came in—over the course of the past 2 years, the Noblis team contributed over 2,500 hours of technology expertise to help bring PATRIOTlink® to launch.

Noblis’ software development teams are experts at building custom-built technology using the agile development methodology, which relies on consistently integrating customer requirements and improvements based on user interaction and feedback. The agility of our teams and deep understanding of a project’s “end goal” is how we’ve been able to help our civil, defense, and intelligence clients rapidly bring innovative science and technology to their missions.

In building PATRIOTlink®, security, verification, and quality were at the forefront. Each resource in PATRIOTlink® has been personally vetted by the COSF to ensure quality, and the platform needed a scalable way to ensure that each query produced personalized, up-to-date result for the user. To make this a reality, the team at Noblis helped make functionality enhancements to the tool, and implemented an enhanced user interface (UI), based on results from surveys, user feedback, and our own usability best practices. After completing the updated UI, the team integrated data analytics, dashboards improved workflow and enhanced search results.

In addition to this development effort, Noblis ran a hackathon during the 2017 Summer Internship Program, where interns were challenged to develop a PATRIOTlink® mobile application. A total of six interns participated in the challenge and as a result developed a total of four distinct applications; three iOS apps and one Andriod app.  These apps will be integrated into one fully functioning app in the future.

We congratulate the Code of Support Foundation for the successful launch of PATRIOTlink® and are truly honored to help bring the service into the hands of users! 

If you are a service member, veteran, caregiver, or family member, or a social service agencies and government organizations who support veterans and the caregiver population, we encourage you to visit PATRIOTlink® here.