Benefits Gateway Service

Last Updated: March 12, 2025

This page provides background context on Benefits Gateway Services (BGS), which provide veteran and dependent profile information, address information, military service history, development actions, ratings information, and award information. BGS is a collection SOAP web services to read and write data to Corporate Database (CorpDB). BGS contains over 130 web services organized in five types: Shared Web Services, MAP-D/RBA2000 Web Services, Awards Web Services, Common Web Services, and Common Web Services for VONAPP.

Integration endpoints

The best way to integrate with BGS is through the bgs-ext gem which has over 40 web services. The services within the gem use the environment-specific forward proxy url.

For more information on using BGS web services directly download Benefits Gateway Services (BGS) Web Services.doc (requires access).

It’s discouraged to use the BGS web services directly.

Required configuration

BGS web services can only be used within the VA Network. VA Platform utilizes the forward proxy to accomplish this.

For more information on Authentication and Authorization when using BGS web services directly download BGS Security Framework Users Guide.doc (requires access).

Outage status and maintenance windows

• Deploys occur on the second weekend of every month.

• Services are brought down for the weekend for a deploy/maintenance window.

• Out of Band deployments require a strong business case.

Submitting a service request

A service request is required to bugs and new feature requests.

1. Open https://YourIT.va.gov/va (must be logged in to the VA network; Chrome recommended).

2. Click Make a Request to open the Service Catalog.

3. Choose the Web/API Requests item in the catalog's Categories section.

4. Click the Enterprise Services Collaboration Portal card to open ESCP in a new tab.

   1. Note: If you’re using a mac, exit out of login popup to proceed.

5. Click “Project Catalog”.

6. In Keyword Search, search for "Caseflow".

7. In the Caseflow search result, click “Details”.

8. Scroll to bottom of page and click “Create New Service Request”.

9. Fill out the form.

   • For the funding questions select "Yes"

   • You do not need to enter in a strip number.

   • Fill in Requested UAT Testing, Requested Pre-Production, and Requested Production.

   • The other dates can be left blank.

10. Click “Submit”.

Contacts

Additional resources

VA-Systems documentation for BGS (requires access)

Help and feedback

• Suggest content changes to this page.

• Submit new Platform Website content.

• Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.

• Submit a feature idea to the Platform.