Insight

When Nava acquired Beam in February 2026, we didn’t just acquire software. We gained nearly a decade of experience helping governments run guaranteed income, housing, child care, and disaster relief programs. That experience is embedded in production systems that caseworkers and beneficiaries rely on every day. Nava acquired this production system to integrate with Strata, Nava’s gold-standard target architecture and suite of open source tools that gives government agencies everything they need to run a modern service, and build a better, more effective product.

This integration presented unique challenges. Beam and Strata were built by different teams, using different technology, on different cloud platforms, and with different methodologies about how systems should work. Merging them carelessly would put Beam’s legacy partners at risk and slow down the delivery teams that depend on Strata. Starting over from scratch would throw away years of hard-won learning and proven solutions. 

So we’re taking a different approach. Below are considerations and processes we are leveraging to securely integrate Beam and Strata without disrupting current delivery projects.

Understanding the tech stacks

It’s necessary to deeply understand the different technical components before combining two software products. Beam and Strata don’t just have different feature sets; they’re built differently from the ground up. Beam is a closed-source, fully managed service with complete end-to-end functionality, while Strata is a suite of open source components and tools for partners to build on. The ways the tools were built are also different, for example:

We first considered separating Beam’s product into smaller components and integrating the pieces directly into Strata. After investigating further, it became clear that integrating each component on its own  would be fragile, have unpredictable performance, and lead to a complex operation that wouldn’t scale. That’s not the foundation we wanted to build public programs on. Instead we distilled what both companies have learned to create new components and features sets that provide our partners with more flexibility than ever before. 

Approaching integration piece-by-piece

Instead of a single integration strategy, we’re making decisions based on what makes sense for each component. In doing this, we’ve identified three patterns to guide our decision making: 

1. Preserve what’s working: Beam’s document intelligence capabilities provide unique value. They have already proven the main AI-powered verification piece, so we’re keeping that core capability by reformatting it into a standalone service for Strata.

2. Rebuild where it makes sense: We’re rebuilding the payments capabilities in Strata, but we’re not starting from scratch. We’re leveraging Beam’s experience running complex, real-world payment programs involving multiple funding sources and payment methods. 

3. Test and iterate quickly: We’re focusing on near-term opportunities like building case management capabilities for state paid family and medical leave programs. Working with real needs from our government partners helps us learn faster and build tools that are validated to meet real requirements and account for real constraints.

With this approach, we’re creating two offerings: a host of modular, reliable components and a fully managed service with the SaaS platform.

Building based on program needs

It can be tempting to design the software architecture first and then implement with government partners after. With Strata, every major component in our suite of tools came directly from our partners’ needs. This ensures our product is grounded in real program needs, in the proper data formats, and functional in regulatory environments. 

Conclusion

The hardest part of this work isn’t the code. It’s bringing together two teams’ worth of experience, design patterns, institutional knowledge, and delivery experience into something effective that everyone trusts. We’re approaching this intentionally to mesh as seamlessly as possible. Both teams are learning the other’s approach and updating case management implementations accordingly.

Eventually, a team starting a new benefits program won’t know which component came from Beam and which came from Strata. They’ll have a reliable, well-documented set of building blocks that help them deliver better services to the public.