InforME Board Meeting 4-28-04

Board Member Attendance:

Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky - Chair
Marilyn Lutz
Cindy Butts
Deb Carson
Lt Col. Jeff Harmon
Dick Hinkley
Gary Nichols
Gerry Dube
Jaynie Higgins
Carrie Gott

Others Present:

Chip Gavin - Staff to the Chair
Kelly Hokkenan - InforME
Tiffany Glidden - InforME
Renee Loring - InforME

Meeting Opens:

I. General Manager's Report

Carrie Gott provides an overview of the April General Managers Report:

Portal Updates:

First quarter 2004 has ended strongly for InforME. Overall, we’ve delivered online services on schedule, generated expected revenue earnings, and made good headway toward Network upgrades and infrastructure improvements.

Despite a few Network glitches due to portal growth, we have been able to make marked improvement to ensure availability and reliability, while making investments into a stronger network. The Google search appliance upgrade, a highlight of first quarter investments, has had tremendous impact on improving portal usability.

First quarter has also been a time of planning. Best of the Web award competition plans and the InforME Strategic Planning Retreat were all conducted in first quarter 2004 and promise another exciting year ahead.

Service Updates:

Highlights:

Marketing

Press Releases/Articles:

MIST Newsletter Articles:

The following press releases were distributed:

Mentions:

In the March 2004 issue of Governing magazine, the Governor’s Budget Balancing Tool was mentioned in the E-Gov’s New Gear article showcasing some of the nation’s governors and mayors that are learning to love the give and take of governing electronically

 Events:

Awards:

Technology award nominations have been submitted to the Government Technology Leadership Awards program, and for the Government Solutions Center Awards program (formally the eGov Pioneer Award).

 Service Expansion

With the collaborative effort of the Secretary of State’s office and InforME, municipalities continue to participate in Rapid Renewal. The grand total to date is 55!

Aircraft Registration continues to expand to those municipalities with airports and registered aircraft. There are 138 municipalities across Maine that have registered aircraft and could therefore participate in the program. Thus far, there are 17 participating municipalities.

Dog Licensing service is in beta with volunteering municipalities, totaling 38 participating municipalities.

Creative Services

Agency Design Projects

InforME’s Creative Services department has completed and launched websites for the Office of Community Development (www.meocd.org) and the Department of Labor (www.maine.gov/labor/).

Application Design

We completed the design of the new application template and have started using it for the interface design of new applications, including Driver License Renewal, Crash Reporting, and Liquor Licensing.

Portal Services

Training

InforME is providing ongoing support to agency webmasters for Dreamweaver, AutoForms, and the What’s New tool, and continues to provide educational presentations at the monthly webmaster meetings.

Development/Technical

Programming

Service/Request Changes

Please see board packet for project descriptions and prioritization forms for the following agency requested services:

The following existing services have requested the following changes:

Financials

Carrie Gott provides an overview of February and March 2004 financials.

Discussion:

Q: Yr to Yr comparison - is the total correct?

A: We will review and correct if necessary.

II. Strategic Plan

A. Project Prioritization documents are reviewed.

The Board is first shown a blank template of a prioritization model. This is from a Board request to have more input in projects prior to SLA . This is an effort to formalize process to place a true measurement on a service. The first page is based on process flow of how a project is placed in the queue, re-evaluated, or not moved forward with.

Prioritization is based on value and resource determinants.

 Discussion:

Q. If there is a law or regulation would this increase the number given in value?

A. (InforME) Yes. Depending on the legislation involved and how it is written, would determine the value rating. This is more of a project methodology rather than a prioritization process.

Q. Should there be another category for statewide benefit?

A. (InforME) we will add another category.

The Board reviews the State Fire Marshal Project Overview.

Q. How much work is in putting together the document.

A. (InforME) This is part of the current project management process. This isn't additional, and is not adding more work to InforME.

Q: Was the project overview document designed prior to the prioritization document?

A: (InforME) No, the overview was created prior and is used to create the prioritization process.

Q: The project overview could be more like the prioritization process.

A: (InforME) We can make this change as well as to the project workbook.

Q: Is revenue taken into consideration in the prioritization process?

A: (InforME) Yes. Under Portal Benefit, a determinant will increase with portal traffic.

Q: Are there other services that have gone through this process?

A: (InforME) These are the first services to be implemented into this process.

Q: Is there a service that hasn't been used where we have discontinued?

A: (InforME) It is written in the SLA that enables us to bow out of a service that is not being used to it's intended capacity. This has yet to occur.

Q: Would a project priority change with time? Would they age and eventually become a higher priority?

A: (InforME) We do have projects that are very low value and low portal, citizen, agency benefit which will always be behind the high portal, high agency, and high customer benefit of which are in high demand. However, as agencies wait the priority does naturally increase.

Q: How are the values determined if they are low, medium or high?

A: (InforME) We will outline this and include it in the revised process flow.

Q: Does the InforME statute allow for a contribution?

A: (InforME) We will look into statute to see if this fits in and bring back to the Board.

The prioritization is a work in progress to tidy up project prioritization mechanics. InforME will incorporate the Board’s feedback and present an updated version at a future meeting.

B. Goal #1:

Carrie reviews updates on Strategic Plan Goal I.

C. Goal #2:

Grow and diversity Maine.gov by aggressively marketing existing online services and continuing to create new eGovernment products which profoundly impact people who are living and doing business in Maine.”

OBJECTIVE I:

Create thirty-five high priority online services by 12/31/06

STRATEGIES:

Execute technical plans and timelines.

OBJECTIVE II:

Upgrade service delivery options for existing services.

STRATEGIES:

OBJECTIVE III:

Increase adoption rates for existing services through marketing initiatives and partnerships.

 STRATEGIES:

Discussion:

Q: How do you increase participation? Are there any tangible incentives?

A: (InforME) Examples of high adoption rate services are those that have actually made it cheaper to use the online service. Even if service fee stays the same, it's more cost effective for the consumer to complete online rather than traditional methods.

Action:

Add emphasis on this section in Goal 2, Objective III.

Discussion:

Q: What are we measuring? How will we know if any of these particular strategies have increased adoption?

A: (InforME) We will include agency participation in marketing and promotion as a strategy for Objective III.

Q: Should agency outreach with potential services be included in these strategies?

A. (InforME) We will add a marketing checklist to the workbook and continue developing marketing plans in partnership with the agencies.

Q: Is it possible to measure our adoption rates with other states in order to provide a targeted adoption rate to this Goal?

A: (InforME) We can provide some research on other state's adoption rates.

Action:

We will take up Strategic Plan Goal III at next Board Meeting.

C. Local Portal Initiative proposal and demo

The Board is shown a demo of a Local Government Portal initiative concept and asked to provide feedback on additional resources that may be used to further this initiative.

III. Executive Session: Contract Negotiations

IV. Meeting Adjourns

Meeting adjourns at 4:05P