InforME Board Meeting
November 12, 2003
Members in Attendance:
Others Present:
Meeting Opens:
I. Review General Manager's Report
Carrie Gott gives
an overview of the September/October General Manager's Report and notes
that �looking back - it's been a successful year!�
Highlights include:
General Manager's Overview
• At the NIC Leadership event in NYC last month, Dan Gwadosky's presentation was the highlight of the best practices session. His presentation on the Rapid Renewal Service was both positive and impactful.
• Maine received 2nd place portal BOW, and 3rd place for SOS in Best Consistutional Officer category. Secretary Gwadosky was present to accept the awards at BOW award ceremony in NYC. Maine is the only the state to consistently place in the past four years. Competition for the award is getting more competitive. The Board chair credits InforME for its exceptional efforts.
• InforME has been focused on delivering contract requirements. At present, 18 software documents have been delivered.. InforME has renewed their Letter of Credit, Crime document and the Disaster Recovery Plan test has been implemented and it's results are currently being documented.
• Looking ahead in 2004: Tremendous growth has led to tremendous agency requests. These requests have spurred a need for a design template to be used for all prototype designs. This will allow InforME to link other online services together for a unified look and feel for our user groups. The design template has been proposed to the State. The initiative is coming down from the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.
Discussion:
Q: With redesigns have we proactively approached the agency with how their site could look based upon what other states have done?
A (InforME) We tend to treat each web site and service as a case by case project. The Board could provide some feedback as to how we can relate this to agencies.
Portal Successes
• PCR most recent adoption is at 72%! This is an amazing example of how an agency took the service and integrated it into it's own processes. The service launched in April of 2003.
• The City of Augusta has been approached by the Chair for participation in the Rapid Renewal program. After one visit, the City of Augusta is most likely to sign on as a Rapid Renewal participant. A recent article placed in the Kennebec Journal regarding Augusta's potential participation has spurred interest from the City of Biddeford, another large town not currently participating.
• The Rapid Renewal Service has reached its 50,000 citizen transaction. This user has agreed to participate in next month's press release and will provide a quote.
Marketing
Features/Articles
• An Associated Press article regarding Rapid Renewal has also spurred interest from several other towns.
• We've been busy designing promotional items with the assistance of the InforME Creative team.
• A feature article in New York Times about Fall Foliage in Maine mentioning it's web site was published in October. A total of 8000 subscribers signed up for Foliage site.
Events
• InforME/Maine.gov exhibited at the Senior Spectrum's Mature Lifestyles Expo in September. The event was very successful and the most well attended in its history. We facilitated user testing during this event to further gather user information. This is the first outreach of it's kind to a particular user group.
• We also participated in the two day Maine Municipal Association conference in Our list of services presented to this group is getting bigger every year.
• We used our presence at the Maine Trial Lawyers event .as an opportunity to inform the legal group of current services available to them and also to gain further information on possible future services.
• The annual Webmaster's Retreat was held in September. This retreat is conducted to brainstorm, collaborate, network and share common issues and problems among agency webmasters. Feedback at end of the retreat was very positive and in most cases, attendees walked away with more knowledge.
Discussion:
Q. Is there a result of common focus from these monthly meetings.
A (InforME) The monthly webmaster meetings allow for a lot of training, education, tutorials - particularly in accessibility. Webmaster who attend these meetings claim to get much out of them. Controversly, this leads to more agency requests for web design. These meetings also allows us to hear comments and concerns from the state level that permits us gain perspective on issues at an enterprise wide level.
• The annual NIC Marketing Conference took place in NYC this year. Marketers and managers at InforME attended this conference which initiated ideas for business planning of the coming year.
• InforME conducted an application user testing session for the Liquor Excise Tax Collection service in October. Our meeting with actual users generated much constructive feedback on the usability of the service.
Creative Services
Web Design Projects
Prototypes
Training
Development/Technical
Services Launched
Services in Testing
Services in Development
InforME has been busy working on further documentation for the Disaster Recovery Plan. The plan outlines the actions in the event of a disaster and it also defines. how the plan would be implemented.. The documentation also requires a test of these actions and implementations. Todd Tolhurst provided the Board with an overview on the success of the seamless testing of the plan.
Upgrades to our T1 is being researched. Due to the popularity of the Maine.gov web site, we are looking at ways to further expand our bandwidth
Miscellaneous Follow-up
Hosting has been in great demand of agency applications and web sites. InforME is working with the CIO's office and BIS to come up with a draft of a policy for web hosting. We are also working with Purchasing at the possibility of outsourcing. InforME will bring the policy to the Board for approval once research is done and a plan is proposed.
Discussion
Q: Does InforMe currently host all agency web sites?
A (InforME) InforME currently hosts all state static web pages and InforME applications. We are hosting a few legislative web pages and a few non InforME applications.
Project Status Report
New services
Financial Summary
Net income is somewhat different than the previous month. This variance is due to higher expenses with marketing conferences and systems upgrades.
Percentage comparisons
II. Service Demo
Maine Sex Offender Public
Information Search (Tiffany Glidden)
III. Follow-Up Annual Merchant Fee Request:
InforME year-to-date monthly banking fees for eGovernment services are as follows:
IV. Strategic Plan Overview and Discussion:
The InforME Strategic Plan is divided into three broad and over reaching goals including the strategies to achieve these by goal. The Board is asked to review and provide feedback on these goals. The Boards Strategic Plan must be updated every two years.
Discussion
Q: (InforME) How would the Board like to receive?
A: Can we receive an updated list of services?
Q: (InforME) Are there new technologies that we need to be aware before we move forward? What are some of the challenges that we need to be aware of?
A: (CIO) The expectation is for the agencies to be efficient and work cooperatively to be able to provide these services more conveniently to constituents. Applications supported by the Maine Revenue services platform may be updated as well as te State's financial system. Investment in upgrades to some agency platforms are also being considered. The result to increase broadband access will spur a request from citizens for more online services.
Q: Is there a national concern on how integrate broadband in all aspects of State Government?
A: (CIO) We are exploring initiatives and partnerships on a federal level with the State and local government in order to expand on what we don't currently supply.
Awards and marketing are ongoing in the Strategic Plan and there is no need to really further develop these areas.
Discussion
Q: What is the update on NICs project with the Center for Digital Government's white paper release?
A (InforME) Carrie Gott will research its status.
Discussion
Access of information and the need to coordinate and integrate is much needed not only in Maine but nationally as well.
Q: How do we recapture and reengineer how this collaboration can be done? Through a possible strategic plan?
A (InforME) Through several different delivery mechanisms. Focus on user groups for insight on how to further deliver these services - Point of Sale next step in service evolution.
A strategic planning retreat has been suggested.
Discussion
The State's challenge does not stem from a technical standpoint but rather getting managers to integrate their agency services with others. Management education is needed..
There are penetration issues within government. These issues are not only placed on the delivery of services online, but also to reengineer their internal processes. There is a need for agency web site integration with their current processes and a need to better manage agency information. Involve more management in web site content.
InforME will facilitate the scheduling of the Strategic Plan meeting to take place in January. The location of the meeting will be close by and convenient. The Board will be consulted on meeting facilities.
V. Next Board Meeting:
December 17, 2003, 1:00 p.m. at the Nash School House
A January meeting will not be scheduled. If there are any SLAs that must be approved during this month, this can be done during the retreat.
Meeting is adjourned 2:54 PM