Minutes June 2003

InforME Board Meeting
June 18, 2003

Members in Attendance:
Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky
Jeff Harmon
Rick Record
Dick Trahey
Marilyn Lutz
Anne Schink
Dick Hinkley
Cindy Butts
Rudolph Naples
Gary Nichols
Jaynie Higgins
Chip Gavin
Carrie Gott

Others Present:
Herb Doten - Board of Engineering
Tim Poulin - CEC
Mary Silva - CIO Office
Todd Tolhurst, InforME
Renee Loring, InforME
Kelly Hokkenan - InforME
Ryan Goodwin - InforME

Meeting Opens:

I. General Manager's Report:
Carrie Gott provides Board with highlights from the monthly GM Report.

Awards: This month InforME and the Secretary of State’s office were awarded the annual, international eGov Pioneer Award, accepted by Carrie Gott and Tim Poulin at the awards ceremony in Washington, DC. The award honored the Secretary of State’s Total UCC Solution. There were 20 winners total from around world.

Mr. Timothy Poulin, Director of Corporations, demonstrated the Total UCC Solution to the Board, highlighting the benefits to the agency and its customers. The convenience and ease of use is apparent in the outstanding adoption rates: 95% adoption of the UCC Search service and overall use of the service has actually increased because of the popularity of the online search; 40-50% adoption of the UCC Filing Service. The CEC staff has received tremendous amounts of positive feedback from users.

Applications: InforME has been busy working on statewide solutions, including the following:
• The “What’s New” news tool provides a mini content management system to any state or local agency in need. Already 20 agency accounts have been set up within its first month of implementation.

• The Sliver Header is in place on the CIO's Office website. It has been presented to the ISMG, the Webmaster groups and will be presented to ISPB Board at their next meeting.

• A Central Emergency Notification system has been developed for agencies related to emergency notifications to post alerts to Maine.gov 24/7 through a secure password protected web page.

• The new and improved Maine.gov homepage will launch June 30, 2003.

In addition to statewide software solutions, InforME has also made enhancements to the moose lottery winners’ data delivery to include a web-based service to allow users to create lists and labels without calling or traveling to the office.

InforME has seen a growth spurt this year which includes the hiring of a Systems Administrator to maintain the mature structure of the portal.

Marketing Overview-
Marketing efforts include various advertising, as well as attending the Bank Expo to promote CEC and other Maine.gov services appropriate to this particular user group.

Creative update-
Creative Services has been very busy completing updates and enhancements to the Maine.gov website. In addition, the team has partnered on several website redesign projects.

Development/Technical-
The project queue is full and available in the GM Report.

Application documentation has been formalized by BIS and a calendar for deliverables has been completed.

Service Changes-
The 53’ Trailer service will be discontinued in 2004 due to changes in legislation eliminating this type of permit.

Financials-
The growth in revenue is due to the high adoption of the Annual Reports Online service.

Discussion:
The Board asked the status on the Property Tax application. The Board was informed that the project is complex in scope. InforME is in the process of gathering specs from a variety of municipalities to see if it is possible to create a single, flexible solution across muni databases, or if instead, InforME will need to build each Municipality service one a time.

Board member, Jaynie Higgins thought it would be helpful if there was a timeline of when each agency created an online service.
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II. Board of Engineering SLA is presented for Board approval:
Overview:
The SLA under consideration calls for InforME and the Maine Board of Engineering to develop an online engineering license renewal service. Servicing ~ 6,000 Maine, licensed engineers, the online service would allow one to renew their engineering license online with a credit card bi-annually.

Mr. Herb Doten, from the Board of Engineering, testified that the online service would benefit license holders by providing them with an alternative to writing single or multiple company checks and mailing renewals to the Board of Engineering office. Notices are expected to be mailed out to licensees in November and the service is expected to be completed by December for the 2003/2004 renewal period.

Motion:
Rudy Naples motions that the SLA be accepted.
Motion is seconded by Jaynie Higgins.

Action:
The Board votes unanimously to accept the Board of Engineering SLA.

III. DEMOS:
The new Maine.gov homepage is presented to the Board. Carrie Gott introduces the key players in the revamping of the portal: Kelly Hokkanen, Todd Tolhurst and Ryan Goodwin were the InforME staff most involved in the Maine.gov portal updates.

The key focus this year was to refresh and add new features to the already branded Maine.gov portal. Highlights of the new home page include:

• New Citizen Alert icon leads the user to a web page that explains what can be expected and also allows the user to sign up to receive email notification when an alert is posted. When an alert has been posted, the icon will change color to red with one or more links that provide more detail including any precautionary measures that need to be taken. ADA compliance has been taken into consideration and the alt tag will read if the icon is active or inactive. There will also be supporting text links to verify activity. The icon will also automatically appear on all sliver headers across state agency websites.

• A News section has been added to Maine.gov whereby agencies that are using the News Tool will be able to post news items to Maine.gov. The Press Room link has been changed to News, and will allow users to search state wide press releases. InforME will continue to maintain links for those agencies that are not using the News Tool.

• The voting poll is a feature on Maine.gov that allows visitors to vote on a specific question and immediately see voting results.

• A rotating Maine fact feature has been added to Maine.gov, with a new fact appearing each time the browser is refreshed.

• The user starter pages icon has been implemented to engage specific users to set up customized homepage with suggested links and services appropriate to Residents, Tourist, Student, and Senior Citizens.

• The weather is dynamically generated.

Feedback on portal page:
-Nice consistency.
-Will tabs work more at a lower level and add to inside pages?
- Voting poll is not a good idea

MyMaine.gov personalization updates include:
• Improved usability and provide more user friendly features;
• More preferences provided;
• Themes have been added to provide suggested links;
• Layout can now be customized;
• Users may receive a broader forecast and request emails on updates to weather on multiple towns;
• Online services have been enhanced to include all online services available . A user can also select to receive email notification when a new service is available;
• The user can now select to have a new window open up when logging into MyMaine.gov;
• The user will also be able to watch certain pages so that they will receive notification if page is updated;
• The How Do I section has been updated to include all and receive same notification as online services feature;
• News is a new feature where users can see all news and sign up for email notification either daily or weekly. They can also customize the extent of the news text detail to receive when notified;
• Photo contest updates include an email signup when photos change. Photos can be set as a slide show;
• RemindMe is now integrated into MyMaine.gov, which features a calendar interface with a broader suggestion of reminders. The custom creation includes a more detailed reminder function.

Maine.gov, in combination with MyMaine.gov, will allow for more agency exposure by directing traffic to these agency websites.

Feedback on MyMaine.gov:
-Has the header/sliver been added to web design workbook?
-How do we market to public to get them to use?

Action:
InforME will start getting the word out to user groups easiest to reach such as subscribers and state employees. InforME has also been exploring advertising venues to brand the Portal.

IV. Follow-up Item:
The CIO’s office will present mandate policy for the Sliver Header to the ISPB for vote tomorrow. Once it has gone through this process, the Sliver Header will be posted to all executive agency websites. The Sliver Header is currently featured on both the CIO and Governor's websites.

Action:
InforME will send out vote results to Board after the ISPB meeting.

Next Board Meeting:
September 17, 2003, 1:00 p.m.

Meeting adjourns at 2:55 p.m.