General Manager�s Report

March, 2000

CONTENTS

���������������� ������ REPORT ��� ����������������������������������������������������������� ������PAGE #

�������������� Management Report������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3

� Marketing Report������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 4

�������������� Technical Report������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 7

����������� �� New/Outstanding Issues������������������������������������������������������������������� 8��������������������� �����������������������������������

MANAGEMENT REPORT

Throughout the month of February, we have been busy executing on projects both large and small.� At this month�s Board meeting, you will see a demo of two new projects and the new state homepage design.� There have also been many smaller projects we have accomplished under our hosting services for the agencies.

New State Homepage Design

We are in the final stages of this project, see more under graphics section.

Migration

The legislature has requested that we delay the migration of the Janus server until the session has officially ended, which should be sometime between April 7^th and April 20^th.

New Technical Projects Coordinator

We have hired a new Marketing Executive who will be coordinating our technical projects.� This will increase our capacity greatly and will relieve much of the burden on Todd and myself.

New Projects

Several new projects have been submitted to InforME, and we are very excited about adding them into our schedule.� They include the Violations Bureau�s online/IVR payment system, Hazardous Materials reporting, Sex Offenders Registry, Commercial Vehicle Over limit application, etc.� We are also busy fulfilling our existing commitments to the Secretary of State�s SLA, and are very excited about the progress on the Rapid Renewal Service in particular.� We have completed the newly revised IF&W Hunting and Fishing License application and are beginning special request and online merchandise.

MARKETING REPORT

Web Design Projects

The design team was fortunate to be joined by Marc Campbell, an NIC art director, for a two-week visit. Marc assisted with the architecture of the new State�s Web site. In addition, the design team successfully launched the Venture into Maine site, as well as beginning new design projects.�

Bureau of Banking

The new marketing page for the Bureau of Banking, known as, �Venture into Maine,� has been launched and can be visited at http://www.ventureintomaine.com.� We feel this is a showpiece site and fully illustrates the importance of marketing the business resources of Maine in an inventive way.

State of Maine

We have completed the first version of the portal and are waiting on feedback from the offices of the Governor, Secretary of State, Bureau of Information Services, and the Legislature. We intend to have all revisions made by the 24^th of March, and launch on the 29^th of March.

InforME

We are redesigning the current InforME Web site to allow for easier access to our subscription form and to answer specific questions about the e-government services on the site. The InforME web site will not be marketed separately, but will rather be a link off the Maine home page.� Launch will follow soon after the Maine State Web site launch.

Office of Licensing and Registration

Our designer continues to populate the site with content. We are in the process of reviewing the available data to determine how to proceed with building an online renewal form. Delivery depends upon when we receive all content from OLR.

The Department of Agriculture, Marketing and Production

The design cleanup has begun. We are pouring programming resources into this site to build comprehensive search capability throughout the site.

The Department of Public Safety

The prototype has been accepted. We are waiting on content. No delivery date has been specified at this point.

Department of Education

We have begun initial consultation with the Department of Education to build a new site for school health program. This site crosses agencies and will act as a communication center for school districts, school boards, state employees, and youth involvement committees.

Other Meetings

2/10/00 � Public Utilities Commission � Denny Keschl, Anne Clark, Bill Cross; BIS -� Kevin Jones, Ellen Lee,� Dennis Stevens; InforME � Tamara Dukes, Todd Tolhurst

The PUC has created a web application that will allow their customers to perform their large filing transactions via the web.� They wanted to discuss where the database would be housed and which web server the customers would pass through:� InforME or BIS.� InforME will be the gateway.

2/18 and following � Rapid Renewal Service -

This service is moving along nicely.� Good participation from pilot municipalities.

2/23 and following � Violations Bureau and Dave Roderique (BIS telco)��

We are pursuing an IVR/Internet service to allow citizens to pay traffic violations by phone or online.� Dave Roderique from telco is assisting us with the telephone portion of the service.�

2/24 � Presentation of InforME to the Appropriations Committee of the Legislature by Secretary Gwadosky

Chairman/Secretary Gwadosky did an outstanding job presenting InforME to the appropriations committee.� His presentation was very well received.� The Committee asked relatively few questions, and appeared very supportive of the public/private partnership and of the work done thus far.� They seemed especially impressed with all we are doing on a fairly limited budget.

3/1/00 � Meeting with Speaker of the House

The Speaker was very impressed with the Secretary of State�s new website design and asked for a meeting with InforME.� We were delighted to meet with the Speaker and share with him our progress and the service we might provide to his office.� He intends to meet with us again.

3/2/00 � Office of Substance Abuse (Dept of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse services)

This agency has several plans for interactive applications on their website.� They wanted to meet with InforME to further clarify and define the roles of InforME vs. BIS in the development of these services.

3/3/00 � Division of Commercial Vehicles � Garry Hinkley and Maurice Dionne

Two major applications were discussed with this department:� online processing of over limit permits, and 53-foot trailer permits.� We will be working these into our schedule by September or before.

3/10/00 � BIS � Department of Development Services

This was an excellent role-clarifying meeting led by Val Wood.

3/10/00 � Legislature � Information Services department � Paul Mayotte and Sally Tubessing

We met to discuss the migration and other InforME issues.� It was an excellent opportunity to address some concerns of the legislature and discuss how best to move forward.

3/13/00 � Presentation to the Cumberland County Lions Club

Representative Terry McKinney invited InforME to present for his club.� He had seen the presentation by Secretary Gwadosky and myself and thought it would make a good program.� There were at least 50 in attendance, representing a variety of professions.� It was an excellent opportunity and basically was the first of our �outreach� kinds of presentations to civic groups.� We will very likely be doing more of these, especially after we have citizen services up and running like Rapid Renewal Service.

3/16/00 � Presentation to Maine Business Works

The Advisory Council for Maine Business works wanted an opportunity for us to share our websites with each other and discuss how our mutual missions might be compatible.

TECHNICAL REPORT

Meetings

• IS Managers Group - we are participating on an ongoing basis.
• PUC � will be accommodating a filing application for that agency.
• Webmasters Group � ongoing.
• NIC Directors of Development summit in Nebraska.
• Various migration meetings with BIS and the legislature.
• Internal technical planning retreat

Programming

• Posted roads application created by the BMV has been linked for use by the general public.
• Driver Cross check interactive application prototype is complete, awaiting approval to go live.
• IF&W storefront upgrade complete and live.
• Several database query tools have been written for use on mainefoodandfarms.com (a virtual domain site for the Dept. of Agriculture).
• Department of Conservation � working on moving the park reservation to InforME�s secure server from Janus.

Hardware/Software

• 36-gigabyte fault tolerant disk storage added to primary web server.� This will give us more working space on the server.� More importantly, it provides us another layer of redundancy in the event of a hardware failure.� The website will continue to run as we make repairs.
• High speed/high capacity tape drive installed.�
• I Chat software purchased.� In process of installation and configuration to enable online chats on the website.
• Secure web server has been successfully installed and tested.� This very important service will allow us to process credit cards online and perform other sensitive transactions.

Special Request

As was hoped, we have experienced a significant improvement on turnaround time and overall customer service on BMV special request service, since Sarah Vincent has taken over the service.

Miscellaneous

• Several new mailing lists or Listservs have been created this month for customers including Dept. of Education and Bureau of Adult and Elder Services.
• Will be hosting maineseafood.org�s Boothbay Harbor web cam.� Images will be migrated from Janus to our web server.

Project Status

• See project matrix

NEW/OUTSTANDING ISSUES

AND UPDATES

FOR BOARD CONSIDERATION

Approval of better defined SOS/BMV services

Attached to last month�s report was a revision of the service Schedule A attachment to the SLA between InforME and the SOS office.

Final approval of Strategic Plan

Attached.

ATTACHMENTS

� Project Matrix

� Schedule A Additions

� Strategic Plan

Respectfully Submitted,

Tamara Dukes

Network General Manager