General Manager�s Report

October, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

�������������� Marketing Report����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARKETING REPORT

 

 

OVERVIEW

Interactive Exceeds Expectations!

 

Goals for interactive transactions for September were surpassed by a great margin, as were goals for new subscribers.� This can be credited to the fact that the BMV has been a terrific marketing partner, and was very cooperative in supplying InforME with all their existing account information.�

 

Interactive Services
 

Interactive Driver Records were launched on September 1st, and Interactive Title and Registration Services were launched on September 20th.� We projected 425 transactions for the first month of service for Interactive Driver Records, 3395 records were processed.� Title and Registration services were projected to total 150 transactions for their first month of service.� September was only approximately one third active for this service, yet we logged 292 transactions.

 

Subscribers
 

Subscriber totals are also exceeding expectations.� We projected that we would have 5 subscribers our first month, and 20 for our second month.� We actually had 35 subscribers our first month.

 

 

Batch numbers still lower than projections
 

In spite of all the good news, batch numbers are still much lower than projections, still forcing the network to be conservative in its expansion.�

 

 

MEETINGS

 

9/8/99 (and others)

Purchasing

Bob Mayer and I have met with Dick Thompson and Betty Lamereau regarding future SLA�s with other agencies.� Unique requests from a few agencies, which were outside of the original scope of the InforME RFP, have come to light, and we just wanted to be extra sure that these new ventures would not be in conflict with our current contract in any way.� We are waiting to hear about this.

 

 

9/9/99 (and others)

Bureau of Banking

InforME staff has met several times with the Bureau of Banking as they endeavor to create a new, marketing-focused, web site that will encourage entrepreneurs to �Venture into Maine.�� The goal for the new website will be to highlight the unique and beneficial reasons to do business (especially banking) in Maine.� It will be fun, upbeat, and clever.� The idea will be to pique the interest of investors and get them to call and make an appointment to speak with a BOB representative.

 

9/10/99 (and others)

BIS - Migration

We are meeting with BIS to begin to work out the details for the migration plan.� Several information sharing meetings and phone calls have taken place.� InforME has created the first draft of the migration plan, are getting input from BIS, the State Webmasters, and the ISMG before submitting it to Bob Mayer, CIO.� Once the CIO has approved the draft, the plan will go into place and the new launch date will be announced.

 

 

9/15/99

Professional and Financial Regulation � Paul Sawyer and Katie Longley

In this meeting, we discussed the over-arching needs of PFR and ways InforME might assist the Department to meet their goals of having all their forms online by the end of the year.� Subsequent to the meeting, a proposal was prepared to show the possible staff-up scenarios InforME could use to meet the deadline.� Since this �staffing up� is one of the items not anticipated by the original contract, we are waiting to hear from purchasing before proceeding with the SLA.� We anticipate supplying web design and application development services to PFR as well.

 

 

9/20/99

Maine Revenue Services � Tom Howker, Scott Armington

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss an Internet Tax Filing application.� The Governor had requested the application.� InforME had responded by writing a proposal and a cost analysis and presenting it to Bob Mayer.� The Department indicated that they were very concerned about the chaos this would introduce to their already full schedule prior to this tax-filing season.� They indicated that the desire of the Bureau was to wait to pursue Internet Tax Filings for the tax-filing season beginning January 2001.

 

9/21/99

State Police � Jay Bradshaw, Star Cloutier, Maria Jacques, Jeff Harmon, Wayne Gallant, Phil Patzer

Major Harmon set this meeting as an opportunity for the division heads to hear the InforME story and begin thinking of ways InforME can play a role within the department.� We discussed the idea of putting patient run reports online as well as licensing info for EMT providers.� It was agreed that InforME should present at the Bureau Chiefs� meeting on 10/22 with a presentation.

 

9/23/99

Presentation � Department Heads of PFR (Professional and Financial Regulation)

An overview of InforME was given at this meeting with two goals in mind.� First, to show what InforME could do for the department, and then to demonstrate applications in other states that have a professional and financial regulation component.� The idea was to assess where the needs of the Department are, and where we should begin our work.� We have already initiated activities with OLR (Office of Licensing and Registration) as well as the Bureau of Banking.� Katie Longley, Commissioner of PFR, indicated that InforME would be establishing a master SLA with the Department, and she charged the Department heads to use their imagination to think of new and creative applications for InforME.

 

9/27/99

Department of Labor � Steve Campana, Sheldon Byrd, and John Messerschmidt

Steve Campana had indicated his interest in having InforME do a presentation for their IT Policy Board at the Dept of Labor.� This meeting was designed to discuss the presentation goals and to answer some specific questions about migration and web design.� The Department is very interested in job bank applications and interfacing with the National Job Bank.� They are also interested in IVR and in web-based filing of unemployment claims.

 

10/5/99

Department of Labor Policy Board - Presentation

The presentation went very well.� The purpose was to share the history of InforME and its role with agencies.� The policy board seemed very open to pursuing a relationship with InforME.

 

10/7/99

Office of Licensing and Registration � Anne Head and Diane XXXX

This meeting was an information sharing session.� OLR, under the leadership of Anne Head, has already finished the Information Gathering step of the Workbook (attached), and shared it with the InforME web design team.� The meeting was very thorough and highlighted not only web design opportunities, but also application ideas.

 

10/7/99

Department of Education � Jim Watkins, Gil Whitmore, Joyce Mazerolle, Charlotte Heath

This was an introductory meeting to familiarize the Department of Education with InforME.� They hoped to discuss their questions about the State Home page transition, as well as opportunities for collaboration.� Historically the Department of Education has always been an important partner for InforME, since a dynamic site about Maine�s education system will draw many users to InforME.

 

10/13/99

BMV � Peter Brazier, Paul Potvin, Dave Schulz, Janet Grard, Cathy Curtis, and staff

This meeting was a lengthy planning meeting for the vanity plates application.� InforME will begin developing a highly graphical application that will allow citizens to see if the Vanity plate they�re looking for is available, and then to see how it might look on the loon or the chickadee plate.

 

Upcoming meetings and presentations

 

10/22 � Presentation to the Dept of Public Safety Bureau Chiefs

10/26 � State Webmasters Presentation on the migration of the State Homepage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TECHNICAL REPORT

 

 

Hardware and Software

 

�         The new Sun Ultra 2 server has been installed and configured as an Oracle database server, relieving the main web server of that function.� The new server has a 36 GB of RAID storage.� The BMV Special Request database now sits on the new Oracle server.

�         A Sun Ultra 10 previously tasked as a workstation is being redesignated for use as a development staging web server.

�         The dial-up server is now operational, providing remote and emergency access to the InforME network.

 

Meetings

�         Met with BIS web technical staff to discuss issues in hosting migration of www.state.me.us to InforME.

 

Programming

 

�         Interactive Title and Registration retrieval systems are now operational.

�         An Application Program Interface (API) to the Interactive Driver�s Records and Registration Records system has been implemented; a similar API for Title Records is currently under development.

�         A prototype Vanity Plate system has been completed, and will form the basis for the operational Vanity Plate system.

 

Staffing

 

�         Director of Development Gary Beckwith left InforME in mid-September.

�         Todd Tolhurst assumed role as Acting Director of Development; hired as permanent Director of Development effective October 12.

�         Yong Feng�s INS status has been resolved, and he rejoined our staff on October 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW/OUTSTANDING ISSUES

AND UPDATES

 

 

 

 

FOR BOARD CONSIDERATION

 

Letter of Credit

According to our master contract with the State, the Board now has the opportunity to judge whether NEI has successfully completed the first six months of the Service Management Plan.� If we have, our letter of credit amount can be reduced to 50% of its original value.� Below is the wording from the contract.� Please refer to your copy of the Service Management Plan that was submitted to the Board 30 days after the contract was signed:

 

�An Irrevocable Standby Letter of Credit (L/C) acceptable to the InforME Board will be required by the Board to assure NEI�s faithful performance to the specifications and conditions of the contract.� NEI will furnish the L/C to the InforME Board no later than 30 days after Contract award.� The >?c will specifically refer to this Contract and shall bind the parties to all of the terms and conditions of the Contract, whether or not the particular tremor condition is performed by NEI.� The initial amount of the L/C/ shall be $100,000.00.

 

After NEI has successfully completed the first six months of the Service Management Plan, the L/C shall be reduced to 50% of its original value.� When the Service Management Plan is completed, the L/C shall be reduced to an amount equal to 3 months operating expenses.� This L/C shall remain in effect throughout the term of the Contract.

 

The L/C will be procured at the expense of NEI, naming the State of Maine, InforME Board as the beneficiary.�

 

STAFFING

 

Director of Development (DOD)

We welcome Todd Tolhurst to the InforME team.� Todd was a consultant to InforME during the months of August and September, and after the departure of Gary Beckwith, Todd became acting DOD.� We are delighted to announce that he became a permanent employee of InforME on 10/11/99.� Todd�s wealth of experience and professionalism will be an essential asset to our endeavor.

 

 

 

ATTACHMENTS

 

�        InforME Workbook

�        Strategic Plan Outline

 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Tamara Dukes

Network General Manager