Business Website Plan

Transcription

1 Business Website Plan Department of Information Technology March 1, 2016

2 Table of Contents Legislative Request...2 Summary...2 Accomplishments...2 Next Steps...4 Conclusion...5 Department of Information Technology

3 Legislative Request Section 7.24(a) In coordination with appropriate State agencies, departments, and institutions as part of the State portal planning and development, the State Chief Information Officer (State CIO) shall develop and implement a plan to establish an Internet Web site for businesses operating, or considering operating, within North Carolina, which shall include all of the following: 1. The capabilities necessary to complete required business transactions electronically, to include the availability of electronic forms and digital signatures. 2. How the State CIO will ensure secure access to any and all information and services required to facilitate the operation of businesses within the State. 3. Potential sources of funding to support the development and implementation of the Web site. Section 7.24(b) On or before March 1, 2016, the State CIO shall provide the completed plan to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology and the Fiscal Research Division. On or before March 1, 2016, and then at least semiannually for the duration of the fiscal biennium, the State CIO shall provide progress reports regarding the establishment and use of the business Internet Web site to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology and the Fiscal Research Division. Summary In an effort to improve customer service and business growth in North Carolina, a streamlined, easy-to-use, and robust business portal is required. This report outlines steps taken to date to enhance the business registration experience and plan for the ongoing development of a business portal or OneStop. Accomplishments Phase 1 Beginning in 2014, several steps were taken to improve the business registration process and improve citizen and business engagement with the State. These steps are the building blocks for a more comprehensive business portal. These include: BLNC (Business Link North Carolina) Website Work BLNC is a service managed by the Economic Development Partnership to provide resources to start or expand a business in the State. BLNC maintains a static website that provides pertinent information but does not currently have a customized experience that electronically connects users to processes and forms. An initiative of the Governor s Office, ITS, the Secretary of State, Department of Revenue, and NC State partnered in to improve the BLNC website. This partnership produced the following materials and findings: Seven scenario-based personas that represented a cross-section of site users. These scenarios focused on the small-business community. Initial business and technical requirements. Prioritization matrix of user needs. Website design layouts and prototype. Although funds and resources were not allocated to fully build an improved BLNC website, the findings and materials were leveraged in future development. Department of Information Technology 2 P a g e

4 NC GEAR Analysis In 2015, as a part of the NC GEAR initiative, Deloitte delivered a report that outlined the business need, challenges, benefits, stakeholders (citizens, business owners, agencies, Legislators/Governor), and a high-level approach to improving the BLNC website (or a Business Portal). The high-level plan included formalizing requirements, securing project budget, issuing RFP, and identification of agency processes and systems that need to change or align. Deloitte estimated about a 9-month implementation schedule. Cross-Agency Workgroup A cross-agency workgroup consisting of members of Office of Secretary of State, Department of Revenue, Department of Commerce, Budget Office, GDAC, BLNC, and DIT, established a phased, iterative approach to improve the business registration experience. This approach has proved to be successful in states such as Kentucky and Nevada. For example, an assessment by Kentucky concluded that near-term and short-term enhancements lower costs and deliver value faster (3-to-6 month development time). As of Sep 2015, Kentucky had a goal of incorporating all 500,000 registered businesses into its OneStop Business Portal. More information can be found at As a part of the first phase, deliverables included: New How to Start a Business section t on the NC.gov portal ( The How to Start a Business section is featured prominently on the NC.gov homepage. The content includes step-by-step business registration information, licensing information, For Employers info, and an overview of tax information. An easy-to-use, filterable list of State business resources incorporated into NC.gov. The updates visually show which resources include digital/electronic services. Business Registration Screenshots NC.Gov Department of Information Technology 3 P a g e

5 Next Steps (Subject to the Availability of Funds) Phase 2 The next step of the iterative Business Portal will include robust functionality building on the personas, business registration content, and wireframe/design layout work conducted to date. These tasks include: Creating a license database. This allows users to search predefined topics, browse alphabetically by license or permit name, and by the top 12 types of small businesses. This functionality will be built in the Drupal web content management system and published to the NC.Gov state portal. Promote seamless experience across sub-sites and external sites. This includes connecting the How to Start a Business in NC page on NC.Gov to agency sub-sites and easily navigate to the next step in the process. Tasks include: o Process and website interface visual/graphical design elements to incorporate into related sub-sites such as Secretary of State and Revenue. These may include banners, step-wise/sequential process elements, new written content, and related to align various steps into a holistic experience. Note: the Secretary of State website is currently being redesigned as a part of the Digital Commons initiative. This current design work will prepare the site for future design/development work related to this step. Expanded checklist feature. Incorporation of additional rewritten/reconceived registration content. Road mapping and requirements gathering for next phase. Phase 2 Costs Digital Commons vendor Atlantic BT, has provided a SOW (Statement of Work) for this phase. The phase would be broken out into four sprints for a total of approximately $80,000. Phase 3 The first and second phases created a more streamlined and simplified user experience on the front end of the website. A third phase would include the system and back-end development required to deliver a more holistic and Department of Information Technology 4 P a g e

6 truly seamless user experience so that users can electronically register with the State, obtain appropriate licenses, and permits, and operate their business going forward. Tasks include items such as: Building a dashboard with personalized information management and access to services Implementing single sign-on for identity management Consolidating forms and user interactions Aligning and connecting user notification and status messages Wizard-functionality that guides user through registration, business structure options, tax requirements, licenses, permits, and employer responsibilities. Electronic Signature (may leverage existing DocuSign capabilities). Phase 3 Costs Estimates have ranged from $1mm to $5mm to design, develop, and support the business portal with all of the capabilities listed above. Security DIT Digital Services worked closely with the Security Office to ensure the State is following best practices from a security standpoint. This includes items such as: Regular data scans NCID authentication (TLS 1.1) for backend Encrypted data backups Patching of system as necessary Security-related communications to Digital Commons community of web editors, administrators, and webmasters. Conclusion Cross-agency teams have made tangible progress in streamlining and improving the business registration process. For example, the recently updated business registration landing page on the NC.Gov state portal is now the 6 th most popular page on the site in the past month. Since it s launch in May 2015, the business registration section has received 38,391 page views (28,526 from unique viewers). In the next phase, we ll update the licensing database, promote a more seamless business registration experience across state agency websites, develop a checklist feature, and incorporate pages of business registration/operation content on NC.Gov. Department of Information Technology 5 P a g e