Access Level Management and Service Provider Sign-Ons. Digital Government: Government to Business (G to B)

Transcription

1 Access Level Management and Service Provider Sign-Ons Digital Government: Government to Business (G to B) 1

2 Executive Summary The Ohio Business Gateway s Electronic Filing Services were introduced in 2003 as a one-stop file-and-pay resource for four of the most common and recurring tax-focused transactions administered by three different state agencies. The Gateway s initial focus was to provide services to small- and medium sized businesses. For these types of businesses, usually only one or two individuals were responsible for the regulatory compliance services offered by the Gateway. The original Gateway offered businesses with the ability to create multiple user accounts, but all accounts had full and equal access to all Gateway services. As the Gateway added new services to support mandated electronic filing initiatives and the creation of new taxes applicable to larger businesses, the Gateway s target audience expanded to companies of all sizes. The existing one-size-fits-all model of full access for all user accounts no longer met the needs of the business community who needed to align their users access with their more-focused roles within the company. Plus, service providers such as CPAs, attorneys, and other practitioners also needed a more efficient means of using the system for their clients. As part of a multi-year series of strategic projects to add and expand services, the Gateway responded to input from the business and service provider community by adding new features for access level management and service provider sign-ons. These new features, launched on March 30, 2009, now enable businesses to effectively manage users access to the broad array of Gateway services. This is particularly useful in situations where a particular user needs access to only one of the many services offered via the Gateway. Likewise, service providers now have a more efficient way of using the Gateway on behalf of their clients through one set of credentials. Client companies can easily create, manage, and extend access to service providers and retain full control over who can access Gateway services on their behalf. The new features have extended the value of the Gateway to more businesses who otherwise would not have used the Gateway, and they were critical in enabling new partnerships with innovative government services like OhioMeansJobs. Such services have further expanded the Gateway s value beyond the traditional file-and-pay applications. Approximately 20% of active user accounts are now using the access level management features, and 4,000 service provider-client relationships have been established. In just eight years, the Gateway has grown to offer more than 50 transactions in 14 services which are administered by 8 different state agencies and approximately 500 municipalities. The Gateway s annual file-and-pay transaction volume now exceeds two million, with more than $5.5 billion in electronic payments to government agencies. 2

3 Description The Ohio Business Gateway offers Ohio's businesses a time-and money-saving online filing and payment system that helps simplify business' relationship with government agencies. Ohio businesses can use the Gateway s Electronic Filing Services to access multiple services and electronically submit transactions and payments with many state agencies. The Gateway also partners with local governments to enable businesses to file and pay selected Ohio municipal income taxes electronically. At its inception in 2003, the Ohio Business Gateway s Electronic Filing Services served as a one-stop shop for electronic filing and payment. Services were initially targeted to existing small- and medium-sized businesses operating within the State of Ohio. Typically, these businesses have one or two primary users who have responsibility for regulatory compliance. Such users required full access to all of the services available on the Gateway at the time, primarily because the initial services included only four of the most common recurring taxoriented transactions filed with just three different state agencies. During the Gateway s first full calendar year of operation in 2004, nearly 350,000 transactions were submitted with $1B paid. The initial Gateway supported multiple user accounts (usernames) per business, but given the initial focus on small- and medium-sized businesses all usernames had equal access to all available services on behalf of the business. Service providers such as CPAs, attorneys, and other practitioners could use the system on behalf of clients, but because usernames were specifically tied to one and only one business, service providers had to maintain separate usernames and passwords for each client. In 2006, as the Gateway was preparing to add new tax-based file-and-pay services, the Gateway also embarked on a major strategic overhaul of its underlying application framework and site-wide features (i.e. features that are utilized by all users regardless of the specific agency service or transaction of interest to the user). The strategic projects initiative included implementing a new data model, upgrading individual service area applications to Microsoft.Net, and streamlining user navigation and transaction checkout. The user navigation and transaction checkout improvements were critically needed because issues with the existing user interface would simply be exacerbated as a result of an increase in new services. The strategic projects also included two key new features specifically designed to support enhanced user management - access levels and service provider signons. The new features were driven in part by specific input from the business and service provider communities as well as the State s own recognition that the original, existing username and account management model would not be 3

4 sufficient to fully support the upcoming expansion of services and the potential diversity of new users. The impending growth was expected to increase the breadth and diversity of the Gateway s user base by expanding the Gateway s reach to businesses of all sizes and extending services beyond traditional tax-oriented transactions. Larger businesses are more likely to have one or two users per individual service or tax, with overlap among users and services being less likely. New agency partnerships and opportunities could potentially involve entirely new services targeted to company employees who do not necessarily have a role in the company s traditional file-and-pay compliance activities. The existing user management model could not provide differentiated system access, and for many large businesses this was a barrier to using the Gateway. In addition, as other businesses continued to rely upon third party service providers such as CPAs, attorneys, and other practitioners, those service providers would need easy and efficient access to act on behalf of their multiple clients something the existing system did not provide. Key constraints were in place for the strategic projects. Online availability of the existing services had to be maintained and investment in the existing agency applications had to be preserved. Existing partner agencies ongoing business needs also required continual support, so development of the strategic projects had to take place in conjunction with the development of new services and transactions critical to those partner agencies and their stakeholders. An overarching constraint was minimizing any transition impact on users as much as possible. The user navigation issues had to be addressed by maintaining compatibility with the best elements of the original Gateway that were already familiar to users. Any entirely new features were required to be available only if/when businesses decided to utilize them. Of particular importance was the objective to not require businesses to complete any new registration or setup processes following the launch of upgraded system businesses could not be surprised and slowed down while trying meet their ongoing filing and payment deadlines. The strategic projects team involved a mix of State of Ohio staff and contracted development resources blended from seven different vendor partners. The team was constructed to minimize the reliance on any one vendor while maximizing the talent and experience available through a diverse group of professionals. A program management model was instituted to manage the anticipated mix of simultaneous and overlapping agency-specific and strategic projects. Planning for the strategic projects program began in Newly developed agency services and transactions would be built with certain forward-looking user-interface characteristics and architectural elements already in place. Since these applications were new, there were no backward-compatibility issues. More 4

5 importantly, their use of enhanced and improved user interface elements would provide a foundation upon which all users would develop familiarity with key elements of the future, fully revamped system and thus provide for a seamless transition and evolution of the system. The specific project components related to user management, including the access level management and service provider sign-on features, began in the fall of Development and testing activities took place throughout 2008 and early During the entire development period of the strategic projects program, the only system downtime was directly related to routine and planned maintenance and/or deployments. The Gateway was able to provide new applications and enhancements to support partner agency needs without impacting users by incurring any extended down times. The fully-upgraded Gateway successfully launched on March 30, The actual launch took place over a two-day weekend because of the length of time required to migrate data from the existing system into the new system. The launch date was planned to occur at a low-usage period away from major transaction due dates. Leading up to the launch, users were advised of the overall improvements and the availability of new features through online announcements and an all-user notification. Additional outreach was conducted in conjunction with the Department of Taxation via workshops that focused on training and awareness of new mandates for electronic filing of sales tax returns. However, no Gatewayfocused user training initiative was needed because of the project s objectives to maintain familiarity with the best elements of the existing system and the success of introducing any new elements as other new agency services were added. Users did not have to re-register or complete any configuration actions if they were not using any of the newly introduced features for access level management or service provider sign-ons. The new access level management features enable companies to differentiate among their users by permitting or restricting users access to individual services. Additional access level granularity exists within each service area. Basic access to a service includes the ability to create & edit transactions, while an upgrade to all-access provides the ability to file & pay (checkout) transactions from the service area. Users can also be designated as administrators, further enabling the user to create and manage other users and their access. The service provider sign-on feature leverages the new access level features. Client companies can create shared access groups to conveniently manage a set of access levels and then share that access among members of the group. Group members can be internal users or external service provider organizations such as a CPA, law, or other service provider firm. Client companies always remain in control of the access, and shared access groups can be easily updated 5

6 to coincide with changes in a company s service provider relationships by changing or removing group access at any time. Service provider organizations manage which of their users have access to any client s group. When a user at a service provider logs on to the Gateway, they have access to a drop-down list of clients. Once they select a client from the list, they are now using the system on behalf of that client, just as if they were an employee at the client company. With this feature, and depending upon their clients wishes, a service provider employee potentially needs only one Gateway username and password to support any number of clients, instead of one set of credentials per client firm. Driven by new agency services and the success of the strategic projects effort, the Gateway has grown substantially since its inception. The Gateway now offers more than 50 transactions from 14 service areas which are administered by 8 different state agencies and approximately 500 of municipalities. Annual Gateway transaction volume now exceeds two million, with more than $5.5 billion in payments. More than 200,000 businesses have used services on the Gateway over the past year. Significance The project is significant because of the way that it seamlessly extends the value of the one-stop nature of the Ohio Business Gateway, both in terms of the range of companies served and in the preservation of the investment in and incremental enhancement of the original system. Access level management capabilities and support for service providers were critical to enabling the Gateway to maintain its position as a one-stop for businesses of all sizes. Compared with having separate accounts spread across multiple, separate systems to achieve the same outcomes and capabilities, companies appreciate the diversity and breadth of service offered in one system via the Gateway. All aspects of the Ohio Business Gateway, including the new access level management and service provider sign-on features, align with NASCIO s 2011 goals for shared services. The Gateway s breadth of service, including tax and non-tax related services, delivers significant value through a shared services platform that saves agencies money by eliminating the need to develop disparate and overlapping systems. By leveraging the Gateway, partner agencies can still customize critical application features to align with their unique business needs without having to invest in duplicative physical infrastructure or application infrastructure for functions such as user management, site-wide navigation, transaction checkout, payment processing, and transaction history. Benefit of the Project Since the project s launch two years ago, approximately 120,000 new companies and 146,000 new users have been created on the Gateway 45,000 companies and 60,000 users within the past year alone. These are not necessarily new 6

7 businesses in Ohio, but they are new to the Gateway. While it is difficult to know exactly how many companies would not have used the Gateway without the new access level management features, the data here is at least insightful. Within the first year following the launch of the new features, 20,000 user accounts were assigned an access level other than full site administrator (full access) and nearly 2,000 client company-service provider relationships were created. After two years, these counts increased to 41,000 and 4,000, respectively, which is a 100% year-over-year increase. There are more than 235,000 active user accounts at present, which means that nearly 20% of the user accounts are now using the new features to manage user access to the wide array of Gateway services. The Gateway s new features for access level management have enabled the state to extend the value of the Gateway beyond traditional tax-focused file & pay services. This is particularly true in the case of the OhioMeansJobs initiative managed by the state s Department of Job & Family Services. The Gateway s new access level features were critical to the pursuit of this innovative partnership between OhioMeansJobs and the Ohio Business Gateway. Without the access level management features, OhioMeansJobs could not have been offered through the Gateway. Instead, a completely separate and disparate system would have been needed without realizing the benefits of the shared services available via the Gateway. OhioMeansJobs is an employment-focused service, and for businesses it is primarily targeted toward human resources and staffing professionals who would typically not be users of (or authorized to use) the traditional tax and payment services available on the Gateway. In this partnership, the Gateway provides company and user registration services for OhioMeansJobs, as well as user identity management, authentication, and authorization for the OhioMeansJobs Find Resumes service. Prospective users submit registrations via the Gateway which are approved by an existing company employee and Gateway user. Approved users who select Find Resumes from the OhioMeansJobs.com website are prompted for their Ohio Business Gateway username and password before being seamlessly connected to the resume service which is actually delivered by a nationally-known third party. The Gateway enables businesses to restrict these users access to OhioMeansJobs as desired; moreover, when a business does want to enable a user to access other Gateway services, the user benefits from the ability to use the same Gateway sign-on credentials. There are now approximately 9,000 users from 6,000 companies using the OhioMeansJobs service. This represents a 50% year-over-year increase in users during the first two years of the service. 7