State of Oklahoma 2010 NASCIO Recognition Awards Nomination

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1 State of Oklahoma 2010 NASCIO Recognition Awards Nomination Administrative Rules State Online Filing System Oklahoma Governor s Office, State Senate, House of Representatives, Secretary of State and the Office of State Finance Nominating Category: Cross-Boundary Collaboration and Partnerships

2 B. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The state of Oklahoma s Administrative Rules Online Filing System, located at is a collaborative project between the Office of the Governor, House of Representatives, State Senate and the Secretary of the State. The purpose of the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System is to assist multiple parties in receiving and managing agency filings such as Administrative Rules filings. Additionally, phase one of the system enabled state agency representatives to submit these Administrative Rules filings electronically in compliance with the mandate of SB 1507, passed during the Second Regular Session of the Fifty-first Oklahoma Legislature (2008). Phase one, which launched on November 3, 2008, of the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System project only accepted administrative rules and is available online at Phase Two of the system, scheduled to launch soon, will enable agency representatives to submit three new types of filings including Fee Increase Notification, Agency Reports, and Ethics Commission Constitutional Rules and allow administrators to access all filing information. Other future plans include making submitted administrative rules available to the general public. 2

3 C. DESCRIPTION OF THE BUSINESS PROBLEM AND SOLUTION Problem Statement. The Online Filing System launched on November 3, Beginning in November of 2008, all Administrative Rules for the state of Oklahoma were mandated to be filed electronically in a short timeframe. The project involved a crosssection of Oklahoma state government adding to the complexity and politically sensitive nature of the effort. Senate Bill 1507, of 2008, required digitization of the submission of administrative rules with the Governor of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma State Senate. Filings made with the electronic system would comply with the filing requirements of the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act. In order to facilitate this mandate, four representing state parties worked with the Oklahoma Office of State Finance (OSF) and Oklahoma Interactive, LLC., managers of OK.gov, Oklahoma s Official Web portal, to create a user-friendly system that would not only accept Administrative Rule filings, but in future phases allow for acceptance of all electronic filings required by Senate Bill 1507 (2008) including administrative rules, budget work programs, budget requests and other documents to be filed with the Governor, President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Issues/Challenges noted during the project included the following: Involved two branches of Oklahoma state government, neither of which had oversight over the other one. Shortened implementation timeframe resulting from imposed statutory deadline. Requirements from each stakeholder varied Different data elements were required by the House, the Senate and the Governor s Office. Legacy processes for handling paper submission of administration rules varied by stakeholder. The processes had to be redesigned to accommodate the new digital format. Education of Oklahoma Interactive in stakeholder requirements; education of Oklahoma Interactive in intricacies in the political environment between the legislature and the Governor s Office. The Administrative Rules State Online Filing System was a purely customized solution based on statutory requirements, which prevented the state from seeking out a Custom Off-the-Shelf (COTS) solution. With no COTS solution meeting the legally defined deliverables, stakeholders advanced requirements and preliminary development priorities to the Office of State Finance and Oklahoma Interactive. The resulting approach led to a unified approach in the creation and maintenance of the final system. 3

4 Solution. In all phases of the project, OSF and associated parties assisted Oklahoma Interactive with defining the project. From the user s perspective to the ease of use on the administrative side, the system utilizes design, templates and administrative tools that provide a fully functional application. The bold and clean appearance of the Oklahoma standardized agency template was implemented into this application, providing a consistent header, footer and left navigation throughout the system. The online service complies fully with the state of Oklahoma Information Security Policy. The system also implements the information security standards set forth in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of These standards set forth a stringent security framework to protect the application and the users. Several other security features were added including: Programmatic flow control was implemented into the system to prevent users from typing in specific URLs and bypassing normal program operation. Automatic logout was incorporated to protect data by logging a user out of the system after a certain amount of time of inactivity. Other security measures were taken as outlined by OK.gov s security standards, In accordance with accessibility standards, all users can access the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System. All services developed for the application meet and exceed these standards, which are based on the Federal Section 508 guidelines. An administrative user must enter agency representative identifying credentials into the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System in order for an agency representative to gain access to the system. Once the agency representative is entered into the system, they receive an automated allowing them to go through OK.gov s Single Sign On (SingleSignOn.OK.gov) process to log into the service. Once the agency representative is logged into the system, they have the ability to work within the following functionality: Create New Filing allows agency representatives to select a type of filing from dropdown menu. At this time only one type of filing exists: Administrative Rules. ARRA Data Upload allows state representatives to upload data in correlation to information needs for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Coordinating Council. Additionally, agency representatives are encouraged to upload as many documents as required in PDF format to support their filing. When the administrative user has completed all required fields, they may then submit the filing and they automatically receive an confirmation of the filing. The serves as an electronic receipt and will display the date and time that the Administrative Rules were filed. The is the 4

5 electronic equivalent of the date-stamped paper copy of the Rules. Agency representatives who realize that their filing did not process correctly, or realized that they did not include all of the necessary documents, can simply resubmit the filing within the original filing period (ten days after adoption). Once an agency representative submits their filing through the online system, the Oklahoma Governor s Office receives an containing the data gathered from the filing form and any PDFs attached. This same is automatically forwarded to any chosen third parties (ex: House of Representatives, State Senate and Secretary of State.) On the administrative side, there are three main administrative modules to choose from including: Manage Users allows OSF administrators to add, edit or delete users within the system. Administrators also have the ability to inactivate and resend activation s through this module. When an administrator creates a new user, an automated is generated to that user to create an account within the system. Manage Filings allows OSF administrators to add new filings, view, delete and resend filings that have been previously filed. ARRA Data Upload allows OSF administrators to upload data in correlation to information needs for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Coordinating Council. D. SIGNIFICANCE The following representative parties have benefited from the streamlining of the manual process to the online system: Office of the Governor House of Representatives Secretary of State State Senate Oklahoma Office of State Finance All Oklahoma State Agencies 5

6 E. BENEFIT OF THE PROJECT Summary. The project cut across the political spectrum of Oklahoma government to simplify a long-standing complex, non-it and manual process. The resulting system, known as the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System, took what had been a tedious and laborious process and resulted in an automated, streamlined and technology-driven application with built-in workflow. In meeting the primary need of the statute to provide an online system designed to accept the submission of proposed administrative rules, the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System also positioned the state to be able to serve up these same rules to public in the future. Other resulting outcomes included: Reduction of the State s carbon footprint: By eliminating the paper submission of administrative rules, the state altered a process that annually consumed at minimum 2,066 sheets of paper (this figure doesn t include annual amount of supporting PDF documentation). Digitizing this content also simplified processes related to retention and archiving of the submitted rules, as well as easier integration with IT systems from the executive and legislative branches of Oklahoma government. Increased accuracy: Conversion to an online solution allowed the stakeholders to force submitters of administrative rules through a repeatable, online process of submission driven business rules. The outcome greater accuracy in submitting information by agencies along with receipt and interpretation by the primary stakeholders. Positioned for transparency: The resulting system laid the groundwork for online visibility for the general public. Enforcement of statutory guidelines and business rules: Leveraging technology to provide an online system that forced administrative rules submissions through a repeatable, online process of submission driven business rules. Prior to implementing the system, the business rules were a tedious process that required manual calculation and enforcement. The resulting system implemented an automated workflow along with system enforced submission dates and times, thereby eliminating the manual calculation process for both the submitter and receiver of the rules. Simultaneous delivery of submission to stakeholders: The new system ensured the delivery of Administrative Rules simultaneously to each stakeholder, allowing them to hold discourse based on a common set of documents. Each stakeholder receives document in a secure mailbox. The system automatically routes the filed documents to the appropriate state stakeholder. 6

7 Financial Return on Investment. Because of the self-funded business model employed by the state of Oklahoma and Oklahoma Interactive, there was no cost for the solution. Under the business model, applications developed by Oklahoma Interactive with a primary intention of being tailored for the public are developed at no cost to the state. While there was not a direct cost to the state, Oklahoma Interactive provided development services at a cost of $13,625. The project was undertaken to comply with legislation (SB 1508 in 2008) requiring state agencies to file documents with the Governor and both houses of the Legislature electronically. It was a wise decision between the associated parties to have one vehicle for filing documents electronically rather than having each entity providing their own system to the more than 189 state agencies in Oklahoma. Non-Financial Return on Investment. Qualitative or intangible benefits of the Administrative Rules State Online Filing System included the following: Processing speed was improved from weeks to hours for agencies to submit rules changes through the system. Increased efficiency as a reduction in staff time to collate and categorize submitted rules. This effort is now automated using the digitized system. The person-to-person review process of the administrative rules has been replaced by a review capability that involves all parties. Business rules are enforced at a code level within the system. Business rules no longer require evaluation and speculation involving human intervention by knowledgeable staff. 7