Calif. Taps NIC For $25 Million eGovernment Filing Contract

California Secretary of State Bill Jones handed over five-year, $25 million contract to eGovernment firm NIC Friday as part of a statewide information management and filing system.

In addition to being the largest contract the Overland Park, Kan.-based company has ever won, the award is both the nation’s largest state eGovernment filing initiative on record and the most comprehensive secretary of state outsourced filing system project in the United States.

NIC expects to spend two years to build the system making sure it meets all of the required interfaces with the State of California.

California by far has the nation’s highest volume of document management and filing. In 1998 alone, California processed over 1.4 million document filings and issued over 270,000 separate certificates.

The new Web-enabled document management and filing system will increase efficiency and reduce expenses for the State by eliminating paperwork and decreasing processing and turnaround times.

After it is installed, the new system will allow agency customers, primarily from the banking and legal communities, to search, retrieve, and submit documents online. Customers will also be able to pay fees for a variety of transactions, including new incorporation document filings, trademark registrations, and Uniform Commercial Code filings.

The company has done similar projects in several states, including Texas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Montana, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Colorado, Iowa, and New York.

“The Secretary of State’s office has led the nation in placing election and campaign finance services online for our customers,” says Secretary of State Bill Jones. “We look forward to extending that same level of prompt, efficient, and comprehensive service to the banking and legal communities who rely on our office for millions of critical business transactions every year. The solution we’ve asked NIC to provide will utilize state-of-the-art eGovernment technology to improve the efficiency of government and enhance overall customer satisfaction.”

In its core, the company says it will embed the new system with XML-based batch filing for integration with private sector business software and NIC’s Web-based iVR and TTY/TDD systems for telephone and disabled accessibility. The company is also considering using PKI-based security and digital signatures for both internal and public users.

Helping out with the project will be subcontractors including Unisys and
Deloitte Consulting. Unisys is expected to use its e-Workflow and Imaging system to oversee the backfile conversion.

Deloitte Consulting will manage the extensive training and operational improvement initiative during development and implementation.

As part of its proposal, NIC will give California three years of onsite support and maintenance for the system as well as marketing consultation to get legal and banking industries to use the new system.