Awards

HIC has been honored to receive the following awards for our work in 2014. A full history of awards can be found at: portal.ehawaii.gov/page/awards    

Best of the Web 2014 Winner, Center for Digital GovernmentGold Award of Excellence, Government Website, Communicator Awards
Best Government Website, Web Marketing AssociationSilver Award, Davey Awards
Members' Choice, National Association of Government WebmastersCertificate of Recognition, Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards
Best in Class - Government, Interactive Media AwardsBronze Award Winner - Online Informational Video, Telly Awards
Best Energy Mobile Application, Web Marketing Association - MobileWebAwardsBest Information Services Mobile Application, Web Marketing Association - MobileWebAwards

HIC Wins #1 Best Place to Work - Small Business Category

Best Places to Work 2014 Winner, Hawaii Business Magazine

In 2014 HIC was recognized as a winner in the annual Best Places to Work in Hawaii by Hawaii Business Magazine. For four years in a row, we have continued to place in this popular contest against businesses in Hawaii, and we continue to remain on top due to our flexible schedules, fantastic benefits and happy employees.

 

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Hawaii.gov is the Best Website in the Nation

 

Best of the Web Winner logo

In 2013, Hawaii set a new standard for state websites by delivering the most striking changes and groundbreaking enhancements to a web portal in recent history. We set out to reinvent how citizens work with government by migrating from a decentralized, essentially standard-less set of portal and department websites to a sty-namic (static + dynamic) web portal and a cloud-based, open-source (WordPress), mobile first presences.  The design also brought the beauty of the Hawaiian Islands to the forefront

In 2014, continuing our ambitious goal of the reinvention of government as we know it, we upped our game to bring the focus to the individual user. Taking a first-of-its kind approach to the gamification of government, we created a new one-stop shop allowing Hawai’i residents to completely customize how they interact online with the state on any device, anywhere, anytime – securely and reliably. The result, my.hawaii.gov, integrates with seven of the 17 departments and includes a rich, personalized history of all business conducted online with the state. It also directly integrates with almost 60 of the 100+ online services offered in Hawaii. 

Hawaii portal website displayed on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, and large display

mySavings, a service within my.hawaii.gov, aims to show citizens exactly how much they are saving by conducting their business with the government online by creating awareness around the amount of paper, miles and time saved. A first of its kind gamification of government, it even gives helpful, Hawaii-centric tips for what users can do with their new found time! For highlights of the great new features, visit m.hi.gov/myhi.

In October 2014, our efforts were rewarded. Hawaii.gov was honored to be named this year’s “Best of the Web” state portal by the Center for Digital Government, which recognizes the best of all government websites across the country. The awards program is the original and most respected state and local government website competition in the United States, honoring outstanding government portals and websites based on their innovations, functionality and efficiencies.

Additional upgrades included:

  • Language translation
  • Geo-location mapping service allows visitors to find government offices, EV stations, farmers markets, and more.
  • 273 social media pages, 1,200+ twitter followers, a Flickr photo pool, and 20 YouTube videos
  • For fun, we've also created the error page of Armageddon - portal.ehawaii.gov/404, a secret konami code, and a changing design based on time of day.

Hawaii.gov is a product of a collaboration between the Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) and the State Internet Portal Provider Hawaii information Consortium LLC (HIC).

Portal Buzz

That's it. I'm moving to Hawaii. They have the best government website.   statescoop.com/hawaii-gov-tak
- Angel Quicksey ‏ @AngelQuicksey   Sep 18

Marveling at the bold design of # Hawaii 's web portal: simplistic yet functional, A+ ingenuity  portal.ehawaii.gov
-
Jason Shueh ‏ @JasonShueh   Oct 20

One of the best # gov websites is eHawaii: intuitive, appealing and use of # gamification # egov @ govtechnews  portal.ehawaii.gov
-
Niels van der Linden ‏ @NielsvdLinden   Oct 7

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Press Releases

TitleLinkDate
Hawaii Sex Offender Search is Now Available for
Downloading as Mobile App
http://bit.ly/1FoBdcG01/08/14
Hawaii Freshwater Game Fishing License
Application Now Mobile
http://yhoo.it/1rezAvo01/13/14
Mobile Compatible Insurance License Search
Launched in Hawaii
http://bit.ly/1CczEjU01/31/14
Access to Thousands of Licenses Now Available
on Mobile Devices
http://1.usa.gov/1y9VM9u02/24/14
DBEDT Launches Online Tax Credit Research
Activity (TCRA) Survey
http://1.usa.gov/1FpCOx503/14/14

Hawaii Information Consortium Selected as a
Winner in the 34th Annual Telly Awards

http://bit.ly/1rqkFc204/15/14

Hawaii DLNR Launches Online Permitting for
Commercial Vessels Landing at Mokulua and Popoia

http://bit.ly/1tsdYGc04/22/14
Hawaii.gov Wins Gold Communicator Award

http://bit.ly/1xYQKPn

http://bit.ly/1vkk40u

04/29/14
Hawaii Delivers Your Government - Your Wayhttp://yhoo.it/1zW7Lrj05/12/14
Hawaii.gov Wins Best In Class Awardhttp://bit.ly/1uDyILl06/25/14
State Launches Revamped Business List Websitehttp://1.usa.gov/1FoBv3d07/30/14
Hawaii.gov Wins “Best Government Website” Awardhttp://1.usa.gov/15rrZ2I09/15/14
Hawaii.gov takes home ‘Best Government Website’
honor
http://bit.ly/1FpD4Mp09/16/14
Hawaii Wins Two Major Awards for Hawaii.govhttp://bit.ly/1vkk8xf09/22/14
Hawaii Gamified to Drive Up Adoptionhttp://bit.ly/1vKYFzO09/26/14
Hawaii.gov Wins 2014 ‘Best of the Web’
National Award
http://1.usa.gov/1vLnGu910/07/14
Hawaii.gov Receives Silver Davey Awardhttp://bit.ly/1vKYIf411/05/14

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Trending Stats & Numbers

Trend data 104 online services, 76967 online transactions in the last 7 days, 276 social media pages, 61 mobile apps, 259 Facebook likes, 1335 Twitter followers, and 21 Youtube videos

Top 10 Services

Top services data 866,245 eFile Tax returnsTop services data 496,855 Modernized eFile Tax returns
Top services data 379,551 DOTAX eFileTop services data 346,358 eFile Tax eCheck payments
Top services data 285,103 Conveyance Documents recordedTop services data 201,843 Driver records
Top services data 82,117 HCJDC eCrim searchesTop services data 79,922 Annual Business Report filings
Top services data 48,552 PVL License renewalsTop services data 37,019 eTraffic payments

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Cost Savings

Applications built by HIC save our partners hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.  Our services allow them to avoid paying for data entry labor, paper, mail and postage costs.  These are the only costs factored into in our avoided costs estimates.  Portal services in 2014 resulted in avoided costs of over $5 Million.  All reports are as of Nov 20, 2014.  The numbers should increase by at least 8% by the end of the year.

Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs

Business Registration Division

Avoided costs are over $600,000 to date for 2014. Avoided costs include printing, postage, and data entry costs.  No IT-related costs are considered.

A graph depicting the BREG avoided costs of 600,000 dollars per year.

Professional & Vocational Licensing

Through online transactions, savings are achieved through saved postage and printing of renewal application forms, data entry required from paper renewals.  Based on the number of online renewal transactions since 2001, PVL saves over $200,000 per year and has saved over $1.6M through the online renewal program.

A graph depicting the PVL avoided costs of 200,000 dollars per year.

Insurance Division

Highlights include:

  • 95%+ online adoption
  • Upgraded the renewal application to handle new annual renewal requirements
  • Re-design and launch of mobile insurance license search scheduled in Q4 2013 
  • Avoided cost near $300K as of September 2014

A graph depicting the Insurance Division avoided costs of 300,000 dollars per year.



Department of Land and Natural Resources

The avoided cost for DLNR Permits is estimated to exceed $200K by the end of 2014. The avoided cost includes all licenses and permits issued through the eHawaii.gov program and only considers data entry time.

A graph depicting DLNR Permits avoided costs of 200,000 dollars per year.

Department of Taxation

As a result of portal applications Tax has significantly decreased costs. Major areas of savings include: eFile and MeF Tax Returns, BB1 filings, UC-1 cashiering, and the tax license search. We do not include any IT-related costs, only other quantifiable costs associated with the handling of returns, printing, mail and data entry. In 2014, our free services saved the state over $3.5 million. With further engagement we estimate that it could be closer to $10 million.

A graph depicting Department of Taxation avoided costs of 3,500,000 dollars per year.

 


Hawaii State Judiciary

eTraffic

This is a cost savings analysis for the eTraffic application developed by HIC for the Hawaii State Judiciary. It shows avoided fees by having the service available online.

A graph depicting eTraffic avoided costs of 30,000 dollars per year.

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Delivering Value... at the Speed of Light

Agile word cloud

Traditionally, HIC has developed software applications using the waterfall model, a sequential development process. While this methodology works, there are a few downfalls. The waterfall approach does not accommodate change very well.  Requirements are defined upfront and are not expected to change throughout the software development life cycle.  Using this approach, if a partner requests a change during the testing phase, it would require a great deal of time and effort to accommodate a major change. These changes are not discovered until the application has been completely developed which may cause copious amounts of recoding and retesting. Another issue HIC faced was difficulty in gauging development progress. A project manager may ask a developer how work is progressing and he/she may reply with a vague answer. Accountability was lacking. HIC needed to implement a more flexible, collaborative, and reliable methodology.

In 2011-2012, HIC slowly moved more towards a "deliverables" approach; delivering small pieces of functionality to our partners sooner.  A project is broken down into modules or portions of functionality so HIC can develop and deliver these modules incrementally.  This helps immensely in getting partner buy-in and getting their final acceptance of the application to launch to production. Over the past year and a half, HIC has adopted an agile approach on a few projects and have seen great success.  Agile project management is an iterative and incremental method of managing the design and build activities for engineering, information technology, and new product or service development projects in a highly flexible and interactive manner.1 Specifically, we have adopted the scrum framework to encourage creativity and enable teams to respond to feedback and change, and to build exactly and only what is needed.2

Work is broken down into tasks that can be completed in two days or less and with daily scrums, progress is transparent to all project team members.  The daily scrums encourage collaboration and builds team synergy and increased accountability among the team. The HIC agile project team has also reported an increase in transparency of work items and overall status of the project, clarity of tasks/responsibilities among the team, and increased partner engagement and trust.  Because the tasks are better defined, we are able to produce a more quality focused application.  All of these factors are key to a successful project.

One key agency that has embraced the agile approach is the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division (HIOSH).  Using the agile methodology to create an elevator inspection and permitting application for HIOSH, HIC develops portions of the application in two week sprints and is able to show new features to the HIOSH team every two weeks.  By incrementally demonstrating functionality to the partner, HIC has been able to successfully build partner trust and engagement.

To help educate our staff on agile concepts and practices, our project managers, partner liaisons, quality assurance analyst, and management staff participated in a three day agile training course. HIC also sent two employees to the Atlassian Summit in San Jose, CA in September to be further educated on a number of tools including Confluence, JIRA, and JIRA Agile and to help improve our ability to practice agile concepts.  We have seen great improvements in our process over the years and will continue to integrate agile methods into more of our projects and expand the knowledge to the rest of our staff.



1 From Wikipedia
2 From Scrum.org 

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Customer Satisfaction

In 2014, we went through an intensive effort to upgrade our customer service tracking and reporting system. After thorough review of numerous third-party programs available, we selected FreshDesk for its ease of use and tracking capabilities. FreshDesk gives us comprehensive reporting for calls, chats, and emails in a single location, with just a click of a button. We can track all forms of communication as to how they were received, the name of the service the inquiry was regarding, and provide customer satisfaction reports for both chats and emails.

In addition, FreshDesk allows our government partners to submit inquiries to their own queue which automatically get assigned as urgent. This ensures that our partners always get their answers as quickly as possible. From January 1, 2014 to October 31, 2014, HIC's customer service department handled 49,644 inquiries, an increase of over 16,000 since the year prior. With the increase in calls, it is imperative that we have a tool that properly reflects our efficiency and tracks data correctly.

Customer Service - Statistics

Number of Phone Calls by Service - Table

Below are the statistics for the total of contacts from January 1st through September 30th 2014 with a breakdown showing the most common calls by specific service.

Service

Calls

Service

Calls

Service

Calls

Airport Auctions9Hawaii County Camping293Non - HIC information897
Annual Reports1,087Hawaii Business Express1,647Notary841
BOC Search1,442Hawaii Compliance Express7,693Payment Questions182
Business Registrations2,508

Hawaii Health Connector

106

Professional & Vocational Licensing

9,771

Child Support Enforcement Agency

97

Insurance License Renewals

559

Real Property Tax Payments

203
Dept. of Labor (non HCE)129Hawaii State ID53Sex (Covered) Offender28
DLNR Boating Division175

Hawaii Unemployment Insurance Express

516

State Calendar110
General DoTax (non-HCE)594Hunting and Fishing269State Camping2,581
DoTax (non-HCE) referred459HIePRO706Subscriber166
eCrim969

Hawaii Teacher Standards Board

1,271

TA-326

37

Efile539Login Questions4,594Vital Records3,140

Electronic Marriage and Civil Union System

2,538Misc - HIC1,091Wastewater Permits10

Employee Retirement System

12Motor Vehicle Renewals415Water Payments36
eTraffic609Na Ala Hele12Wiki (Weddings)120
Film Permits35Narcotics Enforcement549

TB Registry

38

HIePRO

706    

Total Phone Calls Listed HIC by Service - Graph

Below is an alternate view of the statistics for the total of contacts from January 1st through September 30th 2014 with a breakdown showing the most common calls by specific service.

Pie chart showing the breakdown of Number of Phone Calls by Service

Feedback

With FreshDesk, when an inquiry is made, the user is eligible to rate the customer service representative that handled the questions and provide supporting comments. FreshDesk also gives points to the Customer Service team members and rates them as Most Valuable Player, Customer Wow Champion, Sharpshooter and Speed Racer. This is an added motivator and encourages the team to answer tickets promptly, courteously, and efficiently.

Below is a sampling of comments given to our HIC team members by actual customers.


"Twice now I have been in contact, and both times I've had a speedy and polite response! Thank you so much! You've been very helpful and I cannot wait to visit Hawaii! Best wishes."

"I received always the answers very quickly, considering different time zones, as if I was the only client that you have (and I know you have a lot of requirements from people)!!! Thank you Support Team! Mahalo."

"You folks are awesome, efficient, and professionals!!!! You are an asset in the government sector. I am not a high-tech individual but your help made my life easier. Thank you very much again."

"The representative, Jamie, was incredibly helpful and very knowledgeable in what access I needed for my dept. Please extend my thanks to her and your entire staff."

"I am in deep appreciation for your immediate response to my questions thank you so much for your time and for making my experience with your office a pleasurable one!"

"Everyone I came into contact with in order to get my license were a huge help. Over the phone and at the office. They were very friendly and understanding since we come from the other side of the island."

"Bobby was very helpful—he answered right away and came up with a solution promptly. He also communicated very well. Great job!"

"The response time to my inquiry was excellent! Thank you, it is refreshing and appreciated!"

"Nick was very responsive and helpful. Directed me in the right direction to get my questions answered. THANK YOU!"


Meet the Team

Jamie Kinion
Jamie Kinion happily working at her work station
Jamie joined HIC in 2011 as a "Temp" hire and soon moved to Customer Service. After learning the ins and outs of customer service, Jamie took reins as Customer Liaison to lead the team in July 2012.
Nick Choy
Nick Choy calmly helping a phone caller
Nick has been with the team since February 2014. He came to HIC with over 9 years of customer service experience. Nick is proud & happy to assist users engage in Hawaii government via HIC services.
Bobby Bundac
Bobby Bundac smiling and working at a computer
Bobby is the newest addition to the Customer Service team. He is thrilled to be with one of Hawaii's Best Places to Work and, like Jamie and Nick, truly enjoys helping people.

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Partner Testimonials

Professional and Vocational Licensing Division

"eHawaii.gov has been responding to hundreds of online chats regarding inquiries for the PVLD.  We appreciate the enthusiasm and selfless support of the eHawaii.gov staff and the Customer Service department in attempting to field and respond to queries from the consuming public on behalf of the PVLD.  Kudos to eHawaii.gov!!!"

Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center

"The Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center has worked with the Hawaii Information Consortium (HIC) on several projects with varying scopes. HIC has proven to be a competent partner that often brings new and innovative ideas to the table."

Attorney General's Office

"The Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring’s partnership with the Hawaii Information Consortium (eHawaii.gov) has spanned 10 years. eHawaii.gov has been a great, responsive partner in the development and implementation of our various online services, the most notable has been the death and marriage/civil union registration systems, both of which won national digital awards."

Attorney General's Office

"HIC and their project managers...have helped us achieve our vision of making government data open and accessible to the public."

Business Registration Division, Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs

"HIC has worked with BREG DCCA for years to help us provide one of the most innovative, online State business registries in the country."

Hawaii State Judiciary

"Working with HIC gives credibility to the Judicial Performance Program. The results are undisputed..."

Department of Land & Natural Resources

"HIC helped guide us through a conversion from an antiquated in-house permit system to an on-line web portal that effectively changed the way we do business."

Hawaii State Judiciary

"The HIC staff assigned to work with us on the eBench Warrant project were always helpful, professional and very supportive."

State Procurement Office

"Highly professional and upbeat, HIC clearly takes pride in providing exceptional customer service."

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Spotlight on the Design Team

There has been great change and growth with the HIC Design team over the past three years. Prior to 2011, the Design team was a one-man show. When Patrick Nakamura joined HIC as Creative Content Designer in August of 2010, image mockups were acceptable deliverables, but "clickable prototypes" was the desired direction. At the time, Ethan Marcotte’s article “Responsive Web Design”1 was just a few months old. By mid-2011, we began developing Responsive web apps.

Growing the Team

In 2012, HIC started, what turned out to be, a two-year process to rethink, revamp, and redesign the Hawaii portal website. This raised the bar for government web design and set a new standard for HIC-made websites and web apps. With tablets and smartphones already surpassing global growth predictions, we knew we had to work smarter and better. Now, as Creative Services Manager, Patrick leads the Design team that boasts two phenomenal frontend/web developers, Corey Rothwell and Jenly Chen.

Meet the Team

Corey Rothwell 
Corey Rothwell sitting at his work station

Corey studied Computer Science in college and much of his frontend development expertise is self-taught. He truly enjoys coding & learning and has a unique ability to read something and immediately apply the new knowledge. This serves well at HIC as we continually improve our techniques and processes. Corey was instrumental in planning and creating the HIC Web Application framework, and he refined it for his frontend work. Corey is Frontend Developer on HIC’s current Agile teams.

Jenly Chen 
Jenly Chen, smiling, standing in an office setting

Jenly has a background in Computer Science & Management Information Systems, and he first joined HIC as a WordPress developer on the CMS team. He is constantly learning about the latest tools and techniques. Jenly was a lead developer on our award-winning portal revamp. Then, after teaching himself how to build hybrid mobile apps, he became HIC’s go-to mobile app developer. In May, he joined the Design team as a Frontend Developer. By expanding his repertoire once again, Jenly will play a key role in helping the Design team take HIC web apps to the next level.

Patrick Nakamura 
Patrick Nakamura

Patrick has formal training in several design disciplines. While studying graphic design in the ‘90s, he saw the birth of the Web. Since then, Patrick experienced and enjoyed the evolution of web design over the years. Since he started learning Responsive web design, Patrick has rediscovered a passion for design in the ever-changing "ebb and flow"2 of the Web.

Learning to be Agile

In 2012 and in the wake of the portal overhaul, HIC’s app development was in transition. We asked ourselves, How can we improve our app development approach/process to yield better products and more engaged developers & partners?  In 2013, we decided to try Agile. This proved challenging for most who were accustomed to a linear development methodology. During the past year and several semi-Agile projects, we had some growing pains and on-the-fly adjustments, but we saw great results and our partners were happy!

Today, HIC is fully committed to being Agile, and we adopted Scrum as our base process framework. Recent training allows managers to mix their recipe of Scrum for HIC. With some Agile projects and lessons learned under our belts, the Design team is eager to participate in the HIC-specific Scrum. The Design team will continue to learn & grow and collaborate on Agile teams to develop outstanding services. Where are we headed and how far can we go? We believe the sky’s the limit.

 


1 http://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design

2 http://alistapart.com/article/dao

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New Services Spotlight

Absentee Voter Ballot - City and County of Honolulu

City and County of Honolulu seal

HIC is excited to announce the release of our first application developed in partnership with the City & County of Honolulu! Their need was straightforward - transform a burdensome emailing ballot process to voters outside of the U.S. The partner was knowledgeable about the processes involved, the changes desired, and the deadline was external based on the upcoming election. Two HIC developers worked quickly and closely together to produce a service that surpassed the partner's expectations.

Voters residing outside the U.S. now can receive an email with a single attachment that includes all required documents for them to send in a ballot without delay. Email notifications keep the election officials up-to-date regarding database updates and when emails were and were not sent. A report provides a log of all actions with the data, including voter downloads of ballots. And if a voter loses the email or decides they want an electronic ballot at the last minute, the election official can direct them to a web site where they can enter key information and download their ballot immediately.

We hope that this experience will be the first of many projects with the City and County of Honolulu!

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MyPVL - Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs

State of Hawaii seal

MyPVL (pvl.ehawaii.gov/mypvl) is a dashboard used by professional and vocational licensees to access their license information and services in a single location. Previously a single licensee needed to access three or more websites to conduct business with the DCCA, Profession and Vocational Licensing (PVL) Branch. MyPVL consolidates these three services into a single location.

Features include: license renewal, access to check on continuing education requirements and status, and a search to view their licensee information, i.e. status, expiration date, etc. Licensees may also track their application status, view their historical transaction information as well as see any past license renewal history.

The service was created in partnership with PVL under the my.hawaii.gov initiative.

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HIC Streamlines Procurement in Hawaii

State of Hawaii seal Introduced in August 2013, the Hawaii Electronic Procurement (HIePRO) System has experienced high user adoption and widespread acceptance throughout 2014. A successful replacement of the previous e-procurement system, HEPs, HIePRO was implemented and maintained by HIC at no cost to the State of Hawaii or SPO. Designed to include and surpass all functionality that existed in HEPS and other eProcurment systems available, our goal was to also simplify the process steps to make them more streamlined.

The end result has produced an application that provides a consistently positive user experience that also addresses all accessibility (ADA) requirements.  Extensive workflow processes have been migrated into the system to reduce unnecessary manual steps. Innovative ideas for future development have been recorded for future development on a platform that has gained national interest from numerous states across the country.  A cohesive and well trained customer support team effectively uses online chat, web based collaboration and ticketing systems, text messaging and email to work with the SPO and HIC project teams to ensure the highest levels of user satisfaction. 

A successful pattern of improvements/enhancements continues to push HIePRO to the forefront of electronic procurement solutions. Most importantly, the users and SPO regularly and consistently compliment HIC on the ease of use, and now have become part of the collaborative fabric by requesting new features and/or subtle adjustments for future consideration.

Throughout 2014, HIePRO passed the projected first year goals for dollar amount of contracts awarded, number of solicitations, and number of awards. These successful milestones have pleasantly surprised the HIePRO project teams, who were concerned that vendors and new users would be slow to embrace the new electronic procurement solution.  Calendar year 2014 shows monthly HIePro adoption gains between 15 and 40% in numerous categories related to solicitations created and awarded. 

Key Features

  • A public search function, which contains limited information, allows the general public to search for solicitations and awards. 
    • Users must log in to the system to see detailed information.
    • This real time presentation of public information resolved many issues regarding the double posting of information and the varied lag times related to the process of the previous system.
  • One of the key requirements for vendors to be awarded a contract is vendor compliance as required by the State of Hawaii and specifically, the SPO. A key feature of the vendor profile includes up to the minute cross checking of the compliance status with another HIC-SPO collaborative service Hawaii Compliance Express (vendors.ehawaii.gov). Most of the vendors who use HIePRO were already users of the HCE system and were able to use the same login for HIePRO.
  • HIC handles customer support for HIePRO through chat email and phone to ease burden on SPO staff.

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Vital Records 2.0 - Increased Speed for Vital Record Delivery

The Hawaii portal has been offering a virtual records ordering service since 2002. Since the inception of the Real ID Act, the demand for birth and marriage records has skyrocketed. Since 2012, the VRO office has been seeing a 16% increase in the amount of orders processed. With over 300,000 certificates issued annually, combined with a 38% reduction in work force due to retirement and budget cuts, the DOH has struggled to keep up with order fulfillment due to a severe lack of staff resources.  As a result - mail and online orders were not being filled within the Department’s 2-week service level agreement, and long lines of requestors at the DOH offices became the norm - resulting in wait times of up to an hour. Mail and online orders had an average delay of 4-6 weeks. One of the critical areas of concern was that VRO staff tended to not have information regarding the order available - so when a requestor called to inquire about their order status, they were often not given a response, resulting in stress and frustration from both the public and the VRO staff. At the same time, the existing process flow of the old system is no longer adequate with the growing demand for a quicker service.

As part of the OIMT business process re-engineering (BPR), HIC conducted a two-month study to document the current VRO internal work processes. HIC also utilized in-person surveys to get more useful data from the general public who were waiting in line. The information gathered in the survey supported the premise that the development of a Vital Records Ordering and Tracking Systems (VROTS) would aid dramatically in both improving the overall customer experience and streamlining back office operations.

With promising survey results, HIC began development on the new system and work was completed in October 2014. Designed to be a central depository of all vital records orders, it now includes all over the counter, mail-in and online orders in a single location. The new online ordering and tracking system offers a much improved user experience for both the public and DOH staff. Furthermore, any government agency who currently requires paper certificates from the individual, can adopt to receive electronic notices. Each order has a unique tracking number for tracking progress, staff and public have the ability to check real-time status updates for orders placed online, and search results have been improved.

The application will be live to the public in January 2015. Future enhancements will include electronic delivery and verification of certificates as well as expedited services, which is arguably the most highly requested service we receive from year to year. We anticipate the new system will lead to happier customers and happier staff and we look forward to its official release!

Before
Screenshot of the existing Vital Records web application with a dated design.
After
Screenshot of the Vital Records currently being redesigned and developed with a fully Responsive web design.

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New Services and Websites

New Applications/Services Launched (11)

NameAgencyMission

Non
Native
Mobile
App

DescriptionURLLaunch Date
Appellate Court
Judge Evaluation
JudiciaryNoN/AEvaluations of 10 Appellate Court
Judges via online survey.
N/A01/02/14
- 01/31/14
Name ChangeLieutenant
Governor's Office
NoNoApply and pay for a name change
online, and track the name change
process.
namechange.ehawaii.gov02/25/14
MyPVLDCCA PVLYesYesMyPVL is a new home for all PVL
licensees to access information
and services 24/7 from
a single dashboard.
pvl.ehawaii.gov/mypvl02/28/14
Commercial
Vessel Permits
DLNR DOFAWNoYesProvides an expedient way for
vendors to register and purchase
landing permits to regulated
Department of Land and Natural
Resources sanctuaries.
dofaw.ehawaii.gov/permitting02/28/14

DBEDT Tax
Credit Form 346

DBEDT HTDCNoN/AAllows Qualified High Technology
Businesses (QHTB) to apply for
the Tax Credit Research Activity
credit via an online form (DBEDT-346).
http://bit.ly/1vkmpJ003/13/14
Family Court
Judge Evaluation
JudiciaryNoN/AEvaluations of 10 Family Court
Judges via online survey.
N/A04/16/14
- 05/12/14
Portal GamificationHICNoYesCohesive and unified gaming
platform which integrates game
mechanics into applications in order
to drive adoption and engagement.
portal.ehawaii.gov/myhawaii04/30/14
Hunter RegistrationDLNR
DOFAW
NoNoAllows individuals to submit an
electronic application to be entered
into a lottery for game mammal
hunting on the islands of
Hawaii, Lanai, and Kauai.
hunthawaii.ehawaii.gov05/28/14
Notification CenterHICN/AYesAllows users to sign up for email
reminders or monitoring services
within various HIC-based
applications.
login.ehawaii.gov07/11/14
Circuit Court
Judge Evaluation
JudiciaryNoN/AEvaluations of 12 Circuit Court
Judges via online survey.
N/A07/22/14
- 08/22/14
Election Absentee
Ballot Notice
Honolulu City Council:
Office of City Clerks
NoYesAllows the Office of City Clerks
to accept requests for absentee
ballots and sends ballots and
associated supporting documents
to the requestors electronically.
avb.ehawaii.gov09/15/14

New Websites (4)

NameAgencyURLLaunch Date
State Procurement OfficeSPOspo.hawaii.gov03/24/14
Major Portal Release & my.hawaii.govHICportal.ehawaii.gov04/02/14
Aquatic ResourcesDLNRdlnr.hawaii.gov/dar06/09/14
Hawaii SharksDLNRdlnr.hawaii.gov/sharks07/16/14

Native Mobile Applications (1)

DescriptionAvailableiOS URL
Android URL
Web URL
Hawaii Sex Offender Search

Apple Store:  01/08/2014

Android Store:  12/30/2013
http://bit.ly/1tseXpUhttp://bit.ly/1vL0wVesexoffenders.ehawaii.gov

Major Application Upgrades (17)

ServiceAgencyNon
Native
Mobile
App
Description of UpdateURLLaunch
Date
eFileTAXNoAnnual updates to
all forms and fields
for 2014 and
integration of kala.
dotax.ehawaii.gov/efile/user01/02/14

Freshwater
Game
Fishing
License
Application

DLNR
DAR
YesUpgraded to a
mobile/responsive
design.
freshwater.ehawaii.gov  01/02/14
Modernized
eFile
(MeF)
TAXNoAnnual updates
for 2014 to MeF.
mef.ehawaii.gov/mef01/31/14
Real Estate
Education
Application
DCCA
REB
Yes

Upgrades include:

  1. Addition of
    pre-licensing
    functionality
  2. Mobile/responsive
    design
  3. eHawaii.gov login
    integration 
pvl.ehawaii.gov/rece02/18/14
PVL
List Builder
DCCA
PVL
Yes

Upgrades include:

  1. Rewrite of Perl
    application to Java
  2. Mobile/responsive
    design
  3. Switch to TPE 2.x
pvl.ehawaii.gov/pvllistbuilder02/28/14
Charity
Registry
AG
HCJDC
YesUpgraded to a
mobile/responsive
design.
ag.ehawaii.gov/charity03/13/14
Electronic
Marriage
Registry
System
(EMRS)
DOH
OHSM
No

Upgrades include:

  1. Converting the EMRS
    services to run on
    MySQL database
  2. Migrating existing data
    from Oracle to MySQL
    (2x)
  3. Replacing existing
    dedicated master
    and stand-by database
    servers
  4. Restoring database
    replication process
    between master and
    stand-by database servers
emrs.ehawaii.gov/emrs03/22/14
Electronic
Death
Registry
System
(EDRS)
DOH
OHSM
No

Upgrades include:

  1. Converting the EDRS
    services to run on
    MySQL database
  2. Migrating existing data
    from Oracle to MySQL
    (2x)
  3. Replacing existing
    dedicated master
    and stand-by
    database servers
  4. Restoring database
    replication process
    between master and
    stand-by database servers
edrs.ehawaii.gov/edr04/27/14
my.hawaii.govHICYesAdded three new tiles to
my.hawaii.gov including
PVL License, HIePRO
Solicitations, and HTSB.
portal.ehawaii.gov/myhawaii04/30/14
Entity List
Builder
DCCA
BREG
Yes

Upgraded to a
mobile/responsive design.

hbe.ehawaii.gov/listbuilder06/03/14
EV
Stations
DBEDT
Energy
YesUpgraded the look and
feel and made minor layout
modifications to optimize
usability.

energy.ehawaii.gov/ev

http://bit.ly/1uUTYkZ

http://bit.ly/1vkmsED

06/23/14

06/18/14

06/23/14

Energy
Permitting
Wizard
DBEDT
Energy
N/A

Upgrades include:

  1. Enhanced look and feel 
  2. New navigation bar
  3. Additional tool tips
  4. Note box feature for
    each question (Admin)
  5. Updated evaluation
    summary
  6. Enhanced permit
    schedule
  7. Updated verbiage and
    layout inside of the
    application
wizard.hawaiicleanenergyinitiative.org 06/24/14

Real Estate
Education
App


Professional
Vocational
Licensing
App

 

DCCA REB
PVL
Yes

Upgrades include:

  1. Integration of the MyPVL
    Dashboard for real estate
    licensees
  2. Real estate licensees can
    create a new eHawaii.gov
    account and link their
    existing real estate
    license from the MyPVL
    Dashboard
  3. Real estate licensees can
    view their course credits
    from the Dashboard

pvl.ehawaii.gov/rece

pvl.ehawaii.gov/mypvl  

07/07/14
eCrimAG
HCJDC
Yes

Upgraded to a
mobile/responsive design.

ecrim.ehawaii.gov09/22/14
HCE View
Access

DAGS
HCE

No

Upgrades include:

  1. Multiple company
    viewers of their
    compliance application
    as well as the owner 
  2. Automated vendor
    renewals
    with agencies
  3. More frequent updates
    to DOTAX compliance
    status
vendors.ehawaii.gov09/25/14
ERS Self
Service
& Benefit
Calculator
B&F
ERS
No

Upgrades include:

  1. New membership
    date field added
  2. New tier 2 calculations
  3. New age reduction
    calculation
ers.ehawaii.gov09/29/14

Vital
Records
Ordering
System

 

DOH
OSHM
Yes

Upgrades include:

  1. Mobile/responsive
    design
  2. Upgraded payment
    processing
  3. Ability to track order
    progress by public
  4. Ability to submit online
    or mail in order form
  5. Ability to choose pick or
    mail as the delivery
    method
  6. Improved work flow with
    work queues
  7. Integrated single system
    for all orders from
    counter, mail, and online
  8. Easy search and
    administration features
vitrec.ehawaii.gov11/18/14

*For Partner
Staff
Only

 

Section separator

 

Portal Enterprise Services

The portal provides a number of key managed enterprise services that our partner agencies leverage to improve efficiency, reduce cost and provide services on a day-to-day basis.  These services have been developed and are maintained at a significant cost to the portal.  Most of these services are leveraged in our self-funded solutions.

Payment Processing

The portal processed payments totaling over $1.6 Billion in CY 2014 (Nov 20, 2014).

Payment processing can take place through the Internet, Over the Counter (OTC), or via mail and includes multiple payment methods:

  • Credit card (in-person or Internet)
  • Electronic check (ACH)
  • Paper check
  • Invoice (on account)
  • Subscriber payment fees and terms

HIC has established Master Merchant Bank Accounts for processing all types of major credit cards and adds new sub-merchant accounts for each branch, department or division who would like to leverage this relationship at no charge.  HIC has negotiated lower rates by leveraging the transaction processing of all state and county partners. 

HIC provides our partners and their vendors with Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), application support, and trouble shooting for its Payment Processing Service.  The API is a simple web service that can be accessed by any platform.  Currently it is being leveraged by systems running on Java, .net, Perl, and PHP. 

HIC also provides initial customer support for payment and billing questions as well as help with subscriber account issues (i.e. Sign-up, forgotten password, disabled users, etc..)

Credit Card Processing

Credit cards are well suited for Internet payments because they allow the merchant to obtain a real-time authorization, which validates that the card is in good standing and has adequate funds available.  After service is delivered for a transaction, the transaction is placed into a settlement batch for final processing.  This batch is then sent to the processing network for settlement.  HIC is able to disburse all credit card funds on a calendar day basis (12:00 AM to 11:59 PM HST) instead of the typical batch process (disbursements for each card type on a varying mainland time schedule).  HIC also provides partners with automated downloads of fulfillment data for integration with backend systems.  Most transactional applications take credit card payments.

ACH Processing (eCheck)

The ACH network provides a quick and effective way of moving money from one bank account to another.  The customer provides their bank routing and account number, and this information is placed into an ACH file for processing.  These files are processed nightly and the funds are typically deposited the following day.  Processing charges are a fixed amount per transaction, unlike credit cards, which charge a percentage per transaction for processing payments.  This makes ACH debits a desirable method for processing large payments, as illustrated by the numbers of existing eHawaii.gov customers who pay State Tax payments, Unemployment Insurance, Property Tax and Renewal fee Payments with this method.  After a change in policy at the Budget and Finance office in 2012, HIC began originating EFT funds for tax payments directly into the state's bank account.  This means that tax payments made online or at offices through HIC payment systems are deposited in the state's bank account the next banking day.

Monthly Accounts/Invoice Processing (Subscriber Account)

The third major payment method is the most traditional in its approach of billing customers for their online service usage on a monthly basis. This payment method is best suited for high volume, low transaction amount business-to-government services, such as driver records, criminal histories, business filings, document ordering and annual renewals.  For these services, it is inefficient for a customer to enter payment information for each transaction.  Additionally, processing fees associated with processing each transaction individually may be prohibitive.  Therefore, the customer establishes an account through a monthly account process and receives an invoice for their total online services usage at the end of each month.  Typically the customer then pays by an automatic debit via credit card or a bank account.  Customers also have the option to remit payment at any time by paper check via our lockbox address.  HIC processes credit card payments or ACH Debit received for the entire invoice amount at the end of each month.

Over the Counter (OTS) Payment Processing

In the some cases a partner wishes to process payments at the point-of-service for over the counter payments, HIC provides Over the Counter payment processing, inventory management and reporting systems to process those payments. Credit card and check scanning hardware are also available. 

Outreach

Self-Funded eGovernment entails more than development, managing, hosting and maintaining services for our partners.  We also provide outreach and marketing to let the public and businesses know about the services that we create. Of course we also help train government staff on our applications.

Portal Partners with Coordinated MarketingMarketing Services Include
  • Hawaii State Judiciary
  • Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
  • Department of Taxation
  • County of Kauai
  • County of Hawaii
  • State Procurement Office
  • Office of the Attorney General
  • Department of Land and Natural Resources
  • Direct mail
  • Email reminders
  • Marketing materials
  • Attending public functions
  • Meeting with industry groups
  • Speaking at state and national events
  • Award submissions
  • Social media
  • Posters
  • Pocket cards
  • Website / Service integration
  • Market research
  • User surveys for each application
  • Press releases

Secure File Transfer

Many of our partners have security policies that restrict various types of file transfers or communication methods. These span from not being able to support modern secure transfer methods, such as Secure FTP, to policies that do not allow external entities to log in to internal IT assets (a "Pull Only" policy). In some cases file replication and encryption is also required to push data received on behalf of on agency or NGO from the Portal's infrastructure to another partner agency's servers.

Some of the partners who use these services include:

  • Hawaii State Judiciary
  • Honolulu City and County
  • County of Kauai
  • County of Maui
  • County of Hawaii
  • Office of the Attorney General
  • Department of Taxation
  • Department of Public Safety
  • Budget and Finance
  • Department of Transportation
  • Department of Health
  • Department of Education
  • Department of Land and Natural Resources

Single Sign On: Portal Accounts

The portal developed a Single Sign On service based on a framework that provides authentication, authorization and other security features for enterprise applications in 2004. The framework was incorporated into Spring Security in 2008 and it continues to be an extremely successful enterprise solution worldwide. Portal accounts were implemented for Hawaii Business Express in 2004, but have expanded to include 37 of the portal's applications. This year we continued to leverage the Single Sign On for the my.hawaii.gov initiative.  As a result, upon launch we had a base of over 350,000 who already had an account as a result of other interactions with eHawaii.gov services.

Portal users create a single user name and password to access all applications including:  my.hawaii.gov, Hawaii Business Express, eCrim, HUI Express, Camping Permits, Harbor Hui, Hawaii Compliance Express, marriage licenses, covered offender alerts, teacher licenses, HIePRO (eProcurement System), stored payments, the state calendar and more every month.

my.hawaii.gov Account Statistics

    • Individual accounts:  467,416
    • Power users:  13,545
    • Users added in the last 12 months:  187,207
    • Users with at least 1 transaction:  286,714

Top 5 Services with Linked Portal Accounts

Application NameUsers
Hawaii Business Express77,800
State Camping Reservations49,262
Criminal History Search35,380
PVL Licensing61,598
Hawaii Unemployment Express  5,831

Licensing Services

The portal has developed systems for handling enterprise licensing and permitting needs of many partners including:

  • Clinical Lab Personnel License Renewal: Renew online with the Department of Health.
  • Commercial Fishing License:  Apply for, renew, or add a license to existing commercial fishing license, for either an individual or business license.

  • Fishing Permits:  Purchase and print a freshwater fishing license.

  • Hunting Licenses:  Purchase and print a Hawaii hunting license.

  • Waste-water Filings:  State of Hawaii licensed engineers can submit individual waste-water system filings online.

  • Insurance Agent Continuing Education Status:  Allows insurance licensees to review their current continuing education requirements and completed courses applied to their current CE due date.

  • Insurance Continuing Education Provider and Course Search:  Allows insurance licensees to obtain information on continuing education providers and courses.

  • Insurance License Renewal System: Insurance license search

  • License List Builder:  Allows you to build and download a customized list of licensees under the jurisdiction of the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division.

  • License Renewal:  Renew your professional or vocational license online through MyPVL.

  • Marriage Licensing:  Couples can apply and pay for a marriage license as well as locate a performer to complete the ceremony.

  • Marriage Performer License Registration:  Submit your application online to become a licensed marriage and/or civil union performer.

  • Professional Licensee Search:  Look up information about individuals or businesses licensed by the Professional & Vocational Licensing Division.

  • Tax License Search:  Search for tax license information and taxpayer ID numbers.

  • Teacher License Renewals:  Renew your teachers license online or apply for a new one with the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board (HTSB).

Website Design and Hosting

Building a website with us is easy! HIC utilizes WordPress as our content management system. WordPress started in 2003 with the original intention of being an easy way to set up a blog. However, since its inception, WordPress has blossomed into a winning content management system (CMS) that can be used to build and manage full-sized websites. It is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet, due to its ease of use, plug in architecture and template system which makes development and use a breeze.

  • Agencies can manage their own text changes, not IT staff;
  • The agency does not have to host the Web site on its own servers;
  • Web based site management, site can be managed from anywhere there is an internet connection;
  • No technical experience required;
  • Security, hosting and disaster recovery
  • Hands on training;
  • Affordable pricing;
  • Responsive design;
  • Ease of use.

Learn more at:  webcms.ehawaii.gov

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