rhode island state report 2013

INSIDE

Rhode Island sTaTe RepoRT 2013

Hidden Treasures ............... 2

Giving Back to Rhode Island .....4

Responding to Mobile .......... 7

hen RI.gov started its long-term partnership with the state, Governor Lincoln Almond issued an official press release. On Jan. 7, 2002, the

Governor said, “RI.gov will change the way citizens interact with state government … I’m excited about this opportunity to bring eGovernment to all Rhode Islanders where, from one website, they will eventually be able to locate a copy of their birth certificate, purchase a fishing license, or even renew their driver’s license.”

In 11 years, the team at Rhode Island Interactive has fulfilled the vision of the governor. RII has delivered all three of these services, along with more than a hundred others, to the people of Rhode Island. RI.gov has truly changed the way citizens interact with state government.

Much has changed as we enter our 14th year of service in Rhode Island. Our online applications have become far more complex. The On-Demand Temporary Plate system we recently launched required more than 400 hours of development and project management. The financial and personnel investments we continue to make to ensure the security of our data also continues to escalate year-over-year. Yet, we are very proud that in 2013 our security controls, procedures, and policies were examined, measured, and validated through our third-party security certification program.

Fulfilling Rhode Island’s eGovernment VisionFrom the

General Managerremember it like it was yesterday. In November of 2003, the governor’s

office held a press conference to announce that citizens could now renew their vehicle registration through the RI.gov website. One of the governor’s staff would be the first Rhode Islander to conduct a transaction. Because this was one of the first high-profile citizen services launched by RI.gov, our team was on standby both in Providence and across the country to ensure that everything went smoothly with that first, very public, renewal. Despite a momentary glitch when the staff member misspelled her own name during the authentication step, everything went as planned and by the end of the month 378 Rhode Islanders had renewed online.

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2 | RHODE ISLAND STATE REPORT 2013

Users of RI.gov are probably most familiar with our trans-action-based service where a small fee is added to the total cost to support our self-funded model. What might

not be as familiar are the many value-added services offered by RI.gov at no cost to users or the state. Here are some of those hidden treasures:• Thanks to our collaboration with the

Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, RI.gov users can search a database of nearly 20,000 historic properties in the Ocean State.

• Rhode Islanders no longer need to tie up the phone lines at the Divi-sion of Taxation to inquire about their refunds – In just a few clicks our “Where’s My Refund?” service offers the latest update as to when that tax check will be in the mail. In 2013 the system was searched 283,166 times by impatient Rhode Islanders looking to get the 411 on their refunds.

• The DMV uses an RI.gov service to schedule their student road tests. The system helps prevent the creation of duplicate appointments in multiple locations and allows staff to

maximize the number of tests they can accommodate during their shift. Every year an average of 25,000 appointments are scheduled using the service.

• Each year, when the Rhode Island Department of Corrections is looking for the brightest and best to serve as

correctional officers, they turn to RI.gov to host their free online job application.

Even though Corrections accepts paper applications, more than 95 percent of

their 4,719 potential recruits opt to use the online version.• Political junkies across the Ocean

State appreciate our archive of historic election data. Visitors

can look at results by candidate,municipality, and even district. On

the big night, the Rhode Island Board of Elections updates this official data in

real time.As with all of our services, the results are as easy

to view on a smartphone as they are on a desktop. • Best of all, the RI.gov system offers the state thousands of

dollars in cost avoidance every year over their legacy systems. That’s a result all taxpayers can be happy about!

Hidden Treasures

We also take great pride in our balance between services that financially support our operation and those that are funded by the enterprise and offered at no cost to the state. In 2013 we assisted the new Office of Digital Excellence, the Division of Information Technology, and the Office of the Governor with the launch of our new Transparency Portal. Thanks to our efforts, Rhode Islanders have access to more than 800,000 state payment records offering unparalleled insights into state spending without the need to spend taxpayer dollars.

Additionally, RI.gov continued to launch new services aimed at both citizens and busi-nesses. Rhode Islanders can now change their address with the DMV online with just a few mouse clicks, and medical waste transporters can register their business with the Depart-ment of Environmental Management quickly and efficiently through our online service.

Of all our accomplishments, we are perhaps most proud of the continued recog-nition the Ocean State has received for our eGovernment efforts. In 2013, the Center for Digital Government again honored RI.gov by selecting it as one of the Top 10 State

Government Websites in the country. This award marked the seventh time in the past eight years the Center has placed us in the top of their list.

We are excited about the coming year and the many new services we will be bringing to the people and businesses of Rhode Island. Most importantly, we continue to strive to be the best at everything we do – from customer service to security, from innovative applications to cost-saving solutions, RI.gov is committed to continually delivering on the state’s long-term vision of efficiency and value through excellence in eGovernment. n

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RHODE ISLAND STATE REPORT 2013 | 3

From the General Manager| continued from page 1 |

In November of 2013 the portal accom-modated 6,081 renewals. Over the past 10 years, more than 800,000 registrations have been renewed and paid for through the RI.gov portal.

As a lifelong Rhode Islander I am so very proud that the services RI.gov continues to launch every year have made a true impact on the everyday lives of citi-zens and businesses throughout the Ocean State. In 2013 we continued to support nearly 80 Rhode Island departments, agencies, offices and municipalities with innovative eGovernment services, no-cost

Web design and general consulting. Last year RI.gov processed $1,104,344,702.66 for the state – that translates to 33 percent of all state revenue.

Just recently, I fielded multiple questions from several other states that were inter-ested in developing a One Stop Business service to make it easier for local entrepre-neurs to navigate through the regulatory process in getting their business started. They all wanted to know more about the Quick Start Service we had developed in conjunction with the RI Secretary of State. This system has truly become a national model for One Stop services and helped

Rhode Island earn a leadership position when it comes to fostering new business upstarts through the Internet.

For a state that too often dwells on “last place,” it should be refreshing for all Rhode Islanders to know that we have in many areas led the way when it comes to eGovernment. Rhode Island was the first state to enable responsive design for its official website, to automatically reformat content to function as well on a mobile browser as on a desktop. Rhode Island is only one of a handful of states where citizens can renew their driver’s licenses online. We were the first state to embrace the widespread use of social media to better keep our citizens informed and we have been first to launch a variety of user-friendly services ranging from liquor registration to lead paint inspections. In 2013 alone, RI.gov was honored with seven national awards recognizing the innovation our partnership has brought to the people of the Ocean State.

I have had the pleasure of watching RI.gov grow in so many ways since that press conference. From just four portal services in 2003, we now offer more than 100. Users have grown RI.gov from a little over 12,000 citizen and business transac-tions in 2003 to 596,000 last year.

It has been an honor to work with such a tremendous team, for such a supportive state partner for the past 10 years. I see very exciting things on the horizon for 2014 and am thrilled to be part of a brighter tomorrow for Rhode Island.

Tom ViallGeneral Manager, RI.gov

“ … it should be refreshing for all Rhode Islanders to know that we have in many areas lead the way when it comes to eGoverment.”


he RI.gov team is very apprecia-tive of the support we get from the thousands of local citizens

and businesses that use our eGovern-ment services every month. As we are so engrained in the Ocean State, we under-stand the importance of giving back – both as individuals, as a company, and as part of a larger corporate family.

During the holiday season, we did not forget those families in Rhode Island who might be struggling, so for the third consec-utive year, we gave generously to the Toys for Tots program. In October, the portal team combined our Wellness Initiative and our company stewardship by participating in The Color Run to benefit Providence Parks. Four brave RI.gov team members dashed through the downtown area while being doused from head to toe in different colors at each kilometer.

One of the highlights of 2013 was our Ride4Cops event. Founded by Harry Herington, a former law enforcement officer and CEO of NIC Inc., the parent company of RI.gov, the Ride4Cops mission is to raise

awareness of the inherent dangers in law enforcement and to support the families of fallen officers as he rides the Memorial Harley-Davidson to each state Capitol. To date, Ride4Cops has raised more than $350,000 for the families of fallen officers.

Governor Chafee, Secretary of State Mollis, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, and representatives from law enforcement from across the state welcomed Harry to the statehouse after a motorcycle rally originating at the Department of Public Safety headquarters in Scituate. At a truly memorable ceremony, they were joined by survivor families and together honored the 47 police officers who have lost their lives serving the people of Rhode Island.

The Ocean State marked the 26th state capitol Harry has visited since starting his ride in 2009.

Whether it be blood drives, pro bono design and Web work, or helping those in need – we take great pride in not just our eGovernment services but also the commu-nity service we offer each year to our fellow Rhode Islanders.

TGiving Back to Rhode Island

A happy and determined design team

Color runners – ready, set, go

The RI.gov Color Run Team


A happy and determined design team

Color runners – ready, set, go

AG Kilmartin

Remembering fallen officers

NIC CEO Harry Herington

Rally to the Statehouse

The very nature of our innovative self-funded model dictates that Rhode Islanders have an easy and successful experience when using any one

of the more than 100 eGovernment services we offer. To ensure that none of our feedback emails or phone calls ever “fall

through the cracks,” the portal utilizes a customer service case management system to manage, track, tag, and trend all portal feedback and support.

When a feedback email or call comes into our office a ticket in our system is created. If our front-line customer service representative can’t immediately address the inquiry, the ticket will be assigned to a project or technical resource for further assistance. Our customer service system tracks all the communication between the user and our portal team until the issue is resolved and the ticket closed.

Along with making sure that all RI.gov users receive the help they need, the “trending” and “tagging” functionality of our customer service system offers the added benefit of improving our services for all users.

Using the tagging function, we can sort our feedback to identify what types of services produced the most help tickets. The portal team can then focus on that unique online service or portal area to make improve-ments. By keeping track of the overall trend of ticket volumes, we can evaluate the success of these improvements.

Among the most valuable features of our customer service system is the ability to maintain a library of clear and concise instructions for some of the more common problems our users encounter, like directions for resetting passwords. With a single click our customer service repre-sentatives can quickly respond, ensuring the user’s request is addressed quickly and constantly.

In 2013 the portal answered 1,981 customer tickets. Eight hundred sixty-one were questions about the many online services we offer for the DMV, such as registration and license renewals. Taxation services gener-ated the second-largest number of tickets with 398, and the Department of Environmental Management was third with 192 requests.

Not all the feedback we get at RI.gov involves questions about our services. Many users contact RI.gov with questions, issues, and even suggestions for other state offices and entities. We make sure these inquires are either routed directly to the correct agency or that the user is provided with the proper contact information.

Of course our favorite type of feedback comes from users who have benefited from our commitment to customer service:

“Thanks for helping us out on our ‘error code’ mishap of yesterday; you and your group have taken the old perception of ‘broken admin in RI’ and put a much nicer spin on dealing with government.”

We always love it when we can answer a feedback in one word: “Thanks!” n

Our Customer Service Commitment


In 2013 RI.gov collected nearly $26 million in online payments on behalf of the State of Rhode Island. Each of our 829,449 secure transactions was processed through TPE – our award-

winning Transaction Processing Engine.TPE has been specifically designed by our parent company,

NIC, to process secure credit card and e-check payments on behalf of our government partners – including the state of Rhode Island. TPE includes a robust administrative and reporting component for the handling of all administration tasks necessary to operate and manage e-commerce transac-tions. Multiple Rhode Island agencies can use the same online administrative tools to manage customer service inquiries, perform refunds and voids, and prepare reports. Depart-ment accounting staff can also access robust reporting tools to generate reports and statistics that bridge application and organizational boundaries.

In 2013, the Department of Business Regulation (DBR) utilized Common Checkout – an add-on module to TPE – for their new enterprise licensing system. When a DBR customer is done obtaining or renewing their license, the state-hosted licensing system seamlessly redirects the user to Common Checkout for payment. The RI.gov system accommodates every step of the payment – from credit card entry and autho-rization to the emailed receipt. Once the payment has been processed through TPE, Common Checkout automatically returns the user back to the DBR system. Through their use

of Common Checkout, the state was able to avoid the tens of thousand of dollars associated with the costs of security compliance that would have been necessary if they had elected to process the payments internally.

The Narragansett Bay Commission also utilizes RI.gov payment systems to process both credit card and e-check payments for their customers. In 2013, RI.gov accommodated 46,874 sewer use payments and collected nearly $7 million on behalf of the commission.

Another add-on to TPE is our Over-The-Counter payment system (OTC). RI.gov has been offering OTC to various Rhode Island agencies for more than five years. Agencies include the Contractors’ Registration and Licensing Board, the Department of Labor and Training, and the Department of Environmental Management, as well as several RI municipalities – and that list is growing all the time. OTC allows these agencies to efficiently and securely add credit cards as an option at the counter for those customers who might not wish to pay with cash or check.

While RI.gov will continue to specialize in custom end-to-end online services, our stand-alone electronic payment options continue to offer the state a value-added alternative to custom development. Thanks to TPE, Common Checkout, and OTC, agencies can quickly and securely offer credit card and e-check payments for their existing services, or those purchased from other companies.

Online Payments

his past October the portal team conducted three user behavior

sessions around the Ocean State to test our design concepts for the RI.gov home page. As an incentive, we offered Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards to those willing to help us evaluate the “user friendliness” of the site. We sought our volunteers from the Newport Visitor Center, the Providence Place Mall, and the Warwick Mall.

RI.gov used social media to promote the user-testing sessions. Our team boosted the RI.gov Facebook page to post notices about

the testing, including locations and times. The ad garnered 7,140 impressions and resulted in securing our 15 test volunteers – a perfect number for true behavior measurement.

To gather our data RI.gov used Silverback, specialized software that simultaneously tracks the users’ mouse movements on the screen while recording the users’ facial expressions. The volun-teers were given a series of tasks to complete, such as “Can you navigate to the governor’s home page?” Our testers were also asked general questions, such as

“Looking at the home page, what are your first impressions?” The questions mirrored the tasks that we had presented during our 2010 testing sessions so we could gauge the success of our design changes.

The data proved very useful. We discov-ered that the improvements we had made to our search tool were extremely successful, cutting the individual session times in half. In 2010 the average session had been 10 minutes in length while in 2013 the average session was reduced to just five minutes. n

TBuilding a Better RI.gov


n March of 2013, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee proudly

heralded the many positive changes that were transforming the Division of Motor Vehicles into a more customer-friendly and efficient agency. Along with the hard work of the DMV staff, he attributed the fulfillment of his pledge to “fix the DMV” to the growing number of online services available to RI citizens and businesses. “By putting more services online, we are making DMV transactions more convenient and less time consuming for both online and in-person customers.

RI.gov is proud of our decade long partnership with the DMV. Our close

relationship started with the development of the Vehicle Registration Renewal service in 2003. In the past 10 years more than 800,000 vehicles have been renewed through the system. Moreover, this high-value service has always been offered at no added cost to the citizens of Rhode Island, being fully supported by the portal’s innovative self-funded enterprise model.

Over the years, RI.gov has worked side by side with the DMV to create 14 additional online services – with more being planned next year. From managing schedules for road tests, to issuing oversize/overweight trucking permits … RI.gov continues to make the DMV more efficient, one service

at a time. Some of the portal’s most recent services include the ability for citizens to update their address, check their status for violations, and renew their driver’s license, and for dealers to issue temporary license plates on demand.

In a recent issue of MOVE, a government trade magazine, DMV Chief Administrator Anthony Silva had this to say about the Rhode Island Driver’s License Renewal service, “The program is extremely user friendly and it’s offered to Rhode Island residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year” … “It’s like the DMV never closes, and I think that’s the beauty of it. It’s almost like having a DMV in your home.” n

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Valued Partnership – The RI DMVMoving From In Line to Online

In 2012, RI.gov, the official state government portal for Rhode Island, became the first state site in the country to embrace two unique design methods: mobile first and responsive design.

This change was an important one to make. Our analytics – the data that tracks how a user accesses the site – clearly shows the strong growth in visitors using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to access RI.gov content and services.

This became overly apparent on election night when visitors to the portal’s online service for real-time election results garnered more than 250,000 page views. Metrics show that more than 32 percent of that site traffic that evening came from either the iPhone oper-ating system or Android-based browser.

While RI.gov does offer a stand-alone mobile “app” for the portal, the task of developing unique and dedicated device-specific apps for each of the major mobile operating systems was not an option. The RI.gov team had to instead develop an

“out of the box” solution to ensure that the Portal’s many online applications were prepared to serve the next generation of Rhode Islanders – no matter how they wished to access the site.

Simply put, responsive design uses a technique called media queries to determine the user’s browser dimensions. Based on size, the appropriate design is dynami-cally selected to format the content for the ideal user experience. The advantage of this approach is that the RI.gov team only had to manage one content base vs. managing specialized sites or appli-

cations designed specifically for mobile, tablet, and desktop. In 2013, the portal team completed the process of converting

our formidable list of online services to this new design frame-work. Rhode Islanders on the move can now renew professional licenses, access election data, pay more than 50 kinds of taxes, and even renew their driver’s license using any Web-capable device – regardless of screen size.

Responding to Mobile

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t NIC, we are passionate about making government more acces-

sible to everyone. It is our sole focus, our purpose, and the simple reason for our existence. We share that common goal with you – our partners – and we are deeply invested in working with you to make each and every eGovernment interac-tion a positive one.

Whether it is renewing a license, applying for a permit, filing court documents, finding important emergency information, or any other application taken from our robust library of 9,700 online services and more than 150 mobile applications, you can trust us to bridge the gap between your needs and the needs of the citizens and businesses you serve.

One CommunityMore than two decades ago, NIC

pioneered the eGovernment industry by revolutionizing the way people do business with all levels of government. The paper-intensive, wait-in-line ways of the past

evolved into secure, click-of-a-button, swipe-of-a-screen interactions. Today, NIC works with more than 3,500 federal, state, and local government partners, giving you access to share ideas across the NIC family, learn best practices, and deploy new services quickly by starting with foundational code deployed elsewhere by NIC partners.

United Shield Against Cybersecurity Attacks

When it comes to security, the job of protecting sensitive information is in the hands of our partnership. We are both only successful when citizens and businesses feel secure about sharing information. Together, we form the shield to help do all that we can to protect against cybersecurity breaches that can damage credibility, reputation, and consumer confidence for everyone involved.

Your Responsive PartnerWe hear you. In this day and age, it is

extremely important for government to be

engaged with the people they serve, and use technology to facilitate efficient and secure interactions. Being a part of the NIC community allows us to serve as your research and development shop as we continue to adapt the latest technology and create new solutions to improve government interactions. As technology evolves, our focus will remain on delivering you the latest innovation.

There is the saying, “It takes a village.” At NIC we believe the very best in eGovernment services require a community. Working together is key when it comes to staying true to our shared passion of making government more accessible to citizens and businesses. Count on NIC to bring convenience, efficiency, security, and innovation to you and your constituents in every single service we bring online. Then people can focus on what they love to do and follow their own passion in life, whether it is growing their business, or simply spending time with their families. Together, we make it happen.

Positive Government ExperiencesWorking Toward a Common Goal

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