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IPMA News : April 2004
Edited By Mary Ellen Bradley and Dennis Jones
IPMA News : April 2004Edited By Mary Ellen Bradley and Dennis Jones |
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Washington IT Leadership Continues!
Summary of March 11, 2004 IPMA Board Meeting
-- by Mary Ellen Bradley, IPMA Communications Committee Co-Chair
Stan Ditterline is the new Chief Information Officer with the Washington
State Military Department. Stan began his new job on February 23. I met with him
recently to find out about his new job.
Tell me a little about your background. (Where you grew up, high school, college etc.)?
Stan grew up in a small town in southern California named Compton. It is not far from Long Beach. He attended High School there and then went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for college. He began college as an aeronautical engineering major and later switched to mathematics.
Following graduation from college, he joined the Air Force. He wanted to be a pilot. It seems that the Air Force has a rule that to be a pilot you need to have the same number of successful landings as you have take-offs. Stan did not pass this test (eye-sight problems) so he became a weapons control officer with AWACS. He eventually was stationed at McChord and liked the Northwest. In fact, he liked the weather and environment so much and he decided to stay here when he finished his military duty.
How did you get involved in Information Systems?
Stan was a user of computers while he was in the Air Force. He got a masters degree in systems management while in the service by taking night courses at University of Southern California. When he got out of the service he got a job as a System Analyst for the state working for the Washington Data Processing Service Center (now the Department of Information Services (DIS) – an interesting bit of history is that at the time Stan took his first state job, Washington Data Processing Service Center was part of General Administration). He remained at DIS for 27 ½ years ending his career there as the Policy and Oversight Manager.
Stan enjoyed a variety of assignments at DIS during those 27 ½ years and he always was willing to take risks. Mike McVicker, Deputy Director at DIS, said of him that DIS always put him in harms way.
Why did you decide to change careers after so long at DIS?
Stan explained that he wanted a change and that he likes the mission of the Military Department which is to protect the public health and safety and homeland security. He is also starting something new there. He is in a brand new position and is the first CIO of the department.
Can you tell me more about the Washington State Military Department?
The department has about 260 state employees. The rest is made up of 5,700 Army National Guard members and 2,500 Air Force National Guard members. The largest part of the state employees work for the Emergency Management Division. Stan works for the Human Resources, Financial Services and Information Technology component which serves as management support to the department.
What do you see as the role of technology in State Government?
Stan sees the role of technology as an enabler. IT is there to help the business to be more efficient and effective.
What are the problems that you see with technology and government?
Stan views the biggest current problem to be security. How do we continue to collaborate with one another and still maintain security? Virus threats are numerous and time consuming. Agencies need to focus on how we can work together.
What do you want to accomplish at the Military Department?
Stan wants to establish a vision for IT at the Military Department. He feels the agency has a great strategic plan and that he wants to develop a great IT strategic plan to support it.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Stan mentioned two projects that he worked on while at DIS. The first was the Vanilla Project which DIS coordinated. It standardized software systems and operating systems for state agencies. The second was Y2K. DIS headed this effort and worked with all state agencies to make sure we were ready for year 2000. Stan feels that these projects provided the framework for working together across agencies.
Family?
Stan is married and has three boys, ages 23, 21 and 19. All three boys are in college – one at Seattle Pacific majoring in business, one at Central and one attending South Puget Sound Community College and intending to major in criminal justice.
Hobbies - Activities?
In his spare time, Stan enjoys camping, racket ball and traveling. He and his wife would like to plan a trip to Australia to visit friends there.
Stan is a longtime IPMA member.
-- by Thomas Bynum, Assistant Commissioner, Information Technology Services Division, Employment Security Department
The Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) recently received the Compass Award - Leading Tools and Technology from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. The award was for the UIFastTax Marketing Project. The recipient received $25,000 and a trophy symbolic of the award. This award recognizes an outstanding contribution to the development of new delivery methods for agency services; increasing access to information for customers; improved efficiencies for service delivery; time-saving automation; or other tools that improve customer services. The emphasis is on project results including customer satisfaction.
Description
The UIFastTax Marketing Project is an electronic tax filing,
processing, and payment system that addresses a wide range of taxpayer needs.
ESD built systems to learn from customers and apply that learning to products.
Most importantly, ESD is investing the resources saved to market electronic
services and realize further savings in the future.
Project Basis
In 1999 ESD took its first step towards electronic tax filing,
processing, and payments by implementing a digital scanning and optical
character recognition system to automate processing of paper tax forms. Tracking
data indicated which customers filed "scannable" forms and which did not.
Throughout 1999 and 2000, ESD also promoted the ICESA format for magnetic
reporting (on tape) by large employers. This eliminated key entry for many large
employers. Targeted outreach (based on business size and filing method) touched
every business in the state with more than 1,000 employees.
In late 1999, UIFastTax, free tax reporting software for IBM-compatible personal computers, was launched. Resulting tax and wage reports can be submitted on diskette or online. As with any new technology, customers were slow to adopt it and "bugs" were experienced in the software. User testing and evaluation surveys fostered customer-centric product improvements, as bugs in UIFastTax were resolved. Technical support staff assisted taxpayers by phone and e-mail. Customer complaints, suggestions, and problems were stored and referenced to guide product development.
Throughout 2000, ESD upgraded UIFastTax and undertook centrally managed marketing efforts to increase usage. It was discovered that the best results came from intensive direct marketing using targeted telemarketing, database tracking of customer contacts, and limited in-person installs and problem resolution. Customer comments, software/system issues, and reasons for either converting or declining to convert to electronic filing were stored to a marketing database. Marketing scripts and materials were redesigned in accordance with customer issues and preferences. Large businesses filing "unscannable" paper reports were targeted.
In 2001, ESD introduced UIWebTax, an online tax tool. Tax/wage reports were filed online in real time.
In the summer 2002, ESD launched E-Pay, an online debit system for tax payments. Usage grew by 50 percent per quarter since its introduction in July 2002, when fewer than 100 payments were received. More than 3,500 businesses made online payments in April 2003. Concurrent with the launch of E-Pay, the UIFastTax web site was simplified and redesigned to improve usability.
Operations
In 2002, electronic tax filing and payments gained the attention
of Governor Gary Locke and ESD Commissioner Sylvia Mundy. As a result, initiatives
were undertaken to further expand the usage of electronic tax services. The most
ambitious was the UIFastTax Marketing Project that funded 13 full-time staff for
one year – solely for purposes of marketing electronic filing and the E-Pay
debit system to taxpayers.
The marketers began work in July 2002. The work plan leveraged direct telemarketing techniques developed during the smaller effort in 2000. Each marketer received a telephone script, a list of targeted businesses (chosen based on size and tax filing method), promotional handouts, and other tools. A web-based tracking system was built to house information on each marketer’s performance. Each was assigned a personal goal to convert a specific number of businesses to electronic filing.
Results
Under terms of a Governor’s Initiative, ESD’s goal was to convert
14,000 businesses to electronic filing during the UIFastTax Marketing Project.
After 11 months, 90 percent of that goal had been attained with 12,567
businesses converted to electronic filing. It was estimated that every 1,000
businesses converted reduced the processing workload by approximately one
full-time position. After offsets, the Project’s cost of converting one business
to electronic filing was roughly $57. For comparison, private-sector
business-to-business campaigns often anticipate conversion costs in the hundreds
or thousands of dollars per convert.
More important than the number of businesses converting (or even the cost of conversion) is the number of total employee wage records that are now submitted electronically, rather than being filed on paper forms. For reference, a total of 2.6 million lines of wage data were processed for the first fiscal quarter of 2003. Electronic filing is more efficient and more accurate. A 1998 study showed that half of all errors in wage records were due to hand keying errors. Electronic filing tools trimmed errors substantially.
(Note: This space is reserved for a new IPMA News feature, Sponsor's Corner. For more information, see Sponsor's Corner Guidelines.)
5 Years Ago -- April 1999 IPMA Newsletter
10 Years Ago -- April 1994 IPMA Newsletter
15 Years Ago -- April 1989 IPMA Newsletter
20 Years Ago -- April 1984 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter
25 Years Ago -- April 1979 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter
Members Present: Jim Albert, Mary Ellen Bradley, Thomas Bynum, Phil Grigg, Dennis Jones, Dennis Laine, Andy Marcelia, Christy Ridout, Darrel Riffe, and Shelagh Taylor. Phil Coates, CFO, and Jim Andersen, the Forum Event Manager, were also present.
Christy Ridout, IPMA Chair, opened the March 2004, meeting of the IPMA Board of Directors at 7:30 a.m.
Reports
Secretary/Treasurer: The minutes from the December 2003 and January 2004 Board meetings were approved.
The Board approved the January/February 2004 financial status and activities reports.
Business Planning:
2004 budget: Phil Coates presented a draft organization budget. He noted that a change from prior years budgets has a total contingency amount in the Administrative cost center rather than distributed in each committee budget. This will allow the board to allocate it as needed and apply it to new initiatives if it appears that all the contingency won’t be needed by year’s end.
The board approved the budget as proposed.
Amendments to the By-Laws: Phil Coates distributed a draft of the by-law changes discussed at the board retreat in January. The essence of the change was to eliminate the requirement for the board to hold regular monthly meetings and to announce the schedule of those meetings in January of each year.
The board approved the by-law change. Phil Coates will coordinate with Bob Monn to see that the current by-laws are available on the IPMA web site.
Forum 2004: Jim Andersen presented the status report for Forum 2004.
Executive Seminar 2004: Phil Grigg reported that planning for this year’s event was proceeding on schedule. Phil asked the board for ideas for the seminar theme and potential speakers. This resulted in a spirited discussion around the need for preparation, guidance, and training for IT Management after Civil Service reform becomes reality. Dennis Jones, Shelagh Taylor, Jim Albert and Thomas Bynum volunteered to work with Phil and Darrel to prepare the agenda.
Professional Development: Both Sheryl Hall and Mike McVicker were at the Professional Development seminar "Best Practices & Experiences in Business Rule Management," which was taking place today. Dennis Jones reported for them that the planning for the next seminar, "A Road Map for a Successful Consulting Engagement," scheduled for April 20, is coming together.
Sheryl had distributed a proposal showing two options for the August premium seminar session. The board approved the first which was to engage Molly Gordon as the speaker for that event. The Professional Development budget will be modified accordingly.
Communications: Mary Ellen Bradley reported that the 2002 Annual Report is complete, with the exception of the paragraph from the chairman recapping the year. Since Doug Tanabe is now retired and living out of state, she suggested that Bob Monn could draft the paragraph on his behalf. The board concurred with the suggestion.
Mary Ellen indicated that Thomas Bynum is responsible for an article for the April issue of the IPMA News.
The March IPMA News will be released to the web site in the next couple of days.
Other Business:
2003 Annual Report: Christy Ridout reminded the committee chairs who have not done so, to get there write-ups for their accomplishments for 2003 to her for inclusion in the report.
IPMA Mid-management Development Program: Dennis Jones presented a paper that outlined some of the issues and decisions that need to be made prior to establishing such a training program. He requested that the board members read over the paper and give some thought to the issues raised so that the whole topic can be discussed at next month’s board meeting. See attached paper.
Board Member Service Recognition Plaques: Shelagh Taylor distributed recognition plaques and service pins to all board members who have completed one or more terms from 1999 through 2003.
Monthly Board Meeting: The next board meeting will be held at the Shipwreck Café April 8, 2004. Phil Coates will be responsible for coordinating board meeting plans and schedules with the café staff.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 a.m.
IPMA Mid-management Development Program
Discussion Draft 3-11-2004
by Dennis Jones
Purpose:
To help prepare mid-level managers to assume senior Information Technology leadership positions in Washington State Government.
Approach:
Determine developmental needs of the community:
Develop the program:
Issues / Questions:
IPMA, P.O. Box 1943, Olympia, WA 98507-1943