howz.IT: State Pursues E-Signature, Record Policy

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In this Issue...

State Pursues E-Signature, Record Policy
Stay Connected this Hurricane Season
Team Member Spotlight
Students Work Alongside State Innovators
Tax Department Kicks Off System Modernization Project
State Welcomes Community Input on Renewal of Kauai Cable Television Franchise
Office 365 Project Advances to 64% Deployed

State Pursues E-Signature, Record Policy

As part of the state’s continuing effort to facilitate a less paper-dependent way of doing business, the Department of Human Resources Development (DHRD) has issued a new policy authorizing departments to utilize electronic signatures/electronic records in lieu of existing paper forms previously developed and authorized for human resources (HR) purposes.

For the purposes of the policy, an electronic signature is defined as the inputting by the signer of his/her name on a fillable form preceded by “/s/” in the location where that signature otherwise would appear on a paper form. The electronic signature must be input by the signer “with the intent to sign the record.” An “electronic record” is a form developed and authorized for use by DHRD that is completed, transmitted, approved and stored by electronic means.

With departmental participation mandatory, each department has been tasked with developing their respective implementation plans. DHRD has drafted guidance to assist the departments in their implementation efforts, and the department is making certain HR-related forms amenable to electronic signature.

In addition, the Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) and Information and Communication Services Division (ICSD) are partnering with DHRD to evaluate potential enterprise-wide electronic signature/record solutions. Department heads and IT personnel will be advised of additional resources as they become available.

Stay Connected this Hurricane Season

Technology plays a crucial role in disaster preparedness and awareness. Numerous tools are available to keep the public informed and up-to-date regarding local storm and other weather-related events.

Social media users may “like” the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency on Facebook and follow @HI_CivilDefense on Twitter. The public is also advised to keep an eye on hashtags such as #hiwx and #[name of storm] to get a broad overview of all notices related to a specific event.

The Ready Hawaii app is downloadable from iTunes or Google Play! stores. This app can aid in emergency planning and will list shelters if they are opened for evacuation.

Emergency alerts are also “pushed” out by the four counties through the following portals:

Oahu — www.nixle.com
Hawaii Island — www.countyofhawaii.bbcportal.com
Maui — www.mauicounty.gov (Makaala Alerts)
Kauai — www.kauai.gov (Connect-CTY)

Hurricane season in Hawaii is typically considered to be from June to November. The public is encouraged to utilize these useful tools to stay current on the latest information throughout the season as well as year-round.

Team Member Spotlight

Derek Ichiyama, State Portal Program Manager

Introduced at last month’s Access Hawaii Committee (AHC) meeting, Derek Ichiyama is the State of Hawaii’s new Web Portal Program Manager. Part of the OIMT/ICSD team, he will serve as the eHawaii.gov vendor relationship manager to assist AHC in providing oversight of the portal provider.

Mr. Ichiyama’s previous experience includes work as a project manager directing multiple website projects, ensuring they were completed on time and within budget. He concepted, prototyped and built the official event schedule application for SummitFest 2014, a local culture, industry and the arts event. In developing the SummitFest 2014 Mobile App, he also served as team lead to schedule project milestones, and collaborated with other developers to build the front- and back-end infrastructure for the application.

Ichiyama earned a bachelor of arts in human relations from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also completed an immersive coding bootcamp at Dev League to learn modern web development languages and best practices for building data-driven applications.

Students Work Alongside State Innovators

As the summer session of the state’s Transformation Internship Program (TIP) drew to a close, Gov. David Y. Ige recognized participants in a ceremony held on Aug. 14 at the Hawaii State Capitol. The Governor congratulated TIP Summer 2015 interns, coordinators and project sponsors on a productive session.

OIMT and DHRD launched the nationally recognized program to provide Hawaii undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to work alongside innovators within state government and gain hands-on experience in a wide range of areas. Students work collaboratively in teams to advance transformation initiatives.

This semester’s participants worked on various IT projects with the Departments of Agriculture; Business, Economic Development and Tourism; Health; and Public Safety; as well as OIMT and the State Procurement Office.

Projects ranged from paperless initiatives, to database modernization, to program management process training.

Interns Jaron Kuriyama and Jennylyn Tapat summarize for Gov. Ige and OIMT IT Operations Officer Jim Miwa the students’ contribution to a Department of Health “paperless” project.

Apply for the Fall Session Today!

The TIP Fall 2015 Session will run from Aug. 31 to Dec. 4, 2015. Applications are being accepted through this Friday, Aug. 28.

Department News

Tax Department Kicks Off System Modernization Project

On Aug. 13, the Hawaii Department of Taxation announced the launch of its Tax System Modernization (TSM) project. The TSM project will bring a modern, integrated, commercial off-the-shelf software solution for revenue collection to the State of Hawaii.

“Tax System Modernization will transform how we work and will enable us to better serve our customers — the taxpayers of the State of Hawaii. Converting a paper-focused manual process to a technologically-driven process will give our employees the tools they need to do their jobs faster and more efficiently.”

— Tax Director Maria Zielinski

Once implemented, TSM will:

process returns and refunds in a more timely manner;
provide no-cost electronic filing for individual income tax returns;
improve customer service through an interactive telephone system;
identify fraudulent returns through fraud detection technology; and
enhance revenue collection.

FAST Enterprises, a software and consulting service company, has been selected to implement the TSM project. FAST Enterprises has successfully implemented tax systems for 21 states and the District of Columbia on schedule and within budget. Read the full news release.

State Welcomes Community Input on Renewal of Kauai Cable Television Franchise

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) Cable Television Division (CATV) is currently in the renewal process of Oceanic Time Warner Cable LLC’s Kauai County cable television franchise.

As part of this process, DCCA previously announced two community meetings that will be held this week to accept comments from members of the community on how they may be able to benefit from services provided by Oceanic and its cable television system in Kauai County, and to obtain feedback on the public access services currently being provided by Hoike: Kauai Community Television.

“We encourage public participation, which will help the department to determine what factors to consider in the renewal process.”

— CATV Administrator Ji Sook “Lisa” Kim

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015
5 p.m.
Waimea Neighborhood
Center Meeting Room
4556 Makeke Rd.
Waimea, HI 96796

Friday, Aug. 28, 2015
5 p.m.
Planning Commission Meeting Room
Kauai County Building
4444 Rice Street, #A 473
Lihue, HI 96766

Visit the DCCA website for information regarding the proposed renewal.

Office 365 Project Advances to 64% Deployed

The Office 365 Project continues under its accelerated migration schedule. As of this week, the project team has aided state departments and agencies in deploying 8,325 user licenses — 64 percent of the available user licenses under the current Microsoft agreement.

This is a significant increase since last month, mostly representative of Department of Human Services and DCCA personnel migrating to the Office 365 environment. To all those who have completed their migrations, welcome aboard!

Most of the remaining user licenses are scheduled for deployment by the end of 2015 — along with the benefits of added security, disaster recovery, applications/tools, and budget sustainability.

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Published by the State of Hawaii Office of the CIO, howz.IT is the newsletter of Hawaii’s technology transformation. Forward this issue to a friend or colleague so they can subscribe and receive updates. Subscribe here.

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