INSIDE

InsIghts is published by Oklahoma Interactive. Your questions and comments are welcome. Please contact us at:

410 North Walnut, Suite 160 | Oklahoma City, OK 731041-800-955-3468 | (405) 524-3468 OK.gov

OklahOma InteractIve repOrt 2013

OKStrong.OK.gov – Helping When It Matters Most ......... 2

Valued Partnership – Oklahoma Tax Commission .. 3

Employee Spotlight ............. 3

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Message From the General Manager

uring this past decade, the way government is functioning has experienced extraordinary

growth and change. The electronic tools and services used by and with government, known as “eGovernment,” enable civil servants and constituents to navigate the public sector more quickly and efficiently. Government officials and employees can communicate more easily with citizen and business users, streamline their departments’ practices, improve transparency, and do a better overall job of carrying out the vital work of government.

At Oklahoma Interactive, we have the knowledge, experience, and expertise to bring specialized and tailored online tools to more than 180 state agency and affiliate partners. We know the steps we need to take are simply an extension of what we have been doing successfully since our inception in 2001. That

t NIC, we help our government partners deliver valuable information and services to businesses and citizens 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Today,

30 states enjoy the efficiencies NIC brings to interacting with government.

Mobile-First StrategyAs the eGovernment industry leader, NIC is at the technology forefront for providing

electronic government services for all types of devices. Today, NIC has developed more official government mobile applications than any company in the world. Serving as the research and development department for our partners, our innovation brings govern-ment access to the latest technologies for providing electronic services. We employ a ‘mobile-first’ strategy, and believe that today’s evolving technology requires that all online services be developed with a mobile consideration.

In addition to native mobile apps, we also lead in mobile Web expertise, using ‘responsive design’ technology to provide convenience to citizens and efficiency to our government partners. Secure Transactions

The number of eGovernment services we provide grows every day. In our 21-year history, we have developed more than 7,500 customized eGovernment solutions that enable citizens and businesses to interact with government securely and efficiently. In

Positive Government Experiences Working Toward a Common Goal

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2 | OKlaHOMa INTEraCTIVE rEPOrT 2013

OKStrong.OK.gov – Helping When It Matters Most

May of 2013 marked a very tragic time in Oklahoma history. The cities of El Reno, Shawnee, Carney, and Moore experienced natural disasters of epic propor-

tion. More than 1,100 homes were destroyed in massive tornados and the aftermath consisted of heaps of debris made by misplaced artifacts from within those homes.

The city hit the hardest was Moore, Okla., which is located along Inter-state 35 between Oklahoma City and Norman. In response to the devastation in Moore on May 20, OI received a request during a cabinet meeting at the governor’s office to facilitate creation of a website that would provide state-approved relief information for Oklahoma citizens. Within minutes, OI staff began the meager outlines of what would become OKStrong.OK.gov. The initial website went live within two hours of the initial request from the governor’s office.

“OKStrong, the state’s disaster recovery site, popped up within 24 hours of the tornado’s deadly May 20 strike,” said John Estus, spokesman for the Oklahoma Office of Manage-ment and Enterprise Services. “The quick response was possible because NIC provides the disaster recovery website as part of its package of services in anticipation of potential needs. NIC provides the framework and technology, leaving the state to drive the flow of information.”

Due to national attention, more than 5,000 news stories have been generated to direct traffic to the OKStrong.OK.gov website, and on the May 21 launch date, OKStrong.OK.gov received more than 25,000 unique visits.

OKStrong.OK.gov resides on the state portal infrastructure, a shared resource that utilizes load balancing across multiple tiers for consistent performance and utilizes PHP and HTML program-ming language and an Oracle database.

It employs Cascading Style Sheet World Wide Web Consortium properties to offer an enhanced experience for current Internet browsers without compromising the experience for users with older browsers.

The website was created using the GoGov Content Management System and developed with the enterprise Generation 4 template. The template allows OK.gov to develop application components with a reusable, modular infrastructure. The template also allows OK.gov the flexibility to make modular enhancements to the application for ongoing functionality and usability improvements in the future.

“OKStrong was created to help the thousands of Oklahomans affected by May’s storms by providing state-approved disaster relief information in one reliable location,” said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin. “I want to congratulate the OKStrong team for all their hard work in providing this great service during such a time of need.”

Positive Government Experiences

2012, more than 200 million online transactions were completed using eGovernment services developed by NIC, and the company securely processed more than $22.5 billion on behalf of its government partners. What’s key is all the transactions were completed securely.

A cybersecurity breach could cost states a lot more than cred-ibility. Cybersecurity has become of critical importance, with 82 percent of state officials stating that cybersecurity is the most impor-tant challenge they face.

NIC’s standards-based eGovernment security program uses a multilayered approach to ensure that sensitive information is protected. The investment to keep security measures current and valuable data safe is relatively small when compared to the poten-tial costs of a major breach. Consumer confidence can plummet,

reputations can be damaged beyond repair, legal action can drain resources and the negative effects can ripple far and wide.

NIC’s corporate and portal security teams continuously monitor online applications and systems to detect vulnerabilities, and adhere to the highest levels of payment card industry (PCI) compliance. Yet, even with most of the risk outsourced, partners still need to be aware that 100 percent of the risk cannot be outsourced. NIC’s Corporate Security Team, led by NIC’s chief security officer, Jayne Friedland Holland, helps educate partners on the many layers and complexi-ties involved with PCI compliance and security issues. With states currently targeted by literally millions of security threats every week, heightened vigilance is of immediate and critical importance.

NIC’s mobile technology innovation, combined with our strong cyber-security expertise, makes NIC a truly unique and valuable partner. n

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OKlaHOMa INTEraCTIVE rEPOrT 2013 | 3

knowledge is largely due in part to our continued commitment to teamwork, technology-focused strategies, and to our policy of placing the trust of our state partners above all else.

The bottom line is we care about helping the citizens of Oklahoma connect to state government in a way that is func-tional and efficient. The OK.gov staff holds this altruistic paradigm in high regard, as every effort put forward

is done with the knowledge that the work they are producing is helping encourage governmental transparency and public trust.

We look forward to 2014 with many exciting new projects on the horizon and look forward to the relationships we will build with our state partners. Only new and better things are to come.

Mark Mitchell, OK.gov General Manager

Since 1931, the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) has held the responsibility of collecting and administering taxes, licenses, and fees that impact every Oklahoman. The collected revenues fuel such state projects as education,

transportation, recreation, social welfare, and a myriad of other services. Under the direction of the state legislature, the Tax Commission manages not only the collec-tion of taxes and fees, but also the distribution and apportionment of revenues to

various state funds.OTC processes more than $11

billion annually through the many essential services they

provide to the citizens of Oklahoma. Their

focus is on building solid applications that provide efficient, reliable, and secure government interac-tion with citizens. “In this world of mobility,

people need access to services and electronic

filing is the answer,” said Mary Frantz, OTC deputy

executive director.

Valued Partnership – Oklahoma Tax Commission

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Employee Spotlight – Patrick PflaumP atrick “Pat” Pflaum, director of tech-

nology at OK.gov, began his career with NIC, Inc. more than 20 years ago after he answered an advertisement in the Daily Okla-homan newspaper.

“It (the job) was something in my field and it was something I could do to help people. Make their lives easier,” said Pflaum.

On March 16, 1992, Pflaum started his career with NIC, Inc. His first position was in Kansas, and after a few years he was offered the opportunity to go to Maine but deferred for placement in Oklahoma, to be close to family. The decision propelled him to become one element of the two-person “strike team” that kick-started the Oklahoma portal. Pflaum and Jeff McCartney, vice president, Portal Opera-tions of NIC, Inc., landed in Oklahoma in September of 2001 to build and maintain the first-ever Oklahoma State Web portal, “YourOklahoma.com.”

“It was just the two of us,” said Pflaum. “We worked out of a weekly motel on Northwest Expressway (in Oklahoma City) for a while. Then we had some space in one of the state offices. Didn’t have much, and the state needed results pronto.”

From meager beginnings, Pflaum has helped to build and groom OK.gov to the 22-employee company it is today. During his tenure, he has seen the implementation of a custom Content Management System, which serves more than 140 state agencies

Patrick Pflaum

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Message From the General Manager| continued from page 1 |

InsIghts is published by Oklahoma Interactive. Your questions and comments are welcome. Please contact us at:

410 North Walnut, Suite 160 | Oklahoma City, OK 731041-800-955-3468 | (405) 524-3468 OK.gov © 2014 Trozzolo.com

and affiliates, five different portal designs, and the development of more than 250 custom applications.

When asked what was the biggest technology change he has witnessed in his tenure with the company, Pflaum said, “The Internet. There was no Internet when I started with NIC. We oper-ated on a modem-based system where agencies had to dial in to gain access to our databases. I remember we would stack three modems together. Nothing compared to how we operate today.”

Pflaum said the Internet has been the driver of all change. Since implementation in the late 1990s the entire way state government

does business has changed. The government is held accountable and therefore must provide avenues of access to the public it serves. NIC has been there from the start and has continued to grow and help state governments to build innovative online applications.

When asked about the future and the newest trend he is excited about, Pflaum said, “Human Interface Devices. To me, a device that can figure out what you want before you even know you want it is pretty awesome. It’s going to be a very exciting area in the future for sure.”

Pflaum currently lives in Edmond, Okla., with his wife, Donna, and their three children. n

Employee Spotlight – Patrick Pflaum

Valued Partnership – Oklahoma Tax Commission

One of the highlighted services provided by OTC is the Oklahoma Tax Commission Motor Vehicle Renewal system, or Convenient Auto Renewal System (CARS). It provides commercial, noncommercial, and farm vehicle regis-tration renewals to Oklahoma citizens. This service was built in partnership with Oklahoma Interactive (OI). “When

we decided to offer this service electroni-cally, we immediately chose OI to help us develop it online,” said Frantz. “I look at OI as an extension of our agency. We can collaborate with OI’s expert staff to develop a quality service.” Because of this partnership, OTC has been able to reduce the cost for both the state

and taxpayers. The service produces fewer errors than the manual process; there’s no data entry required from the agency with very little back-end correc-tion needed. Since the service launched in February 2010, OTC has seen more than a 500 percent adoption increase in its usage. Oklahoma citizens can renew their vehicle registration online at CARS.ok.gov.

Business tax is a major component of the OTC’s tax administration responsibili-ties. QuickTax is the agency’s reporting system that allows taxpayers to report and remit payment for a multitude of business tax types. Since 2008, OI has processed all of OTC’s business tax payments online – approximately 1.2

million annually. OTC chose to go with OI for payment processing because of their security and PCI DSS compliancy exper-tise. “Providing that level of security and compliance would have been cost-prohibi-tive had we done it in-house,” said Frantz. “OI knows and understands payment processing. They are experts in security concerns and payment compliance. This is a huge benefit to the state, the taxpayers, and us. I don’t think taxpayers could do any better than OI.”

OTC chose to partner with Oklahoma Interactive for several reasons:

• National recognition• eGovernment expertise• Integrity“OI’s work product for the OTC has been

exceptional,” said Frantz. “We continue using OI because they provide the level of support, expertise, and response we need to satisfy the needs of our customers, the taxpayers of Oklahoma.” n

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“ Since the service launched in February 2010, OTC has seen more than a 500 percent adoption increase in its usage.”