When the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission set out to modernize its licensing process last year, leaders at the agency found one of their biggest hurdles was getting buy-in for the new system from employees.
The archaic all-paper system had created its own cottage industry of specialties within the commission, which oversees upwards of 180,000 licensees. Responsibilities were siloed and only a few employees knew how to complete certain tasks, making it difficult to process applications or track down information about pending licenses.
“Literally we were sitting on files,” said Christopher Dowell, director of information technology at the Tennessee ABC, of the sheer bulk of paper housed in the state’s offices. “It required real leadership from the director-level down to say we are going with this.”
Since the commission transitioned to an all-digital system, the state has consolidated nine offices into four, eliminated all walk-in traffic associated with licensing, and drastically cut the time it takes to process new license applications and renewals, Dowell said.
The state used technology from Accela, a software development company, to overhaul its licensing process. After the extensive test run with Tennessee, the company last week released the new civic application for alcohol licensing for use by other state and local governments. It also released a business licensing application that was initially tested with Denver, Colorado’s Department of Excise and Licenses.
The applications are out-of-the-box software that can help state and local governments looking to streamline their licensing process and improve customer service, said Dave Maxwell, senior product marketing manager at Accela.
In understanding how to build a digital licensing system to re ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
