With the addition of Uniform Commercial Code filings, Secretary of State Bob Brown's office now offers ten services -- eight for businesses and two designed for attorneys, state agencies and Montana citizens. All of these eGovernment services were developed cooperatively by the Secretary of State's office and Montana Interactive, the private entity that provides eGovernment services for DiscoveringMontana.com.
“We brought business annual reports filing online ten months ago and had about five percent of our annual reports filed that way”
"This is an information age -- and as a proprietary agency that serves the public, it's important that we offer our customers what they need in a way that's convenient for them," said Brown.
The Secretary of State's first online service was business entity searches, which allowed banks, attorneys and others to print business entity certificates at their desks. Before an electronic version became available, information on the status of Montana businesses and corporations was available only by telephone or by stopping by the Secretary of State's Office in person. Certificates ordered by phone often took a week or more to be received by mail.
Other online services include Uniform Commercial Code searches and registered principals searches, which lists the officers, directors and managers of corporations and limited liability corporations.
Use of the Secretary of State's eGovernment services is expected to grow next year. "We brought business annual reports filing online ten months ago and had about five percent of our annual reports filed that way," said Pat Haffe, Business Services Deputy for the Secretary of State's office. "We expect to handle about 75,000 annual reports for Montana businesses with about one in ten businesses filing online in 2005."
The Secretary of State's most unique online offering is the voter verification service, the first-of-its-kind service in the nation that gives election officials the ability to verify the identity of voters through the state's driver record database. This service allows Montanans who go to the polls without identification to cast a regular ballot if they are in the state's driver database. The Voter Verification Service was put to use more than 600 times during the 2004 primary, and 400 times during the recent presidential general election.
Demand for online services through DiscoveringMontana.com continues to grow rapidly. The portal has supported more than 11.4 million site accesses during the first 11 months of 2004, up 192 percent over the same period two years ago.
About Montana Interactive
Helena-based Montana Interactive built, operates and maintains Montana's official Web site (www.DiscoveringMontana.com) and is a wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC.
About NIC
NIC manages more eGovernment services than any provider in the world. The company helps government communicate more effectively with citizens and businesses by putting essential services online. NIC provides eGovernment solutions for 1,500 state and local agencies that serve more than 51 million people in the United States. Additional information is available at www.nicusa.com.
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