1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 JULY 27, 2011 9 10 ITEM P -- OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 11 ITEM P6 12 TECHNOLOGY DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S REPORT 13 ITEM 1 14 PRESENTATION OF THE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION'S 15 DIGITAL OFFICE VISION, 16 ROADMAP UPDATE 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 26 No. CSR 5214 27 28 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 4 5 Michelle Steel Vice-Chairwoman 6 7 Betty T. Yee Member 8 9 George Runner Member 10 11 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 12 Chiang, State Controller (per 13 Government Code Section 7.9) 14 15 Diane G. Olson Chief, Board 16 Proceedings Division 17 Anna Brannen Chief Information 18 Officer Technology Services 19 Department 20 Manveer Bola Technology Services 21 Department 22 23 ---oOo--- 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JULY 27, 2011 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Miss Olson? 6 MS. OLSON: Our next item is P6.1, Presentation 7 of Board of Equalization's Digital Office Vision, 8 Roadmap Update. 9 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much. 10 MS. BRANNEN: Anna Brannen, Chief Information 11 Officer with the Board of Equalization. 12 And seated next to me is Manveer Bola, one of 13 our members of our Technology Services Department and 14 the Project Director for our project to become digital. 15 Back in September 2008 I presented to you our 16 initial roadmap for becoming digital. In that roadmap 17 we laid out a vision of where we would use digital 18 technology to capture images and data to reduce our 19 facilities cost, our ongoing operating costs, streamline 20 our business processes, increase staff productivity and 21 establish a platform for improving our services to our 22 taxpayers. 23 Today I am here to provide you with an update 24 of what we completed, what we learned over the last 25 couple years and how we plan to move forward. 26 Over the last two years we completed a number 27 of efforts to become digital. For example, we 28 transitioned over one million paper documents from our 3 1 Legal Department into a searchable electronic format. 2 We also eliminated over one ton of physical paper in our 3 Legal Department. We implemented the ability for 4 Executive Director to store, share and search documents. 5 We reduced the number of documents that are being sent 6 to our Taxpayer Records Unit by 40 percent. We piloted 7 the use of electronic images instead of paper for the 8 processing of our returns in the Property and Special 9 Tax Department. And we piloted the concept of a digital 10 audit between our headquarters and two of our field 11 offices, where instead of printing out paper that audit 12 actually moves the process electronically. 13 We also implemented a technical infrastructure 14 to support our strategic concept of becoming digital. 15 And we completed a method to classify electronic 16 documents, thereby making them searchable. 17 So, over the last two years we've learned some 18 lessons. We've learned that pilots work very well. 19 This allows us to test out our concepts, our 20 technologies and our new businesses processes in a 21 small, safe environment that minimizes disruption to our 22 operation. 23 We found out that some of our older 24 technologies do not work too well with newer 25 technologies. So, for example, we found out that some 26 of our hardware components do not work well with this 27 more sophisticated software. 28 We found that our records retention policy 4 1 should be the same, regardless of the format. So, our 2 paper retention policy should be the same as our 3 electronic retention -- electronic data retention 4 policy. 5 And we also found out that we started some 6 efforts prematurely. We found that we wanted to start, 7 for example, to develop a method for indexing our 8 documents before we actually knew what the technology 9 was capable of. 10 Overall, we feel that the effort to become 11 digital is worth the investment and ongoing commitment 12 of our agency. 13 We believe it increases our efficiency and 14 effectiveness, streamlines our processes, eliminates 15 paper and improves our services to our taxpayers. 16 With that in mind, our new roadmap will expand 17 on some of these existing efforts and launch some new 18 projects. 19 And, so, I'd like to turn it over -- my 20 presentation -- to Mr. Bola, to share with you what he's 21 going to be leading over the next couple years. 22 MR. BOLA: Good afternoon, Chairman Horton and 23 Members of the Board. 24 I'm Manveer Bola, the Project Director of the 25 Digital BOE program. 26 MR. HORTON: Good afternoon. 27 MR. BOLA: Sir? 28 MR. HORTON: I said, "Good afternoon." 5 1 MR. BOLA: Oh -- some of the projects that are 2 currently underway to help us become digital include the 3 E-Appeals project, which will create a paperless and 4 automated appeals process. This will also pave the way 5 for taxpayers to be able to file their appeals online in 6 the future. 7 Another effort that we're working on is the 8 E-Lien project, which will create a system to 9 electronically file liens with counties. This will 10 reduce the time it takes to fail and release a lien. 11 We are also working on expanding the digital 12 audit process to many more district offices. 13 In addition to these efforts, we'll be 14 launching a few new projects this year. The first will 15 create a system to scan and rapidly deposit taxpayer 16 checks into the banks. 17 The second project will scan all taxpayer 18 records in our taxpayer records warehouse and make those 19 documents accessible to staff. 20 We will also be consolidating some of our less 21 sophisticated document repositories into our central 22 document management system. 23 And, lastly, in order to protect all this 24 electronic information, we will be creating a backup 25 system to be used in case of a disaster. 26 All that -- these digital BOE efforts will 27 compliment and be incorporated in the CROS project. 28 In closing, our plans are to provide you with 6 1 periodic updates on the project, the progress of these 2 efforts to become digital. 3 This concludes today's presentation. We are 4 available for your comments or questions. 5 Thank you. 6 MR. HORTON: Thank very much. 7 Discussion, Members? 8 MR. RUNNER: Just a quick question. 9 MR. HORTON: Mr. Runner? 10 MR. RUNNER: I noticed that some of the 11 projects that were listed there were items that were 12 cancelled or held due to cost. 13 And, so, when -- I guess the general question I 14 have is, as we go through this process, I assume -- and 15 I don't know how formal it is, but maybe it -- but maybe 16 you can share that -- what -- how do we go through or 17 what is the process for doing a cost benefit analysis 18 moving to digital? 19 I'm -- you know, as I talk with -- with my 20 wife, Sharon, she's convinced that the more I do things 21 digitally, the more it costs us. 22 And, so, I mean -- how do we do it as an 23 organization? 24 MS. BRANNEN: So, the way that it works here at 25 the Board is we look for opportunities to become 26 digital. 27 And, so, whatever Department at the Board sees 28 an opportunity, they make a proposal to the steering 7 1 committee of what they think they could be -- become 2 digital. They lay out what the costs would be and what 3 the benefits would be. 4 And sometimes the benefits are not always from 5 a cost perspective. It might be that we can -- like, 6 for example, in the digital audit world, just the 7 reduction in the paper and in the, for example, you 8 know, getting the paper from the field office to 9 headquarters. 10 So, they make a proposal to the steering 11 committee and then the steering committee makes a 12 decision whether or not to go forward with that. 13 Sometimes we have like good ideas, but we may 14 not have the amount of money that is needed to move that 15 forward. So, we may put that on hold until we get some 16 additional funds. 17 These are relatively small cost projects, just, 18 you know, could be a few thousand dollars to a couple of 19 ten thousand dollars, you know, they're relatively 20 small. But they have -- they have great improvements 21 for -- for our staff and for the taxpayers. 22 MR. RUNNER: Thank you. 23 MR. HORTON: Further discussion, Members? 24 Hearing none, thank you very much for the 25 presentation. 26 ---o0o--- 27 28 8 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for the 8 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 9 JULY 27, 2011 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to the 10 best of my ability, the proceedings in the 11 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 12 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding pages 1 13 through 8 constitute a complete and accurate 14 transcription of the shorthand writing. 15 16 Dated: AUGUST 10, 2011 17 18 19 ____________________________ 20 JULI PRICE JACKSON 21 Hearing Reporter 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 9