OCTOBER 26, 2006 - Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA), in collaboration with other state agencies, has helped Michigan earn state and national honors for technology initiatives that significantly reduce the time required to begin operating a business in the state and that simplify subsequent business transactions with UIA.

UIA and its partner agencies were honored last week by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and the week before at the Michigan Digital Summit.  The state agencies were recognized for their work on the Michigan Business Portal - a one-stop online shop for business services that is also reducing costs in state government and potential processing errors.

UIA and the Michigan Departments of Information Technology (DIT) and Treasury worked jointly on an e-registration project that allows businesses to quickly and easily register for key Treasury and UIA tax identification numbers online, sharply cutting the time needed to begin operating a business in the state.

The e-registration portal is complemented by the new Employer Web Portal, a joint UIA and DIT project, which allows employers to create a self-service account with UIA for doing routine filing and business maintenance for unemployment insurance (UI) activities.

The Employer Web Portal went live this summer and has already attracted more than 15,500 employers who have set up self-service accounts.  The e-registration process has existed since 2004, but initially involved only the UIA.  Treasury joined the e-registration process in June 2006.  So far, some 6,100 employers have registered their businesses online.

Through the Employer Web Portal, employers can complete the following UI processes online at any time, instead of though laborious paper transactions:

• Submitting quarterly wage information files
• Submitting files for employer filed claims (for laid-off workers)
• Filing quarterly UI tax reports
• Paying state UI taxes
• Requesting  and receiving UI tax statements
• Filing a power of attorney
• Updating account information (address, phone number)
• Viewing tax information

"This award-winning project is saving Michigan employers and state government time and money," Robert W. Swanson, director of the Department of Labor & Economic Growth stated.  "For businesses, the Employer Portal reduces their points of contact with UIA, allows them to easily access business-related UI information and provides instant notification of the receipt and processing of unemployment forms and payments."

Employer use of the portal is also generating savings for UIA.

"Thousands of staff hours that, in the past, had been spent on manual processing and error correction can now be directed toward priority workload tasks," Liza Estlund Olson, acting UIA director said.  "It also allows us to eliminate contracts for data entry and document scanning and reduces the costs for manually processing quarterly tax payments."

The Employer Web Portal won in the category of "Government to Business" at the NASCIO awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 17, and in category of "Best Application Serving the Public" at the Michigan Digital Government Summit on Friday, October 13, which UIA staff accepted in conjunction with DIT.  The NASCIO represents state chief information officers and information resource executives and managers from the 50 states, 6 U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.  The summit sought nominations from state and local units of government for its Excellence in Technology Awards.

"Although they are technology awards, it was not solely the technology that won the awards," Teri Takai, Chief Information Officer for Michigan and DIT director, said.  "It was the use of technology to benefit employers, the public and state government that helped win the awards."