August 12-15, 2001 • WestCoast Grand Hotel at the Park • Spokane, WA
(Sessions may be subject to change)
SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
Monday, August 13
Breakouts
8:45 - 9:30 am
SESSION 1
Customer Relationship Management - David Boyd, Deloitte Consulting
LEVEL: Basic
CRM Market Overview and Product Comparison - A overview of the vendors and products in the CRM market arena of interest to tax and revenue agencies. The presentation will cover the vendors and products, marketplace trends, general pricing information related to the products, and will demonstrate the contrasting features and styles of a market standard CRM product (Siebel) and an E-CRM product (Epiphany) that have been tailored for tax and revenue agencies.
Integrated Tax Systems - Susan Wilson, Florida
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
A description of Florida's development of an Integrated Tax System utilizing SAP commercial-off-the-shelf software. The Dept. of Revenue went live in April 2001 with an integrated tax system including registration, tax processing, payment processing, collections and general ledger.
XML Basics - Representative TBD
LEVEL: Basic
An introduction to XML, why it is significant to expanded e-commerce efforts, and the status of standards efforts.
E-Government Best Practices - John Goggin, Metagroup
LEVEL: Basic
How to get E-Government right:
9:45 - 10:30 am
Customer Relationship Management: An Implementation Strategy - Farley Beaton, Virginia
LEVEL: Basic
CRM solutions have tremendous potential for moving your tax department to a true customer centric organization. Developing a CRM strategy in the midst of concurrent Internet and other taxpayer service initiatives however can be a daunting process. The Virginia Department of Taxation has begun this process and can share with you its own CRM experience with an initial, tactical application of CRM for this year's filing season.
COTS Integrated Tax Systems - Steve Wilson, Idaho
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
Idaho will report on a tax modernization project, called CATS, a completely Web-compatible client-server integrated tax system running on industry-standard hardware and software. Begun in May 2000, it went into production on January 2, 2001. The Commission has been processing payments, managing accounts receivables, printing notices and statements, and processing refunds, for three tax types with the software since that date with success.
Development and Implementation of XML Standards for Tax Filing - Dave Curry and Michael Roytman, Vertex
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
The process and deliverables used by the Sales Tax Returns Working Committee of the X12/TIGERS group to develop an XML (Extensible Markup Language) schema for sales tax return filing will be demonstrated:
California Direct Filing Portal Experience - Atilla M
Taluy, FileYourTaxes.com
LEVEL: Intermediate
The California Franchise Tax Board - Electronic Tax Administration implemented
a novel Direct Filing Portal to receive personal income tax returns delivered
by industry partners. This real time filing method was
achieved with the cooperative effort of the government and the industry and
has been of great interest to other tax jurisdictions.
The presentation will outline the history, perceived intent and philosophy,
operational summary, associated security and privacy considerations, Customer
Service Number considerations, market response and demographics, lessons learned,
and the outlook for the next season.
10:45 - 11:30 am
Customer Relationship Management - Ro Silva, Colorado
LEVEL: Basic
These remarks will cover customer contact services and improvements the Colorado Department of Revenue Tax Group has implemented during the past year. Precipitated by recommendations from the State Auditor that showed the department was not taking advantage of technology to better serve our customers, the findings showed our call center management was not meeting the current "information age" needs of our taxpayers. With the assistance of private sector providers and new management, the Department has brought call center wait times down from 45 to under 5 minutes, and it is now possible for taxpayers to obtain information from us by phone, over the Web, and via an automated e-mail system.
Web Architecture - Michael Titmus, AMS
LEVEL: Intermediate
An integrated tax system design of the future incorporates maturing Internet technologies to provide state-of-the-art services to both internal (Department) and external (customer) users. The most visible aspect of this approach to application delivery is that all user interfaces are browser-based. The familiar browser paradigm benefits users because of its familiarity and convenience, and benefits system administrators due to the great reduction in software distribution effort. With the incremental improvements in desktop hardware, networking, and distributed software architectures, it is now the model of choice for interactive systems within and beyond the enterprise. This discussion will outline key features of an enterprise Web architecture for Integrated Tax Systems.
Filing Sales Tax Returns Using XML - John Hamlin, California BOE
LEVEL: Intermediate
The electronic filing program for the BOE leverages an existing integrated corporate database, Internet technology, and the expertise of third party Web developers to give California taxpayers a more convenient, timely, and accurate method of filing and paying tax returns. It also allows the BOE to provide more complete and accurate information in an electronic format for immediate storage and use, eliminating the costly, time-consuming, and error-prone processing of paper. Points of discussion will include an overview of the system architecture, system requirments, and the use of of XML for data interchange.
Social Security Administration Authentication Programs - Kim Mitchel, SSA
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
The Social Security Administration has been working with the U.S. Postal Service to develop a secure transport mechanism for sending data files across the Internet. Incorporating PKI and usable with any type of data exchange, the technology is poised for a wage reporting pilot in 2002. These remarks will provide an update.
11:30 am - 2:00 pm . . . . Lunch and Exhibit BREAK -- Exibit Hall (teardown at 2 PM)
Breakouts
2:00 - 2:45
Enterprise Application Integration - Daniel Darche, Sierra Systems
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
The collapse of the dot coms may have taken the panic out of e-Business, but the compelling reality of the need for adapting these technologies cannot be ignored. How do applications frameworks apply in a government setting? What are the implications of application frameworks to governments and how do these affect the ability to delivery government services electronically? How do e-Commerce services apply to government, a distinctly non-commercial environment? While the threat of 'the competition is just a click away' is sufficient to drive business headlong into adopting electronic solutions, how do you justify the cost of implementation on a service like government? The remarks will address the above questions.
Vendor Outsourcing Models - Steve Hanks and Satya Lanka, IBM
LEVEL: Basic
Tax agencies are looking at new business models to replace existing in-house, labor intensive services. One such model is forms processing outsourcing of mail handling, scanning, forms recognition and OCR/ICR data capture. Another potential process for outsourcing is output printing and mailing services, both paper and electronic (e.g., notices, billing, correspondence). This will also be presented, including successful commercial examples. A generic model and approach for achieving these ends will be presented along with applicable market research that presents U.S. and worldwide statistics on the volumes and cost metrics associated with these processes in tax and other government/commercial organizations.
Virginia Tax On-Line: 2001 Update - Farley Beaton,Virginia
LEVEL: Basic
The Virginia Department of Taxation will provide an update on new applications in their use of the Internet for individual and business taxpayer filing, registration, account maintenance and taxpayer services. Specific focus will be on the consolidated filing of Withholding and UI taxes and their new I-Reg application for taxpayer registration.
Voice XML and Chat Technology - Dan Ferrara, Enablx
LEVEL: Intermediate
Today's contact center is being challenged to respond to customer inquiries via e-mail or over the web via chat technology, and seamlessly integrate e-commerce, web chat, email and online support and interactivity with existing IVR and live-agent resources, and technologies are available to support collaborative efforts:
Voice XML or (VXML) is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, speech recognition, and even DTMF (Dual-Tone Multifrequency) key inputs. The goal is to provide a way to access Web pages over the telephone and make most Web pages accessible to the telephone. Agencies will also want to streamline communication processes using VXML, speech recognition and a common database. Today, most databases have at least two different operator interfaces, an IVR for the telephone, and a Web page for the computer. VXML makes the IVR redundant by embedding code in the Web page to make it accessible via the telephone. The user can simply dial into an 800 number and deal with what appears to be IVR scripts with the telephone, yet in actuality be interfacing with a Web page. These remarks will address voice XML and chat technology.
3:00 - 3:45
Enterprise Application Integration - Greg Tschida, Minnesota; Mary Jo Alexander; Don Friedlander
LEVEL: Basic
On January 9, 2001 the first enterprise-wide, mission critical, browser-based application for Minnesota's Income Tax Reengineering project was launched, called the File Folder. It provides the basis for the Department of Revenue's efforts to become less reactive in their compliance efforts. This application, along with a modern technology architecture, reengineered Identify, File/Pay and Compliance business processes, a new core tax processing system, and state of the art filing mechanisms at the heart of the reengineered tax system.
Outsourcing Data Capture - Panel
LEVEL: Intermediate
Large-scale receipt and conversion of a variety of tax form types (including income tax) for multiple states is proving to be increasingly attractive. Information will be presented on three distinct processing models utilizing a varying degree of technology (paper & image-based platforms) to receive and capture income tax for the states of Arkansas, Alabama, and Kentucky.
SESSION 3
Taxpayer Registration E-Services - Sue Meldazy and Rob Rice, Washington
LEVEL: Basic
Remarks will cover a State of Washington implementation of a streamlined process for businesses to register and pay license fees with several state departments. Businesses can register on-line to establish an account to pay business taxes, insurance premiums, and unemployment insurance taxes. The web application permits a business to self-code their NAICS and pay by credit card.
Credit Card Best Practices - Andy Morris and Helen Pelersi, New York
LEVEL: Basic
The session will provide a set of "best practices" in the implementation of a credit card payment program. The valuable experience of the IRS and six other States was used by New York in a very successful effort. This wil be of interest to other States looking to implement a credit card payment program in the future.
4:00 - 4:45
Enterprise Application Integration - Kevin Belden and Tom Guinan, IBM
LEVEL: Intermediate
Government agencies are now encountering external pressures similar to those exerted on their commercial counterparts in providing secure, multi-channel communications to their taxpayers. Critical elements of this process include a well designed approach to security and privacy and the implementation of a supporting infrastructure for application integration. The purpose of this session will be to describe an EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) approach to integration of a heterogeneous mix of COTS and legacy tax applications based on the use of a messaging architecture. This architecture is based on best practices developed in the financial services and retail sectors. The session will convey the key lessons learned from internally funded development work in revenue e-services; a review of feedback and perspectives from a worldwide customer advisory council; and presentation of a TaXML specification that is at the core of a flexible revenue enteprise architecture.
Web Tools and Techniques - Joseph Mizrahi, New York City
LEVEL: Basic
This session will describe some of the new services that can be added to tax jurisdiction websites for enhanced customer service, or to intranet resources for improved productivity of employees, for little or no cost .
Software Developer and Practitioner Testing - Nancy Lewis and Brenda Sidebottom, Kansas
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
Integrated electronic income tax filing requires coordination, integrated testing, and enterprise-level management structures to ensure successful implementation. This session will cover management techniques, coordination strategies, measurement examples, and automated tool sets to manage preparation for a state income tax preparation season. It will include development and testing integration of Fed/State filing, PC filing, telefiling, along with 3rd party software approval for paper based reporting for OCR and ICR imaging applications.
E-Payment Partnerships - Pete Catalanello, Official Payments Corp.
LEVEL: Basic
Government entities are confronting a variety of issues regarding converting their existing systems into new technologies. In this presentation, e-government will be defined and types of electronic government services available discussed. A specific definition of a successful electronic payment system, criteria for selecting the right partner, establishing an RFP process, and references from other government entities about their experiences will be outlined.
Following such guidelines helps the government sector implement new or changing technologies that further enhance its ability to work with the public, while at the same time reduces the costs and procedures of doing so.
7:30 am - 8:30 am . . . . Continental Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:30 am
General Session
Breakouts
9:45 - 10:45
SESSION 1
LEVEL: Basic
This session provides a background on 2-D barcoding, state status, barcode standards progress, and a description of state implementations and plans.
E-Commerce Legal Issues: Signatures, Records and Privacy - Benjamin Wright, Attorney
LEVEL: Basic
When Congress passed electronic signature legislation last year, it did not tell us which technology to use. This session will update you on the legal and practical issues surrounding electronic signatures, as well as the use and privacy of electronic records in tax administration.
Time Management - Ernie Petkovich, Unisys
LEVEL: Basic
It's 11:30 am - do you know where your morning went? A nostalgic look at all those time management ideas you've learned over the years that somehow have gotten lost in the reality of the business world and personal commitments. The value of time, lists, priorities, delegation and personal organization will be touched on, with an emphasis on ideas to bring about change.
11:00 - Noon
2-D Barcoding - Lee Mikelson, Virginia, Steve Csogi, New Jersey, Laurie Mitchell, IBML, and Joe Vasta, Logicon
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
Until e-file becomes the filing method of choice for all taxpayers, state tax agencies and the IRS will continue to face mountains of paper returns.
Virginia is leveling those paper mountains with a bold initiative to collect 2D barcode data using high-speed scanning. With the support of its partners AMS and IBML, Virginia has launched an imaging and data collection system that maximizes the benefits of 2-D barcoding, OCR/ICR decoding and Key from Image. The session will describe how Virginia's ability to deploy this system drove down cost dramatically while improving customer service.
The New Jersey Division of Revenue is implementing 2-D barcode processing for Income Tax and Corporation Business Tax returns. The presentation will discuss (a) the State's needs and requirements, (b) technical issues related to developing the new process while optimizing the use of the Division's existing hardware, (c) resolution of technical issues that led to the installation of the new process, and (d) an evaluation of the process to see if the needs and goals of the Division were met.
PKI Implementation - Colm Bermingham, Ireland Revenue, and Simon Pelly, Baltimore Technologies
LEVEL: Basic
Ireland Revenue went live on September 29, 2000 and over 1,600 customers successfully downloaded digital certificates necessary to use our service during the succeeding four month period; these customers paid almost $250 million in payroll and sales taxes. The next phases (income and corporation tax ) are scheduled for this year.
The presentation will provide a perspective from the technology side and one looking at it from the tax administration perspective in installing and setting up a PKI . It will outline the advantages of PKI for authentication of e-tax filers, including the use of secure access control systems for the provision of additional services such as account management and other e-government services.
The 21st Century Taxpayer - Jonathan Light, AMS
LEVEL: Basic
Through a series of dozens of detailed national interviews and focus groups conducted over six months with CPA's, CFO's, CEO's, entrepreneurs, taxpayers, and technology experts, a picture has been constructed of the evolving taxpayer - both private and corporate - and how revenue agencies must adapt to serve the changing needs of the taxpayer. This presentation will provide highlights of the findings of this research.
Noon - 1:30 pm . . . . Lunch - on your own
Breakouts
1:30 - 2:30
Safeguarding Tax Information: Start By Covering Your Apps - Maribeth Anderson, Anexsys
LEVEL: Intermediate
As tax administrators you know that focusing on Internet
network vulnerabilities is critical. But did you know that many attacks are
also at the application level? In the high-profile arena of taxation a
myopic view of security can lead to a breached system, embarrassment and loss
of constituent trust. Looking at the big picture and addressing the security
of your tax network applications is paramount to full security. This session
covers:
· Understanding why network security is not enough
· Identifying the types of web application attacks
· Preventing application hacks
· Setting standards for web application developers
You will leave this presentation with a plan for identifying web application
vulnerabilities and assessing the security of your website.
Review of State Web Portals -Amy Santenello & John Goggin, META Group
LEVEL: Basic
Government Portals, Where are we? Where are we going?
What will the future government portal look like? What actions must be taken
today to prepare for the portal transformation? What transactions/services should
be offered via the government portal? This session will answer these questions,
focusing on the relationship between public policy and government portals. Through
review of existing government web sites, this session will identify essential
components of the government "brand" in the development of a consistent
look and feel. By understanding the impact of privacy policies, this session
will examine steps other jurisdictions are taking in offering personalization
while maintaining constituent trust.
Customer E-Services - Sunil Sethi, Computing Alternatives and Earl Atwood, Wyoming
LEVEL: Basic
The Wyoming Department of Revenue has implemented a variety of Web filing alternatives. This presentation will highlight the internet solutions implemented for the agency, the technical architecture including Message Center and Help Desk functionality, and how these new filing options are integrated into their tax processing systems.
2:45 - 3:45
Streamlined Sales Tax Project - Jake Hoffman, Idaho
LEVEL: Basic
A descriptive report on the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, an effort to develop measures to design, test and implement a sales and use tax system that radically simplifies sales and use taxes. Status of the Project's various initiatives will be provided.
Managing Taxation Web Portals - Tim Blevins, Kansas
LEVEL: Basic
This session will be focused on building and managing a State
Taxation Web Portal. Strategies to be discussed include using a Web portal at
a state taxation agency to interface with statewide government portals, linking
to
outside private sector related business portals, common interface and delivery
of customer services through online filing, and self-help/self-service issues.
Strategies to create links between a Web portal and voice management systems
will also be explored. Demonstrations and examples of using the Taxation portal
for Government to Citizen, Government to Business, and Government to Government
service delivery along with the usage of an Intranet site to deliver services
inside the public sector organization will be presented as well.
Customer E-Services - Donna Hockensmith, STAWRS
LEVEL: Basic
The Simplified Tax and Wage Reporting System (STAWRS) is a project to recommend,develop and prototype standards accepted by multiple states and federal agencies for use by software developers to create or modify business products facilitating electronic filing of employment-based quarterly state and federal returns. Details of recommendations and the status of prototypes will be shared with the audience. Also addressed will be an Internet EIN application that allows a customer to apply for and receive an EIN over the Internet during the same session. A totally electronic end-to-end process eliminating human intervention and permitting processing of the applications much more quickly, the remarks will explain the process, the security ramifications and the current status and availability.
4:00 - 5:00
Geocoding Tax Rates for Wireless Sourcing - Gerald Johnson, Florida and Martin Sohovich, Group 1 Software
LEVEL: Basic
Florida's new Communications Services tax will be enhanced by a Department of Revenue provided system that will enable wireless services providers to determine jurisdictional tax rates for their mobile customers. This presentation will outline the issues and tasks facing the state and their partner.
Knowledge Discovery in Tax Compliance - Subhasis Datta,
IITRI
LEVEL: Beginning to Intermediate
Knowledge Discovery techniques such as Data Mining and Data Analysis can be
used to identify Non-Compliance in 4 areas: (1) failure to file, (2) overstatement
of expenses, (3) under-reported income, (4) failure to pay. A current engagement
with a large Province Consumer Sales Tax Branch to successfully prototype and
test these techniques, aimed at increasing sales tax revenues while remaining
non-intrusive to compliant taxpayers, will be reviewed, including efforts targeted
at 1) increasing entity matching through probabilistic matching techniques,
2) detecting non-filers, 3) improving audit identification and selection, and
4) using knowledge discovery (data mining) tools to detect the under-reporting
of sales tax and the overstatement of adjustments.
EDMS - Solving the Paper Processing Dilemma - Rebecca
Herrmann, North Dakota
Level - Basic to intermediate
The Office of State Tax Commissioner in North Dakota decided to tackle the volumes
of paper with technology for the 2001 processing season. The software
selected has been set up for a statewide solution, and many other ND agencies
are quickly following suit. The presentation will review the reasons for
the change, outline the decision process, discuss lessons learned, and describe
planned enhancements. The solutions selected for forms processing and
storage will be demonstrated.
7:30 am - 8:30 am . . . . Continental Breakfast
Breakouts
8:30 - 9:30 am
Data Warehouse Development Methodology - Glen Yancey, Kansas
LEVEL: Intermediate
This will be a presentation on the Kansas Department of Revenue data warehouse project. This session will discuss how KDOR used a streamlined design process, integrated data warehouse development tools and web based delivery architecture to redesign and implement its data warehouse.
Audit/Compliance - Tom Nast, California FTB
LEVEL: Intermediate
This will be an overview and presentation of the California Franchise Tax Board's Integrated Nonfiler Compliance (INC) Application System. INC improves how the Board identifies nonfilers and helps to secure tax returns and payments from them. Focusing on innovative technology solutions applied to information received from banks, financial institutions, IRS, and other "information reporters" each year, it uses information more effectively resulting in fewer incorrect or inappropriate taxpayer contacts.
Refund Offset Programs - Fred Bahr, Wisconsin
LEVEL: Basic
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue offsets tax refunds against county and municipal debts for fines, fees, forfeitures, and restitutions. Their Tax Refund Interception Process (TRIP) is a recently implemented Internet application for the transfer of data regarding these offsets between the Department and local governments.
9:45 - 10:45
Retention of IT Staff - Marilyn Cooksey, Indiana
LEVEL: Basic
Indiana began a pilot program in October 2000 for Information Technology staff. A premium pay plan was established with the aim of attracting and retaining IT staff. The plan has five parts:
Although only in the beginning stages of the program, the state has seen some success and will report on the program.
Audit/Compliance - Stan Borawski
LEVEL: Intermediate
The presentation will cover the final implementation of Michigan's three year FARSTaR project. FARSTaR is a rule-based expert system for audit selection, audit management and tracking (inventory/MIS), field audit support and related expert system, network infrastructure, encryption/security, on-line tax research through CCH, document imaging and management. Remarks will address the project from the perspective of what worked and what didn't.
IRS Extract Programming - IRS Staff -- GOVERNMENT ONLY
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
IRS programmers will address the problems and work involved with changes to existing tax payer data extracts or adding new extracts. This will provide an update to the state participants and an opportunity to become aware of the work involved.
11:00 am - Noon
IRS Plans for the Use of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) - Gregory G. Carson, IRS-ETA
LEVEL: Basic
The IRS plans to implement electronic filing for the Corporate Form 1120 and potentially additional applications in the next 24 months; the use of XML has become a part of their strategy and these remarks will bring you up to date.
Data Mining in Audit Selection - Bill Haffey, SPSS
LEVEL: Intermediate
Predicting potential audit recovery from tax returns
as a method of selecting returns for audit can be a useful technique in optimizing
auditor resources. But constructing such prediction models in the past
has met with limited success due in part to the inherent noise found in the
audited returns used for building these models. Newer data mining techniques
can overcome this shortfall and produce relatively accurate, interpretable models.
In this talk, a quick primer on these techniques will be offered –
within the context of a case study.
IRS Extract Programming - IRS Staff -- GOVERNMENT ONLY -- Continued
LEVEL: Basic to Intermediate
IRS programmers will address the problems and work involved with changes to existing tax payer data extracts or adding new extracts. This will provide an update to the state participants and an opportunity to become aware of the work involved.
8:00 am - 2:00 pm . . . . ASC X12
/ TIGERS Tax Information Task Group
Data Format Standards for Sourcing of Wireless Transactions - with FTA/MTC
Wireless Committee
- Introductions
- Public comment
- Review of development effort to date
- Timeline for X12 approval
- Review of draft wireless data format strawman
- Issues and discussion/revision
- Next Steps
- Meeting/teleconference planning
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm . . . . ASC X12 / TIGERS Tax Information Task Group
eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Standards
- discussion of Base Schema
- standard names (XML tags)
- Core Components
- Schema User Guide
9:00 am - 5:00 pm . . . . ASC X12 / TIGERS Work Sessions -- eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Standards
9:00 am - 12 Noon . . . . ASC X12 / TIGERS Work Sessions continued -- eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Standards