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2.1       Background

Texas is transforming its government services to meet public access needs.  The transformation is comprised of automating manual, paper-driven processes and delivering more efficient, effective exchange of information, funds, benefits and transaction of services through electronic media to the public and private sectors.  The transformation is called Electronic Government (e-Government) and in order to meet the end goal of automation, Texas has enacted several initiatives including:

• September 1997 – Judicial Committee on Information Technology (JCIT) was created by the Legislature.
• May 1999 - Senate Bill 974 - Established the e-Government Task Force. The Task Force was mandated to assess the feasibility of establishing a common electronic system using the Internet through which state and local governments can send documents, receive applications, and receive required payments.
• December 1999 - The E-Government Task Force issued a Request for Offer (RFO) for a Framework for Electronic Government.
• May 2000 - KPMG Consulting was awarded the contract to develop and operate the portal for the State of Texas.  The portal pilot agencies were the Comptroller of Public Accounts, Railroad Commission, Real Estate Commission, Department of Licensing and Regulation, Department of Insurance, and the Natural Resources Conservation Commission.
• July 2000 – Department of Information Resources released the results of the Texas state agency survey, which explored perceived benefits and barriers to state agency participation in online government, identified agencies’ needs to participate in online government, and documented agencies’ progress to providing services online. The report is entitled Survey of State Agency Initiatives http://www.dir.state.tx.us/egov/Surveys/Agency_Survey/index.html.
• September 2001 - Senate Bill 187 - Established a 15-member authority to provide vision, leadership, and operational oversight for the TexasOnline portal project and requires the Authority to report to the Legislature on the feasibility of allowing the sale and placement of advertising on TexasOnline.
• December 2001 - Judicial Committee on Information Technology e-Filing Strategy adopted.
• January 2002 - The first meeting of the TexasOnline Authority occurred.
• March 2002 – TexasOnline/KPMG Consulting hosted the e-Filing Project Kick Off Meeting.
• January-April 2002 – Extensive project planning, system requirements gathering, and system design work performed by TexasOnline/KPMG Consulting.
• May 2002 – System development work commenced by KPMG Consulting.
• Fall, 2002 – Pilot portion of the Project will be initiated by introduction of the system into production within selected counties.

The 76^th Legislature initiated the TexasOnline Pilot Project to determine the most expedient, cost-effective solution to implementing e-Government within the state and address the security, availability, citizen privacy assurance, fund management and cost issues associated with the implementation.  The objectives were met by determining that the most beneficial solution would be to construct a common infrastructure, TexasOnline that all governmental entities could utilize, thus providing a cost and resource effective solution.  The 77^th Legislature endorsed the use of TexasOnline by all state agencies as their foundation for e-Government implementations and created the TexasOnline Authority as the governing body of TexasOnline.  Still in its relative infancy, TexasOnline has already achieved provision of thirty online services, with an additional thirty in development, processing 800,000 transactions per month and supporting 36,000 visits to the website per day.  Further, TexasOnline has supported ten agencies in implementing e-Government initiatives within two years of its inception.   Some of the functions currently supported include online vehicle registration, citation payment, driver license and identification card renewals, occupational and professional licensing, and tax payments.

The JCIT was created by the Legislature in 1997 to "establish standards and guidelines for the systematic implementation and integration of information technology into the trial and appellate courts in Texas."^[1]   The committee is composed of fifteen representative members of the judiciary, plus other liaison and advisory members representing specialized expertise and organizations.  OCA is a state agency that provides administrative support and technical assistance to all of the courts of Texas. The agency was created in 1977 and operates under the direction of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.^[2]

Due to the success of TexasOnline and the goals of the JCIT, it is a natural match to coordinate the efforts of these organizations and leverage the TexasOnline infrastructure to develop and implement an e-Filing System for the State of Texas.  KPMG Consulting has extensive collective knowledge and experience in implementing solutions within the legal field.

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¹ Excerpt from the Judicial Committee on Information Technology meeting minutes conducted on September 17, 1997 9:30 A.M.  Texas Law Center, Room 104, Austin, Texas - Quotation by Mr. Peter Vogel, Committee Chair, URL: http://www.courts.state.tx.us/jcit/mins/min09_97.htm

² Published on the Texas Judiciary Online web site, Office of Court Administration page, 2002 Copyright by the State of Texas, URL: http://www.courts.state.tx.us/oca/index.asp.