Streamlining data is daunting task for state

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Paperwork is piling up fast at some branches of Hawai'i government as the demand for ultramodern information technology quickly increases.

Frances Kaneshiro, a personnel tech at the Department of Education, is surrounded by folders containing information on DOE employees. A DOE spokesman said the office has no backup discs on those files. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The state has made many impressive strides with automation and computer technology over the past decade, but some areas lag far behind and others have suffered from poor planning, according to state officials, audits and studies.

Improving information systems can streamline government and reduce labor costs, but it can also require major investments and close attention to details.

"It's something that's critically needed and it does cost a lot," Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said. "It's kind of hard to expand when we're just scrambling to keep up."

Hawai'i's public schools were among the first in the nation to all be linked by computer — no easy task for a statewide school system spread out over islands.

But the department is struggling to meet a federal mandate for compiling testing data to measure academic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act. And personnel records for teachers often must be reviewed by hand to calculate collective bargaining costs and retirement benefits.

"It's penny-wise and pound-foolish not to give them the resources they need, then have staff over there doing these things manually," said Rep. Roy Takumi D-36th, (Pearl City, Palisades), House Education Committee chairman.

Rod Moriyama, the department's assistant superintendent for information technology, said needed improvements for the testing data and personnel records could cost up to $24 million. Upgrades are also needed for procurement systems, and improving technology available to classrooms could cost much more.

"To just say, 'How much is it going to cost?' — there's a lot to wade through," Moriyama said.

Just identifying goals and establishing priorities are a tremendous task, and can't be accomplished from the top down, by a few key officials relying on anecdotal observations.

"It's not an overnight deal," Moriyama said. "It's a cultural shift."

Other departments face similar problems as the need to quickly retrieve accurate information grows, and computer systems are increasingly required to communicate with each other.

An audit of the state's child support enforcement system found that plans to automate some paperwork and interface with other computer systems, such as a federal case registry, remain undeveloped.

Earlier reports have repeatedly warned of poor planning at other agencies.

Major computer systems at the Department of Human Services could not effectively share information because officials failed to follow state information systems planning guidelines, a 2001 audit found.

That meant the same data often had to be entered into different systems, wasting work time and increasing the chances for errors.

Computer specialists from various state departments have improved their coordination in recent years, but much more needs to be done, said Sen. David Ige, chairman of the Senate's Science, Art and Technology Committee.

"I think the biggest issue is that agencies have done it by themselves, but there is really no overall state plan," said Ige, D-16th (Pearl City, 'Aiea). "We need to have someone watching all of this to make sure these systems work, and work together."

Ige said he has proposed for more than a decade that the state appoint a chief information officer, but that the idea stalled because others did not view it as a priority and money was tight.

"I do believe you need to have someone in charge and accountable, otherwise everyone does their own thing," he said. "There's nobody explicitly tasked with making sure we maximize the value of the systems out there."

Gov. Linda Lingle's administration has no plan to seek such an information czar, but has been moving quickly to embrace new technology. The administration proposed a bill last week that would allow some state contracting to be handled online in a "reverse auction" format that seeks the lowest price, for example.

The Department of Accounting and General Services handles a huge chunk of the state's paperwork and data processing. Director Russ Saito agreed that better links with other agencies were necessary, but stopped short of calling for a Cabinet-level position.

"It shouldn't be legislated, but we need to look at how best to synchronize systems," he said.

Ige said there are opportunities to reduce paperwork in every state department, but it won't happen by magic.

"People like to talk about doing more with less, but we can't ask workers to do more with less if we don't give them the tools to be successful," he said. "Even in tough budget times, you have to make those investments in tools that will allow you to be more efficient."

The University of Hawai'i has especially been a pioneer in using computerized records to speed up work and cut waste, Ige said, using such innovations as paperless purchase orders.

"I think the university has been more willing to take risks, and I think they're definitely farther along than anyone else," he said.

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has also moved quickly to eliminate paperwork.

New businesses can incorporate online and have their annual filings processed and recorded electronically, said state Securities Commissioner Ryan Ushijima. Soon, data will be shared with the Labor and Taxation departments so that information is typed in to one computer instead of three.

"It's no easy task to go from a totally paper environment to paperless," Ushijima said. "Working with a civil service staff that's been doing things a certain way for a very long time, it was hard on them but they've done a wonderful job adapting."

The state has partnered with the private Hawai'i Information Consortium to develop software for such changes. About one-third of new businesses now incorporate in Hawai'i electronically, and more than 30 categories of professional licenses can be processed over the Internet, said HIC general manager Dan Morrison.

"It saves huge amounts of paperwork for the state to do it that way," he said. "Hawai'i has come a long way in the last three years."

The consortium, a subsidiary of a Kansas firm, pays for such upgrades by retaining a fraction of the licensing fees that companies would pay to the state anyway to process their paperwork.

Besides facilitating business, new information technology has also helped open government up to the general public, officials say.

Anyone with access to the Internet can now review thousands of bills pending in the Legislature — a heavy mountain of paper to sort through in earlier times.

And all candidates for elected office in Hawai'i, except legislators, are now required to electronically file contribution and expenditure reports with the state Campaign Spending Commission.

The information is quickly posted on the commission's Web site, making it easy for voters to see which supporters and interest groups are bankrolling which politicians.

"The whole purpose of campaign finance reports is so people can see who candidates are receiving their money from and how they're spending it," commission director Robert Watada said. "You could see that before by coming down to our office and looking through the files, but now anyone on the Internet can see it from their home computer or one at the public library."

Such technology has also made it easier to investigate illegal contributions, because names and figures can be downloaded and compared to other data, such as business and land ownership records.

"The investigations we are doing now are taking months, but it would have taken years before," Watada said.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.