The State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) was recently honored with two awards for its suite of mobile business applications. The mobile apps are the first of their kind worldwide and the first mobile apps launched by the state.
The International Association of Commercial Administrators (IACA) awarded a prestigious 2012 Merit Award for Outstanding Innovation, one of the top international honors for business registries, to DCCA’s Business Registration Division (BREG) last month at the IACA annual conference.
“Hawaii’s technological transformation remains a top priority for my administration, and this award is recognition that we are on track to bringing state government where it needs to be in the 21st century,” said Governor Neil Abercrombie. “Through the innovative work now being done by DCCA and others in our state, we are creating technological assets that improve efficiency, expand services and save businesses money.”
BREG has repeatedly won awards for online innovation over the years. This most recent IACA award is the third for BREG since 2007.
Recently, DCCA’s BREG mobile apps were also awarded Best Government Mobile Website in the inaugural MobileWebAwards competition, held by the Web Marketing Association.
“We are excited to be one of the first in the country and worldwide to offer these mobile app services to our filers,” Commissioner of Securities and head of BREG Tung Chan said. “Business registries from around the world have expressed excitement at Hawaii’s leadership and innovation. We chose our most popular services for the mobile apps so people can access business information and file annuals with unmatched speed and ease using their mobile phone or tablets.”
“It is rewarding to see our efforts recognized for DCCA’s work in leveraging technology to help Hawaii businesses,” DCCA Director Kealii Lopez said. “I applaud all of those on the team who helped to develop and promote our mobile tools for the business community.”
The apps are modified versions of services available on the Business Registration website, including business name searches, document purchases and annual filings. To access the mobile apps, go to business.ehawaii.gov on any mobile device or tablet and the site will default to the mobile apps.
The new mobile apps optimize touch screen technology and smart phone interfaces by providing larger text, buttons designed for touch response and custom layouts for smaller screens. With more than 120,000 annual reports filed by businesses in Hawaii and over 6.5 million unique name hits for the business name search service, the new apps provide speed and efficiency that should help users find business information and keep their businesses in good standing throughout the year.
The mobile apps are part of the Abercrombie administration’s New Day initiatives as set forth by the Office of Information Management Technology (OIMT). They were developed through the eHawaii.gov program, a largely self-funded public-private partnership between the State of Hawaii and Hawaii Information Consortium LLC, a Hawaii corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC Inc.
IACA is a leading professional association for government administrators for business organization and secured transaction record systems at the state, provincial, territorial and national level. IACA members include government agencies administering business entity regulations in the United States, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand and Australia. For more information, visit www.iaca.org.
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