Oakland Business Review, January 6-12, 2005

MSU students tackle county eForms project

A group of Michigan State University students' term project is assisting Oakland County in its effort to go paperless.

The students acted as consultants to the county's Department of Information Technology and researched the feasibility of the county's eForms project.  eForms is intended to allow Oakland County residents to fill out and submit forms with a digital postmark and signature via the Internet.  As a final exam, the students prepared a request for proposal to develop the software.

The proposal will be used to find a vendor to produce the product, said Phil Bertolini, Oakland County Director of Information Technology. 

"We were really impressed with the students' professionalism in presenting their work at our eForms vendor session," Bertolini said.

"Programs like this one really take classroom experience to the next level and provide students with opportunities to contribute to real projects in a very real way."

The students worked with Oakland County eGovernment personnel in East Lansing and Oakland County and interviewed various department heads to determine how forms are used and how going electronic could make departments operate more efficiently.

This research allowed the students to create a list of requirements for the eForms system.

The goal is to simplify the cumbersome process of completing printed forms and mailing copies back to the county.

Oakland estimates that citizens will use the eForms system to submit up to 600,000 forms each annually.

The result will be shorter waiting times for those in need of government certification, permits or registration information.

"Working with the students brought us a different perspective and helped advance our skills," Bertolini said.

The students, who finished the project in December, were seniors completing their specialization in Information Technology Management.

Oakland's project was one of six MSU students chose to tackle.

"This project was a great fit for our new Information Technology Management program.  I hope our students will have more opportunities like this when we do the course again in the fall," said Brian Pentland, professor of accounting and information systems at MSU's Eli Broad College of Business.

MSU senior Michael Cover, who worked on the project, said Oakland's proposal was the one most students wanted to work on because it was interesting and gave students a chance to to "real, usable work," not just updating a Web site or another mundane task.

"We got to sit down and talk with both Oakland officials and vendors and really had a hand in running this project," Cover said.

"In one of the vendor sessions I got to run part of the meeting."

The Troy native said once the software is developed, it will cut paperwork and speed applications for everything from permits to reserving park space.

"This project will bring Oakland County more up to speed in the technology age," he said.

"Now you might have to wait three weeks for a response.  Once eForms is online, you will go to a Web site, fill out a form, and know where you stand the next day."

News article by Eric Morath, Oakland Business Review, www.mbizreview.com.