South Carolina Secretary of State Places Second for Innovation Award

On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 the Secretary of State's Office Online Business Entities Filing, Search and Document Retrieval System received second place for the SC Information Technology Director's Association (SCITDA) innovation award. The innovation award is a team award that recognizes a state agency or institution of higher education that uses a creative and innovative approach for implementing a technology solution.

"With this award-winning application, the SC Secretary of State's Office continues to be business and customer friendly with the ease of use and the flexibility offered by allowing 24/7 filing access and document requests online," said South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond. "The office is committed to bringing new technology to citizens and increasing the efficiency of business transactions with the state."

The Business Entities Filing, Search and Document Retrieval System was launched to the public in January 2017. Over 73 percent of business filings are now filed online utilizing the new system. Through this system, the Office of the Secretary of State has achieved increased productivity and cost savings in relation to agency resource allocation, public accessibility, and customer service and support.

The world-class system simplifies a major point of interaction between business and government and reduces turnaround time to 24 hours or less. The effectiveness of this application has been stunning, achieving more than four times the projected adoption rate for online filings since its launch. The application has over 238 online forms, as well as in-house business forms, and has processed 144,000 filings to date.

The major features of the application for the public are:

• Online Business Filings
• Online Document and Certificate Requests
• Online Business Entity Search
• Online Registered Agent Search
• Online Business Profiles
• Online Subscriber Portal (coming soon)

This web-based application was built and is maintained at no cost to taxpayers through a partnership between the South Carolina Secretary of State's Office and South Carolina Interactive, doing business as SC.gov.

To use or view the application, visit the Secretary of State's website at sos.sc.gov or visit https://businessfilings.sc.gov.

About SC.Gov

SC.gov is the official Web site of South Carolina government (http://www.SC.gov) and a collaborative effort between the State and South Carolina Interactive, LLC to enable citizens to conduct state business online and improve public access to government information. The South Carolina Department of Administration's Division of Technology Operations provides guidance to South Carolina Interactive, LLC which is responsible for operating, maintaining, and marketing SC.gov. South Carolina Interactive, LLC is part of eGovernment firm NIC's EGOV family of companies.

About NIC

NIC Inc. EGOV is the nation's premier provider of innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing, which help make government interactions more accessible for everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies has developed a library of more than 13,000 digital government services for more than 6,000 federal, state, and local government agencies. Among these solutions is the ground-breaking personal assistant for government, Gov2Go, delivering citizens personalized reminders and a single platform for all government interactions. More information is available at www.egov.com.

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