Speaking for Nevada - January 2000

E-Pride

Internet capabilities enhance state’s business-friendly environment

by Dean Heller

The secretary of state’s of­fice has up­graded its computer systems successfully and looks forward to making e-commerce more accessible to customers during this year. First and foremost, our Web page has had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from all over the world and now receives over a million hits every month. By the end of 2000, I expect that this num­ber is expected to exceed 1.5 million hits a month. Who accesses the Web site? In­ternet users from all over the United States and 57 foreign countries. In June of 1999, we reached nearly 50,000 sessions that in­volved interactive communications be­tween the client and the secretary of state just as a telephone call does. As our ser­vices available on e-commerce increase, the number of sessions could easily double.

In the fiscal year just ended, our FAX-back service provided over 70,000 forms to users and Internet users downloaded another 133,000 forms from our Web page. Soon, our clients will be able to complete and file many of these forms “online” and pay the filing fee by credit card. Our first e-commerce pilot program allowing for corporate name reservation on the Internet began in January. The on­going evaluation and selection of software to replace obsolete systems will enable us to implement additional interactive Inter­net programs as needed.

A major impact of technology on the of­fice is increased productivity of the work force. In 1987, each employee in the office “produced” $100,000 in revenue; in 1999, each employee produced $350,000. Our E-Pride employees have embraced the changes brought about by the new procedures and technologies and currently, we generate $6 of revenue for each dollar of expense.

Recent actions by the Legislature will contribute to Nevada becoming e-com­merce friendly. The approval of the use of electronic signatures is an important step to encourage businesses to organize in Nevada. The legislation and regulations will also set the standard for private com­mercial transactions using electronic com­merce in this state.

The Legislature also removed the re­quirement that certain documents filed with our Commercial Recordings Divi­sion must be notarized, another step in the goal to make Nevada more “business friendly.” Eliminating this requirement should further stimulate e-commerce and encourage out-of-state companies to con­duct business transactions in Nevada, where electronic signatures and electronic documents will have the same force in law as paper based signatures and records.

These regulations will protect citizens who wish to continue to conduct business with government electronically but will also provide that any information ex­changed electronically will not be shared with outside parties.

Technology will simplify the filing processes, and allow Nevada to be a cor­porate friendly state. We presently rank number 10 in new incorporations and ex­pect to rise to number eight within the next year or so. I hope that Nevadans and out-of-state businesses will find it easy to use this new millennium technology, which will provide the opportunity and potential for almost unlimited economic growth potential for our state.

Our Web site address is sos.state.nv.us. I hope you visit site, use our site and for­ward comments as to how we can make e­commerce in your business effective.