By Tracy Barnes, Chief Information Officer, State of Indiana, Indiana Office of Technology.Throughout 2020 and 2021, the State of Indiana, like most businesses, got creative and quickly pivoted to provide our customers with solutions that worked for them and still deliver services. We were able to take what we learned and applied and continued to build upon it in more efficient ways. This results in improved outcomes for Hoosiers and business owners across the state. Business owners see the benefits of using technology to improve outcomes and promote efficiency for businesses and employees.
The Indiana Office of Technology (IOT) is at the forefront of ensuring state agencies use technology to improve our business customers' services. An effective service IOT developed for Gov. Holcomb, and one that is gaining traction, is a single sign-on platform – one username and password – to get to nearly 100 services and growing. Called Access Indiana (https://access.IN.gov), it is the authentication platform for approximately 20 agencies, many of which deal with business services. The ease of use of that system has made it so you don't have to remember many different usernames or passwords.
Access Indiana applications cover various business needs, starting with our youngest employees. Last year, the Indiana Department of Labor launched the Youth Employment System (YES), which makes it far easier to manage any work permits for employees under the age of 18. The legislature replaced the old Work Permit system, meaning a minor can apply for a job and start working almost immediately.
If you need to start a new business or manage your state requirements, sign in to INBiz with your Access Indiana account. Through the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, all professional licenses also begin with an Access Indiana account.
If you're in the healthcare industry, Access Indiana provides admission to more than 50 Indiana Department of Health applications. Before, you needed many usernames and passwords to get to all of those, but now, technology has made it easy to do so with a straightforward click.
If you're looking to do business with the State, we have revamped that process. It used to be a paper-based system that was cumbersome for us to manage. Now, IOT has modernized that system, making it easier and more efficient to become a bidder on State of Indiana projects. If you are a business wanting to do work on behalf of Hoosiers, now is a great time to get your registration completed.
We're not just focused on who's in the workforce today, but we're looking ahead to who will be in the workforce tomorrow. Indiana is taking the opportunity to revise how we strategically measure school performance. Together, our mission is to empower Indiana families, educators, school administrators, and community leaders with a learner-centered, future-focused dashboard that displays how our students are building the vital knowledge and skills that will empower their success after high school.
The Indiana GPS dashboard, scheduled for launch in Fall 2022, will empower educators with clear expectations, support families and community stakeholders by providing meaningful, transparent information about school progress and performance, and elevate the highest performing schools to be used as models of excellence for others. It's going to help new generations of Hoosiers be prepared to enter the workforce.
The State of Indiana uses technology to make it easier to join the workforce, start and maintain your business compliance, improve doing business with the state, and prepare the next generation of Hoosiers to take our economy to the Next Level.
