Department Wins Awards for Use of Smart Technology Boosting Efficiency and Collections
IMMEDIATE, Friday
September 23, 2011
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance was recently awarded top honors for its innovative use of efficiency-boosting technology that has enhanced the collection of taxes.
- Information Week, a leading information technology (IT) magazine, named the New York Tax Department one of their top 15 government innovators for 2011 on September 13th.
- The Center for Digital Government presented the Department two "Best of New York" awards on September 14th, one for "Best Application Serving an Agency's Business Needs," and the other won by Tax Department employee Richard Cletus for outstanding technology support and service.
These awards spotlight the Department's use of sophisticated technology to accelerate its collection of delinquent taxes - just one of several positive benefits. The Department's Case Identification and Selection System for collections, called the "optimizer," analyzes the agency's storehouse of data and directs staff to the most cost-effective action for a particular collections case.
The optimizer's positive impact: An 8% increase ($83 million) in collections for delinquent taxes from 2009 to 2010, among other improvements.
"The honors we've received this year highlight the fact that we're at the forefront with other innovative government agencies and businesses," said New York State Tax Department Commissioner Thomas H. Mattox. "We appreciate the recognition for our success and the hard work of our employees. By adapting the latest advances in technology to fit our business needs, we continue to improve efficiency."
Other recent technology awards:
- April 2011-Gartner Business Process Management Excellence Award for the Department's use of technology that dramatically accelerated the daily number of processed tax returns.
- April 2011-Among five finalists for the prestigious 2011 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences.