4th Quarter 2018 Newsletter

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Digital Government News You Can Use

Access Idaho—Committed Solely to Idaho Government

In 1999, Access Idaho won a competitively bid state contract to build and manage the state of Idaho’s homepage and online services. The contract, overseen by an eight-person committee made up of state agency personnel, stipulates that we can only work with Idaho agencies, counties, cities, school districts, water districts and any other office that falls under the state public entity clause. As a result, we can focus on being the best partner that state agencies and local governments in Idaho have ever had.

Furthermore, we are an associate member of the Association of Idaho Counties and the Association of Idaho Cities. We attend and financially support most Association statewide meetings.

Jeff Walker, General Manager of Access Idaho, put it best, “Being members of in-state associations enables us to stay current regarding the latest news in all levels of Idaho government. Therefore, we can better serve Idaho’s public servants and their respective constituents, from the largest state agency to the smallest town.”
Prompt Pay Logo

Access Idaho Launches Prompt Pay to Help Government Entities Stay PCI-Compliant

 
 
Access Idaho recently launched Prompt Pay, a new service that allows government entities in the Gem State to send payment links, either individually or in bulk, to customers via SMS text and email. Prompt Pay features a dashboard interface for government personnel to enter how much the customer needs to pay, along with a description of what the payment is for.

After the payment information is entered, a government employee can send a link to the customer’s mobile device by text, or to their email address, or both. The customer can then use the link to pay the government service by entering their credit card or checking account information, thus removing the government entity from Payment Card Industry (PCI) scope.

Since Prompt Pay’s launch in April of this year, a growing number of Idaho state and local offices have been using it to process payments and collect outstanding balances from customers. For example, the Idaho Department of Transportation utilizes it for periodic data requests; the Idaho Supreme Court has implemented the service for its party verification requests; the City of Meridian relies on Prompt Pay for taking building permit payments; and the City of Heyburn uses it for utility payments.

Access Idaho won a 2018 Government Experience Award for Prompt Pay for one of the best “State-to-Citizen Experience” applications this year. The Government Experience Awards recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that have gone to the web and beyond to radically improve the experience of government and push the boundaries of how citizen services are delivered.

Prompt Pay uses a highly secure, best-in-class processor for Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover and electronic check payments.

For more information on Prompt Pay, visit promptpay.idaho.gov.

 
City of Meridian welcome sign surrounded by landscaping and trees

A Spotlight on the City of Meridian

The City of Meridian has been using Access Idaho’s services for nearly nine years. As our oldest city partner, we recognize Meridian for the steps they have taken to improve their internal processes and expand their excellent customer service using Access Idaho’s innovative technology.

For example, Meridian’s city policy does not allow employees to take credit card information over the phone, so they made services online via PayPort, integrated Access Idaho’s payment engine with their license application (Accela), and recently launched Prompt Pay that enables customizable payment links to be sent to customers via email and/or text. In addition, the Meridian Police Department is using PayPort to collect registration fees and attendee information for training courses.

 We are grateful for Meridian and the other government entities like yours that entrust us with implementing easy-to-use solutions to tackle everyday problems.

Helpful Tips & Tricks

If you use our over-the-counter payment processing system, PayPort, did you know that you can configure your browser to remember your username and password so you don’t have to enter them each time you log in? Here’s how (our instructions are for Internet Explorer—if you use a different browser and can’t get your credentials to save, give us a call and we’ll walk you through it):

  1. Enter your user name and password in the appropriate fields.
  2. When you click the log-in button, you will see a prompt asking if you want to save your password (If you don’t see the prompt to save your password, call us—we can walk you through how to reset your browser so it will allow you to store your credentials).
  3. Click “Yes.”

Important Notes: Please make sure saving your credentials does not violate your department policy. Also, think about where to securely store your password so that when it’s time to update it, you’ll remember what it is. You will be asked to type in your current password before updating to the new one.
For questions and/or assistance, call us at 208-332-0102.

About Access Idaho

Access Idaho is the administrator of Idaho's official Web portal (idaho.gov) and provider of electronic government solutions for the state. The network manager for the portal is Idaho Information Consortium, a subsidiary of digital government firm NIC.



Jeff Walker, General Manager  |  jeff@accessidaho.org  |  (208) 332-0102