Following implementation of Phase One, incremental modernization was well underway. Reaching a six-to-one return on investment. The Division also accrued a number of intangible but equally significant benefits since the project start:

• The Division established a track record for success, having multiple successful projects under the Division’s belt before embarking on the full ITS implementation.

• The Division gained invaluable experience and trust working alongside RSI.

• The Division staff increased their familiarity and experience with Revenue Premier’s capabilities and modern technology.

• The Division had now managed multiple IT projects successfully while also developing confidence and comfort.

• Robust knowledge transfer from RSI to the Division staff took place, providing foundational training that the Division would carry forward.

The Division needed a technology partner that could partner over their 10-year journey towards modernization. The modernization project was implemented in three phases in order to minimize disruption to taxpayers. Through three competitive bids, the Division, in three separate procurements, continued to select RSI as its technology partner.

The first procurement included Revenue Premier’s Portfolio Warehouse and Audit Manager modules to support tax discovery and collections. Second, RSI was selected to implement its modernized e-File (MeF) solution. The third procurement included implementation of the remaining Revenue Premier functionality, including the Taxpayer Portal, which resulted in a fully integrated tax solution (ITS).

Rhode Island was running a $3 billion tax division on 15-year-old technology. The Division of Taxation was relying on a mainframe developed 40 years ago using COBOL. Additionally, the Division had over 58 tax types that were stored in many systems, including an offline Access database, as well as spreadsheets which were not integrated. This resulted in an inflexible, expensive system that was not meeting the needs of the Division.

Costs to maintain the old system were prohibitive and prevented the Division from delivering the citizen experience expected in today’s digital world. Moreover, changing the system to reflect new legislation was difficult and error prone. The Division administers five major tax types and 58 different tax and fee types.

CASE STUDY | Rhode Island Division of Taxation

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Rhode Island Division of Taxation Ups Its Technology Game Rhode Island’s Taxes and Fees are Now Successfully Maintained and Accessed on a Single, Agency-Wide System Following a Ten-Year Journey of IT Modernization

THE CHALLENGE

RSI PROJECT APPROACH

Increasing Costs and Inefficiency were Holding Back the Division

Incremental Modernization was Required to Reduce Project Risk and Fund the ITS ImplementationThe Division’s primary objective of incremental modernization was essential for delivering an ROI and building the on-going business case for funding the full integrated tax system.

The Division kicked-off the modernization journey with Phase One which ran from 2007 through 2012. In this first phase, the Division made business process changes in a step-by-step progression. The first work included installing the RSI Portfolio Warehouse, and supporting case management and correspondence system and modernized e-File (MeF). Even with the successes and progress made in this first phase, the Rhode Island Division of Taxation was still managing a complex tax apparatus using an assortment of computer systems, most of which were stand alone and not integrated.

Minimizing Taxpayer Disruption with Phased Implementation

The Experience to Deliver Government Innovation

PROJECT BENEFITSEach of the steps delivered incremental efficiency and collection benefits delivering a 6:1 return on investment. This success built the business case for the second phase of modernization, an integrated tax system (ITS). In 2012, the Division of Taxation started the five-year effort to procure and implement an ITS with objectives of processing taxes in real-time, offering higher levels of service to customers and operating on a single platform.

RSIdelivers.com©2020 RSI

“Taxation is proud of the partnership

established with RSIduring the IT modernization.

The Rhode Island Division of Taxation provides a model for

other tax agencies to follow in their quest to improve operations and

technology.”Neena Savage

Rhode Island Tax AdministratorRhode Island Division of

Taxation

Tax compliance in Rhode Island had been under-achieving in its collection targets. In order to make better decisions on audit candidates based on risk of non-compliance, the Division of Taxation began using comprehensive historical data that was made available through the Revenue Premier Portfolio Data Warehouse. With new business processes and access to the complete historical taxpayer data, the Division was able to improve detection of non-registrars, non-filers and under-reporters. The Division started down the path toward better data-driven decision-making generating significant results which laid the groundwork for the next phase of the modernization.

The results of this early work afforded the Division the additional revenue which made possible the business case for the integrated tax system (ITS).

CASE STUDY | Rhode Island Division of Taxation

A STRATEGIC VISION FOR INCREMENTAL MODERNIZATION

RHODE ISLAND OBJECTIVESRhode Island Division of Taxation had a number of objectives, defined from the start of the project to guide the project.

Minimize Implementation Risk• Bring full processing of IFTA in-house• Begin full retirement of the mainframe system• Demonstrate ability to configure new tax types, beginning to end, in a short timeframe without impacting the larger ITS project• Resolve safeguard issues resulting from security limitations in the legacy system• Deliver each phase on time and on budget

Improve Operational Efficiencies• Standardize processes and procedures• Minimize costs associated with training• Establish organization change and training programs• Apply business process improvements from phase to phase• Consolidate Individual Collections• Ensure entire agency is using vendor supported software for all primary responsibilities• Establish standardized approach to audit workpapers

Increase Automation• Set a foundation for operating efficiencies in the future• Standup front-end imaging and data capture system• Create higher configurability of refund fraud rules• Increase automation of returns processing edits• Establish modern agency operational procedures

ACHIEVING THEIR LONG-TERM VISION THROUGH COMPLIANCE EXCELLENCE

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“The STAARS system is up and running, on time and

on budget. We are handling roughly 58 different tax types,

everything from cigarettes, to alcohol, to sales tax, personal tax and corporate

tax. All of those are now integrated in a single solution. It has been a great partnership

with RSI.”

Neena SavageRhode Island Tax Administrator

Rhode Island Division of Taxation

RSIdelivers.com©2020 RSI

Having developed a long-term vision for implementing their integrated tax system, the Division then proceeded through incremental modernization in partnership with RSI. As technology partners, Rhode Island Division of Taxation and RSI strategically designed a phased implementation in order to establish the business case for an integrated tax system.

Over ten years, Rhode Island Division of Taxation continued to select RSI as its technology partner as the Division progressed on their journey toward a fully integrated tax system. The early phase success, including a 6:1 ROI, enabled the Division of Taxation to generate sufficient incremental revenue to build a business case for phase two; a complete ITS.

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THE RESULTS - EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

increase in revenue during

Phase One

600% on-time and

on-budget for all stages of the

work

100%

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 201620152014 2017PHASE ONE PHASE TWO

Revenue Premier Portfolio Warehouse

2007 to 2009

Revenue Premier Case Mgt and Correspondence

2008 to 2009

Revenue Premier Modernized e-File

2009 to 2011

Revenue Premier Business Initiatives

Collections Management2010 to 2012

Rhode Island Division of TaxPrograms and Tax Types Impacted

ITS Vendor Selection (RFP)

2012 - 2013Release 1 goes live

July 2014

Release 1.5 goes liveDecember 2014

Release 2 goes liveJuly 2014

Release 3 goes liveNovember 2016

RSIdelivers.com©2020 RSI

Impacted Areas Office AuditPersonal Income TaxProgramming

Impacted Areas Field AuditBusiness TaxesProgramming

Impacted Areas ProcessingProgramming

Impacted Areas CollectionsProgramming

Impacted Areas Tax TypesTax ProcessingExcise Tax

International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA)

Impacted Areas Tax TypesProcessingCorporate TaxExcise Tax

48 Tax TypesExciseMisc. CorporateFees

Impacted Areas Tax TypesTax ProcessingIncome TaxCollectionsOffice Audit

Personal Income TaxComposite Income TaxFiduciary Income TaxPass-thru Withholding

Impacted Areas Tax TypesTax ProcessingCorporate TaxEstate TaxCollectionsField Audit

16 Tax typesBusiness taxes, incl Corp.SalesWithholding

tax types including IFTA implemented

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RSIdelivers.com©2020 RSIJan 2020

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For more information on our tax, unemployment and related services and solutions, visit us at www.RSIdelivers.com or email info@RSImail.com or call 1-888-826-1541.

RSI’s mission is to streamline government operations and improve citizen services through the delivery of transformative technologies.

Federal, State and Municipal government agencies rely on RSI’s extensive expertise in business and technical domains. With a dedicated team of full-time business and information systems consultants and a suite of software solutions, RSI is one of the largest organizations of its kind dedicated exclusively to government. RSI provides solutions to tax, labor and child support agencies. RSI’s solutions have generated more than $2 billion in increased revenue for clients.

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ABOUT RSI

ABOUT REVENUE PREMIERRevenue Premier®, RSI’s flagship product, provides an integrated, functional and advanced technical solution to support the processing, tax accounting and compliance functions of a revenue agency. Revenue Premier is comprised of four primary modules – Integrated Tax Processor, Collections Manager, Portfolio Warehouse and Audit Manager. Revenue Premier boasts an open technical design and a set of shared services which provide vast flexibility for reusing services, integrating other products and a variety of supporting technical infrastructure options. Revenue Premier is a modular solution that can be implemented according to the priorities and budget of the client.

The Experience to Deliver Government Innovation