Five Questions With: Nellie M. Gorbea

Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea said one of her goals was to provide businesses with quick access to relevant information. In an ongoing process over the past three years, her staff has freed up a file room in the Business Services division by digitizing thousands of documents and making them available to businesses online for free at sos.ri.gov.

“When I came into office in 2015, I learned there were hundreds of thousands of documents in this office related to Rhode Island businesses that were not available online. I knew it was time to modernize how we do things,” she said.

PBN: How did the system of accessing this information work previously, as opposed to the way it will work now?

GORBEA: Every document filed with this office since July of 2007 has been digitally imaged and can be accessed for free using our online database. But any time you wanted to access a document filed before that date, you only had two choices: First, you could take time out of your day to drive to our office in Providence during business hours, ask for the physical file and pay for a photocopy. Not very convenient if you work down in South County or up in Cumberland. Or, as a second option, you could call or email us and ask to have the file scanned and emailed back to you – not ideal if you need your document right away. Now that this project is complete, you just go to our upgraded Business Services website to view and download the document immediately, for free.

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PBN: How many people were involved in the process of digitizing these documents, and how long did it take overall?

GORBEA: Four of my Business Services staffers and a temporary worker digitized about 34,000 files containing several hundred thousand pieces of paper. My staff are full-time employees who have other responsibilities, so the process took just under three years to complete. They finished nine months ahead of schedule.

PBN: What kinds of documents were included in this process that businesses can now more easily access?

GORBEA: Any document for active Rhode Island businesses that was filed with the Secretary of State’s Office before July of 2007. That includes articles of incorporation, annual reports, articles of merger, you name it. Businesses may need these documents for several reasons, like financial transactions, a review from a regulatory agency and even historical research.

PBN: What do you think has been the biggest challenge in this endeavor?

GORBEA: As with most things in state government, finding the resources was the biggest challenge when it came to digitizing these mountains of paper records. We began the project prior to the pandemic and my team mapped out a plan that allowed existing, full-time employees to dedicate some of their time. When the pandemic hit, my team continued to serve the public via phone and email, but there was no customer traffic in our lobby area. So, I decided we should be flexible and repurpose some employees to dedicate more time to digitizing. This helped us finish ahead of schedule.

PBN: Was the office able to free up space where these paper files used to be for other uses?

GORBEA: That may be the best part! In another example of modernizing government, we’ve turned our old file room into a space to host our new virtual office hours. My staff now uses the area to answer questions from business owners in a safe, interactive way online. We also host monthly virtual workshops from that space to help local businesses and nonprofits thrive.

Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.