In 2015, the State of Tennessee Department of Revenue and Business Information Systems (BIS) signed a contract to create a new, fully integrated real-time Vehicle Title and Registration System (VTRS) to modernize a 40-year-old mainframe database.

“We saw immediate results, a 5-to-1 increase in efficiency, pretty much overnight,” says Katie Bryan Julian, communications manager of the vehicle services division of the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

In the initial stages of development, BIS analysts reviewed workflow processes to identify inefficiencies and redundancies. “Working together with the State of Tennessee, we were able to provide process improvements through the software,” says Stoney Hale, BIS solutions consultant.

Moving to a real-time system enables error corrections instantly, unlike the old batch system. Miskeying VINs is one of the most common errors made in processing motor vehicles, Hale says. In addition to VIN decoding, VTRS is able to verify addresses, reference NADA fair market value for vehicles, and calculate all fees to be collected.

As a result of the successful partnership between the State of Tennessee and BIS, another system was also developed during this time by statute from the state legislature in response to an uninsured motorist killing James Lee Atwood. The Electronic Insurance Verification System (EIVS) was designed to reduce the number of uninsured motorists in the state of Tennessee. As of June 30, 2018, 18 months after the system launched, the number of insured motorists had increased nearly 7 percent.

EIVS uses web services as well as full book-of-business data from insurance companies to verify that registered vehicles are insured. If they are not, the system generates a notification letter that is sent to the vehicle owner. And EIVS works together with VTRS. If a vehicle owner tries to renew registration but does not have a verified insurance policy on file for the vehicle, he or she is unable to renew that vehicle registration unless an insurance policy number is provided.

The unique ecosystem of digital solutions BIS has developed for the State of Tennessee not only provides workflow efficiencies for Department of Revenue employees, it also brings convenience to customers.

As of July 1, 2018, Tennessee began offering electronic vehicle registration. BIS created a mobile app called Auto Assistant as a useful tool for customers to access their digital vehicle owner data. The app sends users notifications for things like license renewals, but also allows access to insurance information that can be provided to law enforcement as proof of insurance.

“It’s really a neat app,” says Hale. “It’s another enhancement that provides efficiency and convenience.”

“Technology is going to continue to advance and you need a modern system that can keep up with it,” Julian says. “Having this flexible system allowed us to create an app that ties into it so customers can actually have a true digital record from us and keep all their vehicle information in one place.”

Both Hale and Julian recognize that each jurisdiction is unique and requires a custom-tailored system to meet the needs specific to that jurisdiction.

“You can’t just pull one [jurisdiction’s system] and throw it into another,” Hale says. “You have to understand the processes first in order to improve them and provide maximum benefit.”

“It’s just a fact that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for building one of these systems,” Julian says.”