Business Information: Share and Share Alike

In the last twenty years, business registration programs in this country, and all over the world, have progressed from storing paper files in folders and rotary card cabinets to collecting XML data and PDF‐A images stored on enterprise computer systems. This information has gone from being available only by filling mail and counter service requests to additional service via fax, direct network access, and the internet. Evolving technology has enabled services to more individuals, government agencies, and private companies than ever before. Within a generation, immediate access to information has expanded from a relatively small group close to the capitol to literally anyone anywhere in the world. This article will briefly explore how registration programs have shared information with other agencies, and how we continue to expand our outreach and accessibility.

One of the first innovations to information sharing was the copy machine. Xerox copiers easily allowed requesters to get document files for court cases and investigations. As records became more easily reproducible, agencies received more requests for access to bulk records. When document storage went to microfilm and microfiche, it became possible, and even common, to run additional copies of film and sell them to service companies and state agencies, such as licensing and other regulatory bodies.

Computer databases, however, allowed a quantum leap in data sharing. Not only could the information in the computers be repurposed (along combinations of variables) for reports, but the media itself was shared. Many an agency got data batches (such as “new filings per week”) transferred by media swap, e.g., floppy disk, magnetic tape, and CD. Data was also uploaded by ftp and even sent by e‐mail. Many of these methods are still used today.

Even before the Internet, agencies were offering access to their database via direct dial by modem, usually for a fee, to limited subscribers. Oregon, for example, had the RAPID system in 1989, which allowed customers to dial in, then the computer would disconnect them and dial back, giving them access to UCC, EFS and Statutory Lien data. It wasn’t until 1996 that customers in Oregon got access to a mirrored search engine through the Web.

Who are these “customers”? In Oregon, they include the Department of Revenue, the Department of Employment, the Construction Contractors’ Board, the Workers Compensation Division, and the Department of Justice. These agencies have a long‐standing working relationship with our office that goes back years before the Web, and today their processes are more integrated with ours than ever before. Law enforcement agencies have been especially eager to access the information about businesses that we collect, and the private sector has always seen a healthy marketplace for this information. Sometimes, the customer is a service agency trying to help its client manage its far‐flung filings. Often, it is a business repackaging information for marketing and other purposes.

Oregon, like several states, has a web portal, called the Central Business Registry, which includes six agency partners. When customers want to start a new business, they get licensing, business formation, and other information from this site, and they can register a business with the Corporation Division. If they will have employees, they can also file a Combined Employer Report with the Revenue and Employment departments. Our plans include adding the Tax Identification Number registration with the IRS, licensing with state agencies, and local government information and filing. The idea is to share information that is common to all registrations, so that the customer only has to go to one spot and enter the information just once. Not only is this simpler and more efficient for the customer, it increases compliance and consistency of information for the agencies, and the expense of an online presence is shared among the members.

This kind of simplified, common‐data sharing program is far from unique. Filing offices are very motivated to bring data together in the most cost effective, customer‐friendly, and efficient methods possible. There has been a real revolution in the breaking down of agency “silos” and a lowering of barriers to data access.

Internationally, some registries have taken it even further, and encouraged not just intrastate data sharing, but even interstate. The Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta share a common registry, as do the countries of New Zealand and Australia, in the sense that filing in one jurisdiction automatically qualifies the business in the other place. New Zealand is also providing a UCC registration for Tonga. The European Business Register, with 24 members, gives a single place to find information on businesses from all over Europe, and there is an effort to form a similar service for the all the world’s business organizations.

Here in the U.S., people are beginning to look at better ways to share information between states. For example, instead of requiring certificates of existence for foreign authorizations, what if states simply went to the other state’s secure website and did an automatic look up? After all, certificates of existence are simply a 20th century way to access another state’s record. In the 21st century, each state has instant, direct access to information from around the world.

As you can see, business registration programs have been and remain committed to sharing the business information we collect with the public – including public agencies. That is the reason we exist, after all.

Tom Wrosch
Commercial Registry Program
State of Oregon Corporation Division

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