An innovative program at Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) allows medical and business license applicants to submit applications and some renewals online. Once all their documentation is uploaded to the site, people receive their licenses in less than a week, on average.
The agency plans to add trade professional licenses next year.
Called LicensE, the program has vastly shortened the wait and hassle in getting licenses and increased the number of applications DSPS can handle. For example, in the first three quarters of this year, DSPS processed 38,827 applications, compared with 30,200 in all of 2018. Before the system’s launch last year, the average wait for a license was 45 days. The average time to review now is less than five.
LicenseE also includes a status tracker that lets applicants follow the progress of their request. The cloud-based platform allows both applicants and third parties — schools, testing centers, employers and others — to upload documents to the site, rather than having to mail paper copies. The uploads are linked to the relevant application, and an automated process extracts data from the documents. For employees, that means spending less time opening envelopes and manually entering data and more time for reviewing applications. Other workflows have also been automated.
The system continues to improve. In August 2023, DSPS announced a new publicly available dashboard that shows the average number of days it takes to review new applications, including review of any additional documentation.
“This is an investment in the people of Wisconsin who need their licenses to enter the workforce,” Governor Tony Evers said at the start of the project. “Modernizing license application review will get folks on the job and earning paychecks more quickly.”
This article appeared in our guide, “State and Local: Making an Impact.” For more insights on how state and local governments are using digital transformation to enhance life in their communities, download it here: