DNR wins a Government Experience Award

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was recognized as an award winner by the Center for Digital Government for the prestigious Government Experience Award in Government-to-Business Experience category.  This award was in recognition of their eElectronic Manure Management Plan (eMMP) project.  The award recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that have gone to the web and beyond to radically improve the experience of government and push the boundaries of how citizen services are delivered.  Read the complete list of award winners on the Center for Digital Government website.

Challenge

Designing an electronic version of the MMP had to balance the diverse backgrounds and competing interests of a single farmer with one plan or a consultant who submits more than 1,000 plans annually.  DNR identified the best way meet all stakeholder needs by starting with a Lean Process improvement event with more than 100 stakeholders investing more than 480 hours to map the new process and reaching consensus to tackle Manure Management Plan (MMP) short form submittals.

Solution

In March of 2018, DNR rolled out electronic Manure Management Plan (eMMP) the online submittal option. The eMMP application supports quality data, eliminates duplicative data entry for subsequent plans, reminds farmers of due dates and notifies counties after plans are successfully submitted. Accessible from home, office or smart phone, users submitted 94 plans, in the first two weeks.

Results

• Farmers and consultants have reduced the time it takes to submit a plan from approximately 60 minutes per plan to less than 10.
• Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics income information from 2011 for farmers this represents a savings of $27.00/filing or $189,000/year.
• The eMMP submission process also dramatically reduces miles driven to county offices by at least 175,000 which represents a $95,000 savings to the farming community in Iowa.