Starting in the Spring of 2006, Michigan Department of Agriculture staff began a project to examine the feasibility of consolidating its licensing business processes. After many business analysis sessions and an extensive reengineering effort, a common business process was created that would streamline and centralize the licensing function for the Department's 41 different license types. In September 2006, a project manager was identified and implementation teams created to address numerous tasks associated with the tranformation to the new business process. These teams are working on topics ranging from standardizing MDA license applications to overseeing the creation of an automated system to support the new process.

The automation of the new process is critical to the success of this project. Consistent with State goals and customer requests, the vision of the project is to create a centralized on-line service that allows potential licensees to apply and pay on the web. This streamlined process will provide a single point of contact for license applicants, reduce cycle time for applicants to receive their license, and eliminate redundancy of data entry and tracking throughout the department.