Everyone has their own Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) story, complete with long lines, incorrect paperwork, and maybe even multiple visits. As most of the DMV’s products and services require an office visit, this can be challenging for customers who need to carve out significant time from their day and often take time off work to visit during business hours.

A challenge facing the Nevada DMV in particular is the growing volume of constituents. Nevada’s population has grown steadily year over year as people flock to the state for job and housing opportunities. Inevitably, these new residents end up at the DMV, contributing to long lines and wait times.

The Nevada DMV wanted to build a new, modern experience for constituents, improving access and convenience by offering services beyond regular business hours and providing online options to reduce the need for in-person visits. The DMV also wanted to streamline processes and optimize its employee experience.

Having successfully worked with the largest DMV in the country, Slalom was well positioned as a strategic partner to help the Nevada DMV modernize and transform its organization across people, processes, and technology.

The Nevada DMV transformation started in October 2021 with an extensive discovery period dedicated to uncovering the DMV’s various products and services. The result was a catalog of over 800 products and services the team could use as a single source of truth. The catalog was then prioritized based on the product’s or service’s popularity and the impact of moving it online.

The Slalom team worked intimately with customers, employees, and leaders from across various domains at the DMV to identify, value map, and prioritize all functional and non-functional capabilities, which allowed them to develop an eight-year directional execution roadmap.

In April 2022, Slalom and the Nevada DMV mobilized a cross-functional team of 130 members to develop strategic and transformative capabilities that balanced foundational long-term investments with quick wins.

“Although we have an eight-year roadmap, there is no end date to the transformation effort,” said Lennon. “Even after the core products are online, the program will continue to refine and optimize our citizen-centric platform to streamline DMV services.”

The first quick win that had an immediate impact on both customers and employees was the deployment of a multilingual chatbot. This chatbot eliminated the call center email backlog (and associated staff overtime expenses) and provided customers with a self-service option that allowed them to resolve issues faster.

Next, the team launched a Salesforce platform to reduce the processing time for new dealer car titles. The DMV had a large backlog of unprocessed titles, causing dissatisfaction among dealers and customers. The platform reduced processing time for DMV technicians to collect and verify documents from 40 to 14 days, resulting in better service and an improved experience for Nevadans.

In the summer of 2024, the team released Rapid Registration, which allows Nevadans to apply for vehicle registrations online. This provides a convenient alternative to in-person office visits and, ultimately, reduces traffic and wait times in DMV offices. In the first week the initiative launched, Slalom saw 10% adoption of the online service, with over 1,200 Nevadans creating an account in the two pilot locations.

Additional digital transformation efforts included launching a complaint and ID theft submission portal, digitizing certain paper forms, and creating back-end workflows for the Compliance Enforcement Division (CED) and investigators. This allows CED employees to take in, assign, and track cases for identity theft and complaints, and NV customers can now file complaints against DMV licensees using this new online portal. 

Nevada citizens now benefit from faster, more convenient DMV services online, including reduced wait times, easy access to appointments, and more. They can complete DMV transactions on their own time, at any time, and are not restricted to business hours. By accessing services online, customers now know in real time whether they have all the required documentation and can complete tasks faster than the end-to-end experience of going to a DMV for the same service. 

Nevada DMV employees benefit from streamlined processes and powerful tools, allowing them to better serve citizens and focus on high-impact tasks. Moving the most routine services online reduces lines in offices, creates operational efficiencies, and frees up employees to focus on cases that require high-touch customer service.

”Nevada DMV is excited to partner with Slalom to create a DMV of the future. This transformation will revolutionize how our citizens interact with us, making their experience faster, easier, and more convenient,” says Lennon.