Texas Department of Motor Vehicles

Escalating costs, lack of metadata, and security risks in managing unstructured data

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) was grappling with managing an enormous volume of unstructured data, including millions of scanned title records and related digital files. Their legacy content management system lacked critical features like records retention and metadata tagging, resulting in rapidly increasing storage costs and cumbersome manual processes. 

Expanded regulatory oversight of all dealership vehicle sales means that every time a vehicle is bought or sold in the state, that transaction has to be logged with the DMV. This added to the agency’s workload, and resulted in tens of thousands of files generated each day, making it even more difficult to securely manage  their content and raising costs. As Wendy Barron, CIO at TxDMV, explains, “With our former content management solution, we didn't have records retention, or a lot of metadata about the files, and we were keeping everything, so our costs were going up and up and up.”

Finding a secure, scalable solution

Recognizing the need for modernization, TxDMV sought a solution that could centralize their unstructured data while ensuring robust security and compliance. They chose Box’s Intelligent Content Management platform because it offered a unified approach to managing and securing their files at scale. With Box, users could quickly execute metadata-driven searches across millions of documents, accelerating their mission critical tasks within a modern, efficient interface.  With Box, IT staff also don’t have to worry about system stability, and instead of patching and restarting servers, they can focus on implementing other sophisticated features of Box. The platform’s ability to apply metadata and records retention policies helps TxDMV control costs and gain better visibility into their vast document repository. 

Barron highlights the importance of security in this environment: “Implementing a modern solution that secures our data and files — and gives us the capabilities to intelligently manage those files, so we can start wrapping our arms around leveraging the benefits of AI in a secure way — is huge. It protects us against fraud and other potentially nefarious uses of files that should be locked down.”

 

Our partnership with Box not only addresses immediate challenges by making services more accessible, easy, and secure, but also lays the foundation for our long-term vision of IT modernization — transforming how we serve the public today and into the future.

— Roland D. Luna, Sr. Deputy Executive Director

How TxDMV uses Box today

With Box, TxDMV has begun transforming its content management practices by wrapping intelligent metadata around files and implementing secure sharing capabilities. This means they can manage high-volume queries across every title document in the state, making it easier and faster to process new requests. With their use of Salesforce as their system of record, TxDMV benefits from Box’s integration with dealership licensing systems within Salesforce, which means less context-switching between tools and a seamless experience when it comes to working each request — tasks that were previously impossible or highly manual. 

Additionally, Box supports secure collaboration both internally and externally, which is especially important given the remote workforce and the sensitive nature of DMV data. With Box’s extensive governance settings, TxDMV can easily implement the agency's data classifications, giving them the confidence to use unstructured data securely in new ways. Barron notes, “With cloud-based systems and bring-your-own-device practices, there’s just so many ways that the data can leave your organization. And you have no idea it’s walking out the door. I love the capabilities that Box offers for sharing files and creating that opportunity to move business forward — but also know how your unstructured data is being shared and delivered, in a controlled and secure manner.”

Impact on service delivery and future potential

The implementation of Box has significantly improved TxDMV’s ability to serve Texans efficiently. Customers can now upload required documents before visiting offices, reducing wait times and streamlining in-person interactions. Barron shares her vision for the future: “We can create external portals that allow our customers to upload files before they ever step into the office. It economizes time in the submission process but it also helps folks gather the materials they need ahead of coming into the office.” 

Beyond immediate cost savings and enhanced security, the platform positions the agency to develop innovative AI-powered workflows and creative solutions to persistent challenges that will further improve customer service and operational efficiency over the coming years. Barron concludes, “We’re embarking on a modernization journey that’s going to take the better part of the next four to five years. We’ve already got a long list of use cases where we can expand the capabilities that Box offers, so we can provide better customer service to our constituents and enable secure information and file sharing across the organization and externally.” 

This modernization marks a critical step toward unlocking the full value of TxDMV’s unstructured data while maintaining trust and compliance in a complex regulatory environment.

 

Implementing a modern solution that secures our data and files — and gives us the capabilities to intelligently manage those files, so we can start wrapping our arms around leveraging the benefits of AI in a secure way — is huge. It protects us against fraud and other potentially nefarious uses of files that should be locked down.

— Wendy Barron, Chief Information Officer