An Explanation for That Business-Hours-Only Web Page

I blogged yesterday about a Department of State (N.Y.) government website page that only accepts information during business hours. You offered several other similar examples (many of them government sites as well) and possible explanations. We also received, via comment and e-mail, an explanation from Edison Alban, press officer for the D.O.S. (BTW, his name could be considered a pretty good aptonym, since Albany is the capital of New York.)

He begins by objecting to the post, particularly the headline, which was “This Website Only Open During Business Hours”:

The New York Department of State’s Division of Corporation website is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Division of Corporation does not shut down its website during non-business hours.

No comment.

And then he explains the limited access. Those of you who guessed “batch processing” might be the culprit should take a bow:

Over the last year, the New York Department of State has undertaken a redesign of its business model to better serve our business customers. As of May 2012, most business corporations and limited liability companies required to file corporate periodic forms, also known as Biennial Statements with the Department are able to do so over the internet Monday thru Friday from 6:00am to 7:30pm. So far, more than 30,000 entities have filed their statements using this new feature. Our next step to improve customer service is to make further upgrades to the system to eliminate technical limitations from the old back-end batch-processing system. Once in place, corporations and other business entities will be able to file these periodic statements 24/7.