The Providence City Clerk’s Department has launched a new online service, in conjunction with RI.gov, that simplifies the process of how new business tradenames are managed, searched and tracked by the City and its constituents. However, the new system does not yet allow for online tradename registration, and businesses will still be required to register their tradename in the City Clerk’s office.
“Making business easier in Providence is a top priority for the City Council,” stated City Council President David A. Salvatore. “Under my leadership, the Council wants to ensure that Providence is a transparent and welcoming place to do business, and I believe the new Tradename Service is a step in that direction.”
The service replaces an antiquated system that struggled to facilitate over 50,000 tradenames registered in the City, with more than 450 new tradenames being registered annually. In addition to an improvement over features that the old system provided, the Tradename Service now offers city clerks with better user management and improved reporting tools.
“Our department is excited to take full advantage of the efficiencies offered by the new Tradename Service,” said Lori Hagen, Providence City Clerk. “We believe that this service will provide a transparent and positive end-to-end user experience.”
The service is not only beneficial to Providence clerks. For the first time, entrepreneurs can now visit https://www.ri.gov/app/providence/tradename to browse all existing registered tradenames in the capital city to ensure that their new business name is unique.
“Many times, prospective applicants come to register a business name, only to discover that a similar name already exists in the city,” Hagen said. “With access to this information beforehand, applicants will be able to more effectively differentiate themselves from other businesses.”
The Tradename Service was developed at no cost to taxpayers in partnership with the state’s digital government services provider, Rhode Island Interactive. The service is part of the popular suite of online services currently available through RI.gov (https://www.RI.gov).
About the City Clerk
The City Clerk operates under auspices of the City Council and is the official repository for all ordinances, resolutions and official documents related to the government of the City of Providence and responsible for the authenticity of all legal documents. In addition, the City Clerk collects and presents to the City Council all petitions concerning abandonments and easements, personal injury and automobile or property damage, as well as certificates of Assumed Business Name and Going Out of Business.
About RI.gov
RI.gov is Rhode Island’s homepage and official Website (www.ri.gov), a collaborative effort between the state of Rhode Island and Rhode Island Interactive. The RI.gov site and services are developed and maintained by Rhode Island Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the eGovernment firm NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV).
About NIC
Founded in 1992, NIC Inc. (NASDAQ: EGOV) is celebrating 25 years as the nation’s premier provider of innovative digital government solutions and secure payment processing, which help make government interactions more accessible for everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies has developed a library of more than 12,000 digital government services for more than 4,500 federal, state, and local government agencies. Among these solutions is the ground-breaking digital government personal assistant, Gov2Go, delivering citizens personalized reminders and a single access point for government interactions. More information is available at www.egov.com.