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SALT LAKE CITY — Tiffany Clason stood in the lobby at the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services next to boxes of paperwork stacked nearly as tall as she is.
While these boxes used to represent the cumbersome work undertaken by businesses throughout Utah and employees at the department, they now serve as a reminder of how much the department has evolved since the launch of its new mission.
The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services on Thursday announced a new, modernized online compliance system that will impact how businesses and organizations maintain records, make payments and manage alcohol licensing.
"This is really revolutionary, not only for us in our workforce — in terms of how we're going to do business here at the DABS — but it's a huge milestone and achievement for our customers," said Clason, executive director at Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services. "Anyone who's licensed to serve alcohol here in the state of Utah is now going to have more time to spend in their business doing what they love and want to do, and less time dealing with complicated paper systems."
The new licensing and permitting system will allow businesses to apply for liquor licenses and make payments online.
Previously, these tasks required stacks of paperwork and often, businesses would deliver the paperwork — documents that business owners' livelihoods quite literally depend on — by hand to the department's Salt Lake City office to eliminate the risk of it being lost in the mail.
During his monthly PBS news conference, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the new system a "huge win" for Utah's hospitality businesses and consumers, alike.
"We're only about 20 years too late, but better now than later," Cox said. "This is something that we pushed really hard for when I took office. ... This was a real priority initiative for all restaurants, bars, hotels, gas stations and grocery stores here in the state of Utah."
The online system will bring greater convenience and accessibility to the 4,300-plus business entities that rely on licensing and permitting from the department. Each business will have their own online portal to manage all records and correspondence with the department.
Additionally, the launch of the system comes at a good time for the 1,200 Utah restaurants that need to renew their licensing by Sept. 30. To bring businesses up to speed, Clason said that the department is hosting virtual demonstrations on Aug. 22 and Aug. 30 to walk users through the system.
Businesses can register for the demonstrations on the Department of Alcoholic Beverages' website.
Clason said that seeing business owners hand delivering their paperwork in the department's lobby was "a realization" that business could be done more efficiently in the 21st century.
"I have had anecdotal stories of owners trotting up here multiple times with reams of paper to turn in their applications. They have to come back if something's missing, (and) now there's a system where everything is in one place," said Michele Corigliano, executive director of the Salt Lake Area Restaurant Association.
Cade Campbell, owner of the Spotted Dog Cafe in Springdale, Washington County, says the new system is a welcome one that will help him continue to expand upon his "exceptional and diverse wine list."
"I have historically struggled to accomplish what I had set out to do primarily due to the limited technology and the lengthy steps needed to satisfy the requirement," Campbell said. "These steps sometimes involved relying on the (United States Postal Service) or other courier services to carry the actual documents and money order payments to the office up here in Salt Lake City."
He said driving the paperwork and payment from southern Utah to Salt Lake City was a common practice to ensure deadlines were met.
"The name change last year from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services was more than just a show of effort to change," Campbell said. "I have witnessed that the new DABS is truly a service-first department and I look forward to what she (Clason) and the department accomplishes in the future."
