Government Technology - January 2008 - (Page NIC6)

Chris Villines Tax Collector Saline County, Arkansas obtain a large majority of what they need over the Internet.” Since rolling out four years ago, the trucking portal has seen some of its services achieve up to 70 percent usage. Fees of 50 cents to $1.50 per transaction have already paid for the cost of the online trucking services. In addition, the state has cut its costs signiﬁcantly, especially by eliminating much of its postage expense associated with paper transactions. Making Government Easy The common adage, “online, not in line,” is championed by all sorts of government technology projects. Few, however, produce better results than eGovernment. In fact, “online, not in line” is the very deﬁnition of eGovernment. And allowing people and businesses to interact online with government is NIC’s specialty. By understanding the needs of citizens and business in addition to the needs of government, NIC avoids the onesize-ﬁts-all approach. Instead, the company crafts individual eGovernment solutions that make sense for its public-sector partners. “If we are going to get people to use an eGovernment service, we need to make it as user-friendly as possible,” said Herington. “I’ve often said you may not be able to make government fun, but you can make it easier. We make it easier every day.” Making government easier is exactly what the Arkansas Multi-Channel Property Tax Payment system is designed to do. A few years ago, Saline County, Ark., Tax Collector Chris Villines noticed the rise in online tax preparation and that people had started paying their taxes using a credit card. Villines ﬁgured that if private-sector companies could do this, Arkansas could too — only better. Villines envisioned a system that would unify counties throughout the state and allow people to pay their property taxes with a credit card over the Internet, by phone, or in person at a government ofﬁce. Villines and several other counties approached NIC with a vision of what they wanted. NIC set about making it a reality. The result is, as Villines explained, a very efﬁcient, easy-to-use application. “You can go directly to the state of Arkansas Web site , which has a link to the county tax portal,” he said. “Once you reach the portal, a user can look up information by last name or by parcel number, and it brings up on the screen everything that’s under an account. You can choose whether you would like to pay online through our secure server, by telephone with our interactive voice response system, or in person by swiping a credit card at a government ofﬁce. It’s as simple as that.” The easy-to-use solution is designed to provide multiple payment options that meet the needs of the majority of Arkansans. And since the system will not allow users to accidentally overpay, the counties are saved from costly error-correction and printing and mailing replacement forms. An eBay for Securities Next door to Arkansas, Oklahoma’s ﬁrst-of-its-kind eGovernment solution is getting attention — and awards. The State Treasurer’s Ofﬁce knew it would beneﬁt from a Web-based application that enabled online bidding for treasury securities. The treasurer’s ofﬁce maintains a $5 billion portfolio and is active on the securities market every day. The traditional method of bidding on securities had become too time-consuming, according to Oklahoma State Treasurer Scott Meacham. Meacham said the old paper-based system was very labor-intensive and subject to errors. About 18 months ago, Meacham asked his staff to develop a faster, more concise way to place bids. Working with NIC, Oklahoma developed the State Treasurer’s Online Electronic Trading Platform, which is available through the state’s portal . “We went to an online platform, where every time we’re ready to buy or sell a security, an e-mail is sent out to everybody on the approved dealer list,” Meacham explained. “Then when we get ready to conduct the session, we open up the system and all the brokers can come in and log on to this online platform.” 6 http://www.OK.gov

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - January 2008

Government Technology - January 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene CIO Sightings Four Questions for... Spectrum Location, Location, Location Digital Governor Back to the Drawing Board Waukesha Goes Green Collaring Dangerous Dogs Public Sector Goes Web 2.0 Bounce Back SACWIS Rollout Simple Strategy Products Personal Computing How It Works signal:noise

Government Technology - January 2008

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