The State of Utah has been named the best managed state in the nation, based on the most authoritative and respected review of States, the Pew Center on States’ 2008 report. Utah’s top spot with the highest grade point average is an improvement over the State’s previous No. 2 ranking.
Part of Utah’s 1st place ranking in The Pew Center on States’ 2008 report is due to the State’s ability to leverage technologies to enhance government efficiency. In 2007 Utah.gov won an unprecedented number of awards including number one in the prestigious Best of the Web competition awarded by the Center for Digital Government. In addition to the Best of the Web award, the state’s official Web portal (www.Utah.gov) was honored with eight prominent awards recognizing innovation in government technology.
Utah.gov supports all state agencies and processed more than 7 million online transactions last year. TaxExpress, for example, is a service that allows citizens to pay state taxes online, a convenient alternative to the paper application. More than 1,000 citizen, business and government-to-government services can be accessed through Utah.gov, more than any other state.
In 2007, Utah.gov received more than 22 million visits. Monthly unique visitors to the portal are more than those of Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho combined. “Utah is one of the most connected states in the country. The many online services offered by state agencies not only emphasize Utah’s ability to efficiently leverage our technological resources, they also illustrate our citizens’ expectation to conveniently access government services online,” stated Utah Chief Information Officer J. Stephen Fletcher.
Last year, over 80% of all professional licensing renewals, from real estate to cosmetology, were done online. The goal of Utah.gov is three-fold, to provide easy access to government information, put new services online and increase use of existing services. For example, Utah Highway Patrol Safety Inspection Online successfully handled over 1,383,564 transactions in 2007.
About DTS
The Department of Technology Services (DTS) was established in 2006, calling for a major restructuring of the state’s Information Technology (IT) services. Under the leadership of the State’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), J. Stephen Fletcher, DTS has embarked on an unprecedented transition to consolidate all IT resources and services for the State of Utah into one department helping to reduce costs, increase services to taxpayers, and more closely align IT with the business needs of the State of Utah.
About Utah.gov
Utah.gov is the State of Utah’s official Web portal (www.Utah.gov). It was ranked 1st in the nation in the Center for Digital Government’s 2007 Best of the Web competition and won first place in Brown University’s 2005 survey of state and federal Web sites. The portal is a collaborative effort between the State of Utah and Utah Interactive, LLC, a Salt Lake City-based, wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC (Nasdaq: EGOV).
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Rich Olsen & Spencer Jenkins
Quelle/Source: Businesswire, 11.03.2008
