"We are very excited by this improvement," says Utah's Governor Olene Walker. "We strive to provide online services that make life easier for Utah's citizens and businesses, and I'm pleased that Utah.gov has garnered national attention." A team of researchers at Brown's Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions compiled the rankings this summer. To calculate state placement, the researchers analyzed 1,569 sites -- an average of 31.4 per state -- and measured them against a host of criteria, including availability of online services, disability and foreign language access, readability level, quality control and availability of credit card payments.
"We were very pleased with what we saw at Utah.gov," said Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center and leader of the annual eGovernment study. "The site was clean, easy to navigate, and offered around-the-clock customer service and technical support."
Additionally, the Brown study notes, Utah.gov features a quick link to all of its online services on the left-hand side of the home page while displaying its most popular online services in the center of the home page. A "Voice Your Opinion" survey tool as well as a link to live, online customer support completes the right-hand side of the home page.
"In the past year, we have added many new services like OneStop Business Registration and upgraded existing services, like the new and improved Renewal Express," said Val Oveson, Utah's Chief Information Officer. "I'm delighted that our efforts have been recognized by Brown University."
The Utah.gov home page also links users to http://Business.Utah.gov, which offers online services specifically for businesses, and http://Jobs.Utah.gov, a site that allows the user to search for jobs or file for unemployment benefits. For added convenience and consistency, each individual state agency site has the same header with a link to all online government services, allowing users to access the services from any page of the portal.
In 2003, Utah.gov processed 1.2 million transactions and hosted more than 20 million site visits.
Quelle: Government Technology, 04.11.2004
