NIC
is a company that designs, implements, streamlines and manages electronic
business solutions for local, state and the federal governments of the United
States of America. The CEO and chairman of the board is Harry Herington. NIC describes their business as that of
public servants because they enable governments to be more accessible and user
friendly to their constituents.
NIC's slogan is “ Making Good
Governments Better”.
Often, the complaints about government
processes are; they are too slow,
tedious , generate reams of paperwork and are too complicated for the average
person to negotiate. NIC aims to streamline
government processes to reduce wait times, travel to different agencies, time
constrictions, reduction in volumes of
paperwork and make business with the government more user friendly and
accessible.
Everyone in business knows time is money
and streamlining these processes saves money for the government and the people.
NIC does not use public money or money generated by taxes to provide any of
their solutions, it is a private company that was listed in Forbes magazine as
one of the top 100 successful small businesses in 2014.
Technology has changed the way people and businesses
act with government agencies. NIC has taken advantage of technology by
integrating government processes so anyone can access government portals from
their computer or phone in real time.
One example of the type of integration of
government forms can be found in the Arkansas Scholarship portal. A person can use their computer to access the
portal and once there, they will be prompted to enter certain information about
their qualifications. After entering the information the site brings up all scholarships
that match the information and gives you only the ones you qualify for. You do
not have to be tech savvy to use the portals, they are user friendly. Arkansas has found that more people can
attend college because they now can easily access the scholarship programs that
apply to their particular needs.
How Do the Use of the Government Portals
Improve the Average Person's Business with Government?
Through government portals a person can access their local, state or
federal governments. All someone has to do is enter the information they need
into a search bar or click on a topic. You will be directed to the web page and
you can begin entering your information, depending on your need, you will be
able to ; fill out government forms,register to vote in an election, pay property taxes, pay traffic fines, car
tag fees and even fill out the required documents to start a new business.
The new business start up page is a Onestop
application that combines all the different forms from the five agencies needed
and you can pay the fees right away.
Onestop has reduced the wait times for new business approval from a ten
week waiting period , down to two days. Utah, has a wizard approach on their
new business app that recognizes the key forms necessary for certain businesses
so it will bring up all the necessary forms to be filled out. New businesses
generate income for the state and hire workers. Making it easier to start new
businesses has helped boost local and state economies.
The
list of available services will vary from state to state . All are available
online but currently only some are available on mobile application to your
phone. NIC is working to get all apps available on all phones in the future and
applications , once available are free.
In
the state of Indiana , Law Enforcement is using an app for temporary plates on
vehicles. In the past, there was no way for an officer to know from the
temporary plate on a vehicle, if it was stolen from a dealership or involved in
any crime. With the Temporary Plate
Check App they are able to access all information on the vehicle with the
temporary plates and know if they are approaching a dangerous situation. All officers in Indiana are equipped with a
laptop inside their vehicles.
There is also a mobile bus safety
inspection application available to police officers. An officer can inspect buses transporting
school children. Should an officer find
an infraction they report it with the application and also check to make sure
the repair has been made. This has resulted in fewer buses breaking down and
buses are being repaired more quickly ensuring greater safety for school
children.
NIC
in SecondLife
NIC is located in SecondLife at NIC -
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/eGov/130/129/23 .
The
sim is comprised of three main buildings; The Corporate Head Quarters, The Hall
of States and the Innovation Building.
Corporate
Headquarters
In this building you will find the Lobby
,The auditorium , gift shop and corporate offices. The auditorium is used for
shareholder meetings and company meetings. The offices are for sales and
monitoring state portals. The building
resembles the NIC building in real life.
The
Hall of States
The Hall of States is where you can find
the portals. Inside this building there
are huge interactive maps of the United States and on those maps are the
states. You can click on a state and
your web browser will open to that State's webpage. The webpage will either be a search bar
asking what you wish to find or tabs to click on to , for instance, pay a
property tax bill or get tags for your vehicle. It will prompt you as to what
county you reside in . You can also pay
traffic fines from these portals.
As previously mentioned ,the services
available depend on the state .You can apply for hunting licenses in states
like Arkansas and Mississippi and regardless of all the forms needed you only
have to fill out the information once.
Is it Safe to use the online portals for
money transactions?
Yes
it is as safe as it can be. NIC handles government money and accounts, for this
reason they have a full department of accountants and lawyers to constantly
check transactions. They are trained to look for fraud or scams and monitor
sites constantly. When a portal is set up for an agency this team makes sure
payments can be made across multiple channels, build custom check out pages, and
check to make sure all portals are in compliance with convenience rules,
security and the PCI council and report refunds and chargebacks.
Through these portals you can also see
where money has been allotted through the state budget -where and how your tax
dollars are being spent.
There is also another portal where you can
click on any state and it will give you the population of that state.
The
Innovation Building
The Innovation building is where the “next
best thing” is produced. It is a place
where like minded creative thinkers come up with the next application and how
to apply it across all media. This is
where the bugs get fixed and all apps must work in all media before they are
adopted and put into practice at NIC.
Inside this building are conference rooms,
group huddles and labs to discuss and test new information.
This is a recreation of the real life group
in production at NIC. These are the people who come up with a way to integrate
more features into their existing apps along with new ones to reach more people
. Essentially NIC is doing on SL exactly
what they do in real life and all other media . NIC using all media , facebook,
twitter and youtube for all their apps.
The virtual world is just another medium that NIC is using to make
government more accessible to more people at all age ranges.
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