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2002 Digital Government Award Winners Announced

Six winners took home top honors.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning and Accenture presented the Digital Government Awards in six categories during the E-Gov Conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

The awards, in their third year, recognize best practices in digital government and higher education. Winners were selected from approximately 125 finalists from across the United States. The awards were presented in federal, state and local government categories.

Awards were also presented for higher education and most innovative pilot or prototype program. A new category, Agent of Change, was introduced this year to recognize outstanding individual contributions.

"These organizations have moved beyond mere integration of existing services that are transported onto the Internet," said Daniel Greenwood, director of the MIT eCommerce Architecture program. "Now they are innovatively extending their service-delivery capabilities with customer-centered designs and tools that enable multi-channel interactions with constituents."

This year's award winners are:

Federal Government Innovator category: The U.S. Department of Defense Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support program (DMLSS), which provides material, facility, equipment and technology-management capabilities to speed delivery of pharmaceutical and medical/surgical items to customers.

State Government Innovator category: The Kansas Department of Human Resources launched new unemployment insurance services on its Web site KansasJobLink to respond to a dramatic rise in requests for unemployment services. The new services provide claimants and employers with multiple customer service channels by incorporating Internet and interactive voice response self-service, intelligent call center routing and an integrated customer relationship management desktop. The program also connects the unemployment-claims and job-search processes with a direct link into KansasJobLink.

Local Government Innovator category: Montgomery County, Maryland's Department of Technology Services was recognized for developing a multi-channel electronic-government service program designed to meet constituent needs. Constituents can use the county's Web portal, kiosks, interactive voice response systems and traditional walk-up service counter to obtain services and communicate with multiple government agencies.

Higher Education Innovator category: The University of Washington's Catalyst Initiative is a campus-wide integrated array of resources, training, tools, templates and support designed to help university educators make effective use of technology in their teaching. The initiative provides a set of Web-based tools that can be accessed by the university's entire community; a primary Web site that serves as a information clearinghouse on technology-related topics; a workshop series that provides technology training for instructors; and personalized individual consulting for faculty.

Pilot/Prototype Innovator category: The Rhode Island Department of Administration launched an electronic-payment engine through the state's Web portal to provide state and local agencies with a means of conducting online transactions -- the first time the state could accept credit card payments for services via the Internet. Through a partnership with New England Interactive, software development, hosting and banking fees are all handled using zero tax dollars. The self-funding mechanism for the electronic-payment engine also makes the program free to any state and local agency in Rhode Island.

Agent of Change category: Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh was recognized for his efforts to move a manual, paper-based system to the Internet -- making the filing process faster and easier for businesses. To improve adoption rates of the new system, the Secretary of State's office worked in partnership with the Kansas Bankers Association to ensure accurate filing, adoption, marketing and quality assurance. The Online Uniform Commercial Code filing system was introduced in July 2001, and state officials saw a 65 percent adoption rate during the first month of operation, and an 80 percent adoption rate today for online filing.

"We introduced the Agent of Change category this year to recognize individual leadership and vision," said Stan Gutkowski, an Accenture managing partner. "Our inaugural winner has demonstrated a keen understanding that transforming government comes not from simply moving services online, but from redesigning the organization and processes to put citizens at the center of the service-delivery model."

Additional information is available at the Digital Government Awards Web site.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Accenture