Oklahoma Web Portal Receives Innovation Award

OK.gov, the state of Oklahoma's official Web portal, has been recognized for innovation for the second consecutive year by The Journal Record of Oklahoma City.

In November 2004, Governor Brad Henry announced the newly designed, developed and branded state portal. The portal is a central gateway for citizens and businesses to interact with Oklahoma government via the Internet. In addition to the new design and brand identity, the portal provides citizens, businesses and state government with a number of self-service tools for which it was recognized as a 2005 Innovator of the Year.

Some of the key features of the new portal include:

• A statewide newsroom for agencies to publish news releases either using RSS feeds or manual online publishing
• A statewide calendar of events
• Live Help -- real-time online customer service from the OK.gov help desk
• An enhanced Google search engine in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Libraries
• New information architecture that features improved usability and accessibility
• Fresh, ever-changing content on the home page.

The new portal has made Oklahoma government more consumer and business-friendly," said Governor Henry. "I am extremely pleased that the new Web site has been singled out for the services it provides."

"OK.gov is committed to providing the state with high-quality online applications that save state government time and money," said Lisa Counts, OK.gov general manager. "The new portal and its services, which took more than a year to design, develop and deploy, were built with absolutely no cost to the state." OK.gov is managed by eGovernment firm NIC.