Vermont's Official Web Site Named Finalist for Best of the Web Award

• Press Release
• Source: Vermont.gov
• On 8:00 am EDT, Friday September 25, 2009

MONTPELIER, Vt.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Governor Jim Douglas Announced today that Vermont’s official state portal Web site, Vermont.gov, was named as a finalist for the 2009 Best of the Web contest, according to the Center for Digital Government’s annual award rankings announced Tuesday. The Web site is the primary online presence for all of Vermont state government, and won the award just the 2^nd year after a comprehensive redesign was completed in September 2007. It is the first time Vermont has been ranked nationally in this competition.

Related Quotes

Symbol	Price	Change
EGOV	8.60	-0.18

{"s" : "egov","k" : "c10,l10,p20,t10","o" : "","j" : ""}

“We’re extremely excited to be ranked among the top 10 state government websites in the country,” said Governor Jim Douglas. “When we embarked on the website portal project in 2006, one of our main goals was to try to unite Vermonters with state government through a stronger web presence. Today, we are proud to offer Vermont.gov visitors access to many new and exciting features and technologies and look forward to offering even more in the coming years.”

Best of the Web ranks the top U.S. state and local Web portals, recognizing advances in digital solutions and communication with citizens, government, communities and business. The awards are judged by a panel of experts on a wide range of categories, including site accessibility, innovation, cost-savings, ease of use, and exceptional service to the public.

A common thread among the finalists this year was prominent links on the home page to e-government services like DMV Express, Vermont’s online driver’s registration renewal service, and BizFile, the state’s business tax filing service. Additionally, Vermont.gov’s focus on appealing to a wide array of user groups was well-represented by a new slider box in the middle of the site, as well as by peer-to-peer networking links like LinkedIn and Facebook.

The Vermont.gov Web site does not rely on tax dollars for development, hosting, or maintenance. The system is the result of a unique public-private partnership between the State of Vermont and Vermont Information Consortium.

About Vermont.gov

Vermont.gov (http://www.Vermont.gov) is the official Web portal of the State of Vermont. Vermont.gov is managed through a public-private partnership between the State of Vermont and Vermont Information Consortium, the Montpelier-based official eGovernment partner for the State of Vermont. The company builds and manages interactive government services on behalf of the state and is part of eGovernment firm NIC’s (NASDAQ:EGOV - News) family of companies.

About NIC

NIC Inc. (NASDAQ:EGOV) is the nation’s leading provider of official government portals, online services, and secure payment processing solutions. The company’s innovative eGovernment services help reduce costs and increase efficiencies for government agencies, citizens, and businesses across the country. NIC provides eGovernment solutions for more than 3,000 federal, state, and local agencies that serve 97 million people in the United States. Additional information is available at http://www.nicusa.com.

Office of Governor Douglas
Dennise R. Casey, 802-828-3333
or
Vermont.gov
Jamie Gage, 802-229-4171