Alabama's innovative Web-based point-of-sale hunting and fishing licensing system is now an award winner.
Last month, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources was named one of 15 Pioneer Award recipients by the E-Gov Institute's Government Solutions Center. In May 2003, Alabama replaced its paper-based hunting and fishing licensing process by launching the nation's first Web-based system to allow approved licensing retailers to sell outdoor licenses electronically. Since then, more than 190,000 hunting and fishing licenses have been processed through the service, which is essentially a hardware-neutral interface that is accessible through a basic Internet connection.
"We are very pleased with the recognition of our point-of-sale service by the E-Gov Institute," said M. Barnett Lawley, Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "The program has contributed to significant cost savings in the agency and for our retailer partners. We've been able to realign some of our staff from the tedious paper processing to better serve our constituents."
The E-Gov Institute serves as an educational resource to those providing electronic government services. More than 160 electronic government projects were reviewed, and Alabama was one of two states to receive a Pioneer Award.
The system was developed at no cost to the state and is the result of a unique public-private partnership between the Alabama Department of Conservation, the Information Services Division, Wal-Mart Stores, and Alabama Interactive. The user-friendly system has generated more than $200,000 in direct cost savings for the state and eliminated thousands of labor hours for Wal-Mart and other retail licensing agents in the state.
"We congratulate our partners in the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on winning a Pioneer Award," said Winn McInnis, general manager of Alabama Interactive. "They used technology to find a better way to sell outdoor licenses, and Alabama's outdoorspeople and retail licensing agents are the beneficiaries of this great system."
For more information about Alabama's eGovernment initiatives, visit www.alabama.gov. To learn more about Alabama's outdoor and wildlife activities, visit www.outdooralabama.com.
About Alabama Interactive
Alabama Interactive is the official eGovernment solutions provider for the state of Alabama. The company builds and manages interactive government services on behalf of the state and is a wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC (Nasdaq:EGOV).
Quelle: Business Wire, 14.05.2004
