State recognized for innovative Utah.gov features and official chatbot

Company Website: http://www.egov.com
SALT LAKE CITY -- (Business Wire)

The Center for Digital Government awarded the State of Utah second place in the 2020 Overall State Government Experience awards.

Utah, which partners with digital government solutions firm NIC Utah, located in Salt Lake City, was honored for innovations to Utah.gov, the State’s official chatbot, Porter, and technological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am excited the Center for Digital Government has recognized the hard work we’ve put into the overall user experience for the people of Utah,” said Mike Hussey, State Chief Information Officer. "This consistent recognition confirms that we are on the right track in making sure we are designing innovative digital government services that meet the needs of our citizens.”

The award marks the State of Utah’s eighth appearance in the top five in the last decade and gives the State a total of five first place finishes, six second place finishes and two third place finishes since 2001.

Utah’s official state website, Utah.gov, offers an easy, convenient way for Utahns to access more than 30 million pages. Nearly 1,500 online services are housed on Utah.gov including a business portal, a central dashboard for all business transactions with the state, and a citizen portal. These services are designed to work together to simplify citizen interactions with state agencies. Utah.gov also features a search bar to help visitors locate the information they need quickly and easily.

Thanks to citizen feedback, Utah.gov and its services improve on an incremental basis, growing steadily 5% to 10% each year. Throughout the first six months of 2020, services on Utah.gov grew by more than 25%, a significant increase to meet the demands and needs of citizens and business during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Porter, Utah’s official chatbot, was created to help address citizens pandemic needs. Porter is an automated text support tool found on Utah.gov that helps with routine COVID-19 support questions and allows customer service agents to help with more complex questions. Following Porter’s success with COVID-19 response, additional capabilities for driver-related services was implemented and enterprise support features are currently in development.

“The entire NIC Utah team is proud of our state partner for this award,” said Brett Stott, General Manager of NIC Utah. “We know there is a lot of hard work that made this possible. We congratulate them today as they deservedly walk away with this significant honor from the Center for Digital Government.”

The Government Experience Awards recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that excel at creating useful online government services and applications. The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and sets the standard for measuring best practices in state and local government.

About NIC Inc.

NIC (Nasdaq: EGOV) is a leading digital government solutions and payments company, serving more than 7,000 federal, state and local government agencies across the nation. With headquarters in Olathe, Kan., NIC partners with the majority of U.S. states to deliver user-friendly digital services that make it easier and more efficient to interact with government – providing valuable conveniences like applying for unemployment insurance, submitting business filings, renewing licenses, accessing information and making secure payments without visiting a government office. In the COVID-19 era and beyond, NIC helps government agencies rapidly deliver digital solutions to provide essential services to citizens and businesses alike. Having served the public sector for nearly 30 years, NIC continues to evolve with its federal, state and local government partners to deliver innovative and cost-effective digital government to constituents. Learn more at www.egov.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200925005050/en/

Contacts:

Kara Cowie | NIC Inc
Director of Corporate Communications
816-813-2350 | Kara.Cowie@egov.com

Source: Utah.gov