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“The state’s official website was created almost 20 years ago,” Malloy said. “Since that time, many best practices have been established and new technologies that dramatically increase usability have been created. By utilizing this self-funded plan, we are going to modernize the way state government interacts with its citizens and put a process in place that will ensure the state’s online presence continues to keep up with technological advances.”
The re-designed homepage, which will function on computers, tablets and mobile devices, will be streamlined and organized towards specific users’ needs. The plan is to modify each state agency’s website by creating new interactive services previously unavailable on the state’s portal.
With this innovation, Connecticut residents may soon be able to use the portal for a number of possibilities, such as submitting a smart phone picture to document an unsafe condition, taking a mobile practice driver’s license exam, applying for a fishing license, finding the nearest government office or polling place, renewing a business license, or accessing needed information from government databases.
Connecticut Interactive, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIC, Inc., will design and manage the web portal. This unique public-private partnership allows the portal to be developed and operated without tax dollars.
Funding for the program is generated through efficiency fees that are applied to a small subset of the online services, specifically those that fulfill specialized requests by bulk purchasers of government information, such as motor vehicle driver histories. This type of structure is used in over half the states in the nation to satisfy the growing demand for online services.
The Governor said that the website will be specifically developed with an eye toward making the user-experience for businesses in the state easier and more interactive. A top priority is to launch a new Connecticut Business Portal that consolidates the various business-related solutions provided by different state agencies and introduces many new services that make it easier for the private sector to form, operate and expand businesses in Connecticut.
NIC is the nation’s leading provider of official government websites, online services, and secure payment processing solutions.
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