Accenture and MIT Announce 2005 Digital Government Award Winners; Winners Recognized at FOSE 2005 for Innovative Uses of Technology to Transform Government.

WASHINGTON -- Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning today announced the winners of their sixth annual Digital Government Awards at FOSE 2005, the largest annual government trade show. The awards recognize the best examples of how governments are using technology to transform their delivery of citizen services and to showcase high performers in government innovation.

The awards are presented for achievements in federal and state/local government categories, as well as for the most innovative pilot or prototype solution category. In addition, awards are being given to the top Federal and State agents of change, recognizing individuals whose creativity and initiative not only helped to drive transformational change but also inspired others to pursue the same goal.

This year's award recipients include:

--U.S. Air Force, Global Combat Support Systems, Air Force System Program Office, in the Federal Government Innovator category;

--Houston TranStar, Real-Time Situation Status Website, in the State and Local Government Innovator category;

--U.S. Army, Forms Content Management Program, in the Pilot/Prototype Innovator category;

--Joyce Short, Director of HR Shared Services, Defense Finance and Accounting Services, for the Federal Agent of Change Award; and,

--Darlene Kosoff, Chief Security Officer, Washington State Department of Information Services, for the State Agent of Change Award.

"The quality of programs and accomplishments of individuals nominated keeps getting better and better, making this year's evaluations one of the most competitive ever," said Stanley J. Gutkowski, managing partner of Accenture's USA Government practice. "I'm particularly pleased about the unprecedented showing of award winners represented by our armed forces. The defense community is clearly taking a leadership role in leveraging technology to transform their operations and improve their ability to serve this nation at a time when America needs them the most."

"At MIT, we seek innovative solutions of tomorrow applied to the problems of today, and each of the winners demonstrated excellence on that mark," said Daniel J. Greenwood, director of the MIT E-Commerce Architecture Program and lecturer at the Media Lab of MIT. "Winners used information technologies in creative ways to support and enhance all manner of government functions, from soldiers in the field, to helping commuters assure safer, faster drives home."

Accenture and MIT invited government organizations, public corporations, and higher education institutions to submit nominations for consideration. The nominations were viewed and judged by a panel of leaders in academia, government and other organizations. Awards for each category were based on the degree of creative thinking and innovative use of technology used to create or enhance service delivery; the extent to which the nomination successfully addressed a significant problem faced by the users or the organization; and the level of transformation and demonstrated effectiveness and tangible results achieved in the delivery of the program or service.

Details about this year's award recipients are below.

Federal Government Innovator

U.S. Air Force

Global Combat Support Systems--Air Force (GCSS-AF) System Program Office

The Air Force's thousands of combat support applications, while individually robust, lacked coherency and efficiency. Content was often outdated, redundant or incorrect. To overcome these challenges, Air Force leadership initiated the Global Combat Support System (GCSS), an enterprise-wide, net-centric integrating platform for the Air Force's Operations or Combat Support systems. It provides a common set of services for systems to exploit, with more than 120 systems presently riding under its enterprise security layer and more than 25 systems riding natively on its COTS service oriented architecture. GCSS is transforming how the Air Force collects, synthesizes and presents logistics information to personnel and commanders.

State and Local Government Innovator

Houston TranStar

Real-Time Situation Status Website

Houston TranStar is a multi-agency partnership comprised of the City of Houston, Harris County, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County and the Texas Department of Transportation-Houston District. The members of this consortium work cooperatively to provide effective transportation and emergency management services across jurisdictional boundaries. The website helps address transportation issues due to accidents, road maintenance, special events, and disasters by providing a seamless, real-time situation database that exports partner-provided information to other government agencies and the general public via the website.

Pilot/Prototype Innovator

U.S. Army

Forms Content Management Program

The Army's Forms Content Management Program (FCMP) establishes an enterprise information technology infrastructure that will allow the Army to automate all manual and form-based business processes. Using digital signature technology, FCMP provides a single, automated process for Army-wide use. The program will reduce or eliminate paperwork and resources required to process business transactions concerning personnel, contracts and logistics. This initiative will change the way an estimated 1.4 million Army personnel around the world captures and processes information.

Federal Agent of Change

Joyce Short, Director, HR Shared Services Defense Finance and Accounting Services

Joyce Short is the visionary and chief architect behind HR to the Desktop, a strategic initiative leveraging the Web to deliver better quality, lower cost personnel services. Joyce and her team designed and implemented multiple portal applications, an online training history, a data mart and a low-cost usability lab, putting forms online and reducing call center volume. Joyce's accomplishments have earned numerous awards, including third place in Plumtree Portal's 2004 Killer Applications contest and Nielsen Norman Group's Top 10 Best Government Intranets.

State Agent of Change

Darlene Kosoff, Chief Security Officer

Department of Information Services, Washington State

Darlene Kosoff leads the strategic development of Washington's information security infrastructure--a system that touches 5,000 customers. She spearheaded a state-of-the-art response system that has neutralized recent cyber attacks. Darlene inspires achievement within her staff, which has created online authentication systems and a secure virtual private network, among other projects. In addition to the many awards that her work has earned for the state, Darlene was recently nominated for the Information Security Executive (ISE) National Award.

Additional information about the Digital Government Awards is available at www.digitalgovawards.org.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 100,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$13.67 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2004. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology--a coeducational, privately endowed research university--is dedicated to advancing knowledge and educating students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. The Institute has more than 900 faculty and nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and is organized into five schools--Architecture and Planning; Engineering; Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; Management; and Science--and the Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology.

The MIT E-Commerce Architecture Program (eCAP), at ecitizen.mit.edu, acts as the point of contact at MIT for this collaboration. eCAP is an initiative to explore the legal, business and technical inputs to information architecture. ECommerce is understood broadly to include retail, business, healthcare, government, banking, real estate and education as conducted online.