Accenture and MIT Announce Digital Government Award Winners.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2004

Winners Recognized at FOSE 2004 for Technology Innovation

and High Performance in Government and Higher Education 

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning today announced the winners of their fifth annual Digital Government Awards at the FOSE 2004, the largest annual government trade show. The awards recognize technology breakthroughs that deliver public sector value in government and higher education in the United States.

The awards are presented for achievements in federal, state and local government and higher education categories, with a fifth award presented for the most innovative pilot/prototype program or service. In addition, the first-ever Federal and State Agent of Change Awards recognize two individuals who have used creativity and initiative to inspire others to investigate new approaches and new technologies during the past year.

The 2004 award winners are:

-- Federal Government Innovator - Defense Finance and Accounting

Service

-- State Government Innovator - State of North Carolina 

-- Local Government Innovator - New York City 

-- Higher Education Innovator - North Shore Community College

-- Pilot/Prototype Innovator - Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles

-- Federal Agent of Change - Ken Walton, National Capital

Planning Commission 

-- State Agent of Change - Lieutenant Russ Bass, Florida Highway

Patrol

"These organizations and individuals are leaders in applying technology innovation to drive high performance in government and higher education," said Steve Rohleder, group chief executive of Accenture's Government operating group. "They are deserving recipients of this honor because they consistently deliver high-quality, cost-effective services to citizens, businesses and other public sector organizations."

"This award celebrates advances not only in technology, but the innovative uses to which it is put," said Daniel J. Greenwood, director of the MIT E-Commerce Architecture Program and lecturer at the Media Lab of MIT. "The winners this year can serve as a benchmark for creative use of technology in the public sector."

Additional details about the award recipients are below.

Federal Government Innovator

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service's myPay system puts pay account information matters in the hands of military services and defense agencies within the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, Department of Defense civilians, retirees and annuitants around the world use myPay to access personal pay account information around the clock. The system is designed to offer control over payroll transactions, correspondence address updates, financial allotments, and pay and tax statements among other information. Customers can view and print pay statements as early as two days prior to the actual payday. Users can also print online tax statements that are considered "official" documents for income tax purposes.

State Government Innovator

The State of North Carolina created NC E-Procurement @ Your Service, an enterprise-wide procurement solution that serves roughly 6,500 users from approximately 127 government entities. Through NC E-Procurement @ Your Service, the state not only gains cost savings and process efficiencies, but it also can now aggregate purchasing information, evaluate purchasing patterns and negotiate better prices with suppliers. The Internet-based system also includes a statewide vendor registration application and marketplace for obtaining informal quotes. State purchasing agents are able to place requisitions and process electronic purchase orders through the Internet. To date, the system has processed orders totaling about $1.65 billion.

Local Government Innovator

In New York City, dialing 3-1-1 gives citizens 24/7 access to all non-emergency government services in the city. The New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication had technological, organizational and logistical challenges such as addressing the knowledge and content management challenge of making terabytes of data quickly accessible to call center workers. In its first year, 3-1-1 received more than 6.5 million calls. 3-1-1 information serves as a measurement tool to help monitor agencies' response to the public and to also hold commissioners accountable for the results. Next steps include "3-1-1 on the web," which will allow citizens to submit and track 3-1-1 service requests on nyc.gov.

Higher Education Innovator

North Shore Community College in Danvers, Mass., built a campus portal to serve as a gateway to all online constituent services, integrating many disparate systems--from an intranet to a learning management system. These resources are now accessible anytime from any location through a single role-based log-on that allows users to enter a content space that has been customized to their needs. An average of 1,400 users access the portal daily. The portal has enabled the college to streamline outdated processes, expand the availability of student services and increase enrollment of nontraditional students. Costs associated with developing the portal were recouped within the first three years.

Pilot/Prototype Innovator

The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles provides certified copies of driving records, as requested by county prosecutors, for use as evidence in court. The standard record request process is slow and labor-intensive. The state's new Digitally Certified Driver License Record Search helps simplify the process. Users with a standard Web browser can access the online system via the Indiana Web portal. Prosecutors may use the system to verify authenticity of certified records; to reflect the date, time and signer of the record; and to prove that the record contents have not been altered. The system will help the Bureau save up to $37,000 annually in postage costs typically incurred to fulfill requests. Following the pilot, there are plans to offer the service to city prosecutors, defense attorneys and other eligible requestors.

Federal Agent of Change

As a community planner, Ken Walton supports the mission of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) by helping to protect and enhance the historical, cultural and natural resources of our nation's capital. Ken uses technological tools such as 3-D computer-aided design and digital multimedia to craft the design of buildings, master plans, transportation improvements and streetscape elements to help inform staff, NCPC members and the general public of the implications of a development project -- years before it is built. Ken has also developed multimedia video applications that depict NCPC's memorial and museum site planning activities and its current South Capital Street improvement initiative. These applications are designed to allow users to view video, text, images, maps and other material to understand NCPC's vision for improving the national capital region.

State Agent of Change

Lieutenant Russ Bass of the Florida Highway Patrol created innovative radio programming functionality for the state's law enforcement agencies. Bass' goal was to provide programming that allows users to roam the state while maintaining contact with the local dispatch center, thereby providing safety to officers traveling throughout Florida. Bass also developed console programming that patches together talk groups, instantly creating inter-agency communication. The system contributes to maximizing channel resources and eliminating the blockage of communication that previously occurred when users traveled out of talk group areas into territories unfamiliar to them. The system and its transition plan were later adopted by most of the participating law enforcement agencies.

An evaluation committee of executives from academia, government, the media and the private sector reviewed and scored all nominations submitted online for the Digital Government Awards. The deadline for nominations was Jan. 10, 2004. The awards are co-presented by Accenture and the MIT Media Labs, teaming to spotlight high performers in government and higher education. Additional information is available at the Digital Government Awards Web site, www.digitalgovawards.org.

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 approximately 86,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$11.8 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2003. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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.