NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release
	Contact: Val Oveson Chief Information Officer Governor's Office 801-538-1758 Amy Sawyer Utah Interactive 801-983-0275 amy@utahinteractive.org

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – November 2, 2004 – Utah.Gov just keeps getting better and better. In Brown University's fifth annual study of state and federal Web sites, the state of Utah's official Web site (www.Utah.gov) was ranked third in the nation, a great improvement over last year's 17th place ranking.

"We are very excited by this improvement," says Utah's Governor Olene Walker. "We strive to provide online services that make life easier for Utah's citizens and businesses, and I'm pleased that Utah.gov has garnered national attention."

A team of researchers at Brown's Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions compiled the rankings this summer. To calculate state placement, the researchers analyzed 1,569 sites — an average of 31.4 per state—and measured them against a host of criteria, including availability of online services, disability and foreign language access, readability level, quality control, and availability of credit card payments.

"We were very pleased with what we saw at Utah.Gov," said Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center and leader of the annual eGovernment study. "The site was clean, easy to navigate, and offered around-the-clock customer service and technical support."

Additionally, the Brown study notes, Utah.gov features a quick link to all of its online services on the left-hand side of the home page while displaying its most popular online services in the center of the home page. A "Voice Your Opinion" survey tool as well as a link to live, online customer support completes the right-hand side of the home page.

"In the past year, we have added many new services like OneStop Business Registration and upgraded existing services, like the new and improved Renewal Express," said Val Oveson, Utah's Chief Information Officer. "I'm delighted that our efforts have been recognized by Brown University."

The Utah.gov home page also links users to http://Business.Utah.gov, which offers online services specifically for businesses, and http://Jobs.Utah.gov, a site that allows the user to search for jobs or file for unemployment benefits.  For added convenience and consistency, each individual state agency site has the same header with a link to all online government services, allowing users to access the services from any page of the portal.

In 2003, Utah.gov processed 1.2 million transactions and hosted more than 20 million site visits.

About Utah.gov
Utah.gov is the state of Utah's official Web portal (www.Utah.gov) and was ranked first in the nation in the Center for Digital Government's 2003 Best of the Web competition. The portal is a collaborative effort between the state of Utah and Utah Interactive, LLC. It was built and is marketed, operated, and maintained by Utah Interactive, a Salt Lake City-based wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC (Nasdaq: EGOV).

About NIC
NIC manages more eGovernment services than any provider in the world. The company helps government communicate more effectively with citizens and businesses by putting essential services online. NIC provides eGovernment solutions for 1,500 state and local agencies that serve more than 51 million people in the United States. Additional information is available at www.nicusa.com.

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