Case Study 2: Taxpayer Benefits

Gwinnett County in the Atlanta metroplitan area has one of the most Internet-connected constituencies in the United States with 85 percent of its residents online. It represents an ideal environment for conducting more of the business of government over the Web.

Before Sprint E|Solutions was called in, various Gwinnett County departments had already put up their own Web sites, mostly of the “brochureware” variety. County officials envisioned the day when there would be a single e-government portal for all county services and when citizens and businesses would be able to pay taxes, apply for licenses, and transact other county business online.

Solution

Sprint E|Solutions and BroadVision, a leading developer of self-service applications, wanted to turn Gwinnett County’s long-term vision into short-term reality. In just six weeks, the county was able to launch phase 1 of its e-government initiative with an online property tax payment system. A new unified Web portal with links to all government services followed in short order. Web site management has now been entrusted to Sprint E|Solutions, which hosts the BroadVision platform at one of its highly secure Sprint E|Solutions Centers^SM.

The Taxpayer Benefits

Just like private industry, government agencies at all levels are looking at ways to improve the delivery of services to their “customers” and, at the same time, reduce the cost of providing those services. It’s working in Gwinnett County. With the introduction of online property tax payment, the cost per transaction has gone down by 30% and collection times have narrowed. The IT department has been able to reduce the costs associated with updating disparate systems by more than 20%. Now that Sprint E|Solutions manages the county’s Web servers, Gwinnett County has been able to avoid capital investments in more hardware and software and the expense of maintaining them. And, every time a constituent turns to the Web site to look up a piece of information, it means one less call for county staff members to handle. The county budget, and ultimately the tax payers, benefit.

Equally important, the new centralized Web portal makes it more convenient for constituents to do business with the county. Online property tax payment is only one example. Constituents can now register their security alarm systems online, submit job resumes electronically, and download a variety of permit and license forms.

And That’s Just the Beginning

In future phases of its five-year initiative, Gwinnett County will add a number of additional e-government and e-commerce features to the portal, such as payment of utility bills and even parking tickets online, all with a credit card payment option.