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Customer Satisfaction with Maryland Self-funded Digital Services Exceeds National Averages


Maryland's self-funded digital government services continue to impress citizens and businesses, consistently exceeding nationwide averages of satisfaction with the e-government sector. Comparing statewide satisfaction ratings against nationwide averages, nearly 97% of  users consistently rate Maryland self-funded services 20 percentage points higher. 

In the past seven years, 53 state and local agencies have used the statewide public/private partnership between Department of Information Technology and NIC Maryland to launch 140 digital government services. Many of these services including delivering the Department of Natural Resource's Maryland Fishing report though the Amazon's Echo voice assistant, the Maryland Business Express platform, and providing enhanced customer support through the Maryland.gov Chatbot, state agencies continue to deliver on their commitment to Governor Hogan's Customer Service Promise. 


Source:  statistica.com


Hogan Administration Announces New Maryland Workforce Expressway Website

Multi-agency Collaboration Offers Education, Training, and Employment Resources to Connect Businesses with Skilled Workers

Governor Larry Hogan recently unveiled the Maryland Workforce Expressway, a new website that connects businesses to the full array of state workforce development resources in Maryland.

The website  hosts nearly 50 workforce resources in one, easy-to-navigate location. Previously spread across many state agencies, the Expressway is a single source for links to talent engagement services, workforce education, hiring incentives, workforce training grants, labor and industry standards, and reemployment services. By streamlining access to state workforce resources, Maryland employers can more easily access the tools and services they need to secure and develop their talent pipelines.

"This innovative website will modernize the way our businesses connect with Maryland's incredible array of workforce resources, helping our businesses identify and grow their talent," said Governor Hogan

The Expressway is hosted within the Maryland Business Express website, an award-winning, nationally recognized collaboration among nine state agencies to aggregate state resources and make it easier for business owners and entrepreneurs to plan, start, manage, and grow their business. Now, the Maryland Workforce Expressway connects those business owners and their employees with the education, training, and services they need to develop their workforce and thrive in Maryland. 

Because the Expressway was built upon the existing Business Express framework, the entire project came at no cost to taxpayers.

"Maryland Commerce was pleased to work with our state agency partners to develop the Expressway and ensure it meets the needs of Maryland's businesses and job seekers," said Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill. "Streamlining all of Maryland's workforce resources into a singular portal not only gives job seekers easy access to new job opportunities, but will give businesses a competitive advantage in being able to select the best talent for their organization."

Maryland Digital Services Receive Top Honors in National Government Experience Awards 

The Center for Digital Government  recently announced winners in the prestigious 2018 Government Experience Awards. These awards recognize government agencies who offer citizens and businesses increasingly sophisticated digital user experiences.

The Maryland.gov communications  platform, managed by the Department of Information Technology, received two awards, a second-place in the Overall State Government Experience Awards and an Innovation Award for the Enterprise Widget Framework (EWF) API Library. 

Maryland's award-winning platform  embraces personalization and takes a user-centric approach for creating direct engagement with citizens via the web, smartphones, wearbles, live chat, chatbots and voice assistants. 

The Widget Framework provides state agencies with centralized and standardized code, allowing for rapid development and deployment of a variety of widgets. The widgets deliver unified branding and are available to all agencies. Widgets include NearYou, Online Services, standardized Header, Google translate and Google Site Search. 

"A big problem with agencies at the state level is the lack of common components and capabilities," said CDG Chief Innovation Officer Dustin Haisler. "Maryland is focused on connecting the dots, enabling agencies to maintain consistent branding and standards so we are all operating off the same playbook and it all feels like the same site."

AccessDNR , the official Department of Natural Resources (DNR) mobile and Apple Watch app received the Government to Citizen Project Experience Award.  This native mobile app provides hunters, anglers, boaters, and other outdoor enthusiasts with the latest Maryland outdoor recreation information, news and alerts right at their fingertips. Maryland was the first state to publish an Apple Watch app for government. The mobile app boasts innovative uses of geolocation, including a feature that alerts boaters of speed limits and zones on state waterways. AccessDNR also introduced its first Alexa skill with the DNR's Fishing Reports. This Alexa skill allows the user to hear the entire fishing report or may select one of the five major fishing regions in the state. 

The State Department of Assessment and Taxation's  Maryland Business Express  (MBE) received the Government to Business Project Experience Award.  MBE is an award winning, multi-agency business-centric platform. This next-generation platform offers aggregated content across Maryland state agencies and is the go-to location for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to locate information and relevant online services necessary to plan, start, manage and grow their business. The portal also points entrepreneurs and other business customers to online business services to quickly and easily complete and submit information required to register a business and trade name, manage legal entities, establish tax accounts, manage and maintain professional licenses, and electronically file many state and county licenses.

The MBE portal features an innovative business-specific Chatbot designed to communicate with and deliver business guidance to Marylanders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Using Artificial Intelligence, this digital assistant is the first of its kind to be trained by any state government specific to multi-agency business rules and regulations.

These digital services were developed and are maintained through the Department of Information Technology's Master Contract for self-funded digital government services.  Through this collaborative public/private partnership,  over 140 online services have been delivered.


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NIC Maryland develops and supports digital government services without using taxpayer funds through a master contract with the State of Maryland. Maryland saves money with NIC's online applications that pay for themselves through a proven funding model. 
Janet Grard 
NIC General Manager

Andrea Greer
DoIT Contract Administrator
[email protected]