NIC, eGovNet to Build County Portals

National Information Consortium Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., announced today it will build and manage a Web portal for Dallas County, Texas.Texas Local Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIC, will operate the portal, the company said. Dallas County chose NIC's proposal over other bids submitted by KPMG Consulting Inc. of McLean, Va., Systems and Computer Technology Corp. of Malvern, Pa., and eGovNet Inc., of Columbus, Ohio. The portal is expected to provide government services such as vehicle registration, property tax filing and traffic and parking fine payment. The services will be provided to residents in both English and Spanish, said NIC. NIC will provide infrastructure and staff resources required to develop, maintain and host the portal, while Dallas County will retain ownership of the content, data and statutory fees, NIC said.The portal will use the NIC-developed funding model by which users are charged a convenience fee for some services. Under this approach, the local government is not required to make an upfront investment. In a separate announcement, eGovNet Inc. of Columbus, Ohio said today that it has been selected to build a portal for Milwaukee County, Wis.Assisting eGovNet with the portal development will be marchFIRST Inc. of Chicago, a global professional services firm, and Ucon Computer Corp., of Milwaukee, an Internet service provider.