Virginia Renews Portal Work With NIC Subsidiary

Virginia Interactive Inc., a subsidiary of National Information Consortium Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., has received a five-year extension of its portal management contract in Virginia, the company said April 24.

The extension of the contract through August 2007 was approved by unanimous vote of the Virginia Information Providers Network Authority Board. The 11-member organization, which oversees the operations of VIPNet, consists of representatives from private-sector businesses, citizen interest groups and state officials.

The portal was one of the first in the nation to offer a personalized homepage, deliver government services via Palm-based wireless devices and deliver services such as legislative tracking and consumer assistance to handle citizen complaints, said company and state officials.

Last year, the portal logged 134 million hits, registered more than 23 million page views and supported about 25 million transactions.

NIC has contracts with 19 state and local governments for portal management and operation. Thirteen of those contracts are for the management of state government portals.