Tennessee Selects NIC for Portal Services

William Welsh, Staff Writer


AUG. 15 ? Tennessee has selected National Information Consortium USA Inc. to manage and provide other services for the state's portal, state and company officials announced.


Tennessee and NIC officials now are in negotiations, which are scheduled to conclude Aug. 18 with a signed contract, according to a schedule of events posted on the state's Web site.


NIC was chosen over five other companies that submitted proposals in July to provide portal services, according to state procurement documents. Those companies are Andersen Consulting of Chicago; Economic Technology Solutions Inc. of Nashville, Tenn.; Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas; eGovNet.com of Columbus, Ohio; and GovConnect Inc. of Cincinnati.


In its Aug. 9 statement, the Office for Information Resources said NIC is "the apparent best-evaluated proposer that the state will consider for contract award." But an actual contract to NIC depends upon the successful completion of negotiations between NIC and Tennessee.


Twenty-eight vendors attended a conference in June before the submission of proposals.


Headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., NIC has more than a dozen city and state portals throughout the United States. The company supports self-funding, transaction-based business models, but also will build and manage portal contracts based on time and materials.


On average, 95 percent of the information and applications available through its portals are free to the public, according to NIC. The other five percent include a convenience fee.