NIC Scores With Hawaii, South Carolina Contracts

NIC Commerce Inc. of Reston, Va., a subsidiary of National Information Consortium Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., will provide electronic procurement systems for the states of Hawaii and South Carolina, the company announced this week.

The four-year contract with South Carolina, which has an estimated value of $8.64 million, will be paid through savings generated by the switch from traditional procurement methods to e-procurement, said NIC Commerce officials. No estimated value for the Hawaii contract was provided.

NIC Commerce and Bank of America Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. will administer the South Carolina contract, through their Purchase Street solution, which integrates NIC Commerce's electronic procurement software with Bank of America's payment infrastructure to create a suite of purchasing services.

Hawaii contracts with NIC subsidiary Hawaii Information Consortium Inc. of Honolulu for management and operation of the state's Web portal. Of the 12 states whose portals are managed by NIC, Hawaii is the first to expand the company's services to include electronic procurement.

The Hawaii project will be implemented in three stages. In the first stage, NIC Commerce will develop an alternate purchasing process to integrate the state's vendors into a system that will make their products and services available through the Internet. In the second stage, it will register new vendors online and process requests and bids under $25,000. In the third stage, it will add requests for proposals and formal bids valued at more than $25,000.

NIC also announced this week that Nebraska has extended for three years its state portal contract with NIC Interactive Inc. of Lincoln, Neb.

The 12-member Nebraska State Records Board approved the extension, which will run through January 2004, according to Nebraska Interactive. Nebraska Interactive has operated the portal since 1995.