NIC Is a VAR You Should Know

Getting it done: Experiencing consistent growth since 1999, this solution provider decided to place all of its eggs in the e-government basket long before it became the buzzword of the decade -- and has since left most competitors scrambling to catch up.

That's because NIC does a lot more than just enable citizen services for state and local governments; the company joins forces with the agencies to determine what constituents demand, then customizes solutions accordingly. NIC gets paid only if the government customer sees a tangible return, absorbing technical and development costs and sharing a portion of the fees generated from electronic transactions with the government partner after the solution launches (and, yes, NIC calls them partners, not customers).

"We promise to improve our government partners' online services, and we keep our promise," Fraser says. "At the same time, the governments we work with keep their promise to maintain mutually beneficial contracts with NIC so we can continue to deliver e-government services that benefit their citizens over time ... Public-private partnerships work best when the actions of the government and the private sector provider make each side indispensable to the other."

And that's what makes NIC unique. The VAR considers choosing innovative technology just as important as targeting progressive states that are willing to invest in the process. That includes Iowa, which implemented an administrative rules portal for citizens and businesses to locate and track changes to specific government rules. Then there's Nebraska, whose Web portal has seen five major redesigns, added more than 150,000 pages of content and incorporated citizen alerts, a dynamic news page and live online customer service.

NIC's latest focus? Enabling cross-boundary services that integrate multiple agencies and levels of government.

"Our government partners understand that technology can simplify complex, multistep processes, and we are helping them deliver these solutions," Fraser says. "There is no silver bullet in our approach -- just hard work that has led to consistent success."