State of Maryland Places Wins Third Place in Government Experience Awards

State recognized for innovative Maryland.gov features and official chatbot

ANNAPOLIS, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Center for Digital Government awarded the State of Maryland third place in the 2020 Overall State Government Experience awards.

Maryland, which partners with digital government solutions firm NIC Maryland, located in Annapolis, was honored for continued improvements to the Maryland.gov multi-channel, digital government platform, the Maryland.gov primary search bar and the state’s first chatbot, Agent Mary.

“We are very proud of this accomplishment for the state of Maryland,” said Nancy Schmid, General Manager of NIC Maryland. “This recognition of Maryland.gov and its citizen-centric capabilities illustrates the strides this partnership has made in digital government innovation.”

Four months after Governor Larry Hogan’s State of Emergency proclamation on March 5, 2020, Maryland.gov has provided critical information and guidance on COVID-19 to over 4.3 million visitors. Built using responsive mobile-first techniques, 51% of visitors have accessed the site using a mobile device, helping citizens and businesses without consistent internet access receive important information. Additionally, more than 6.1 million citizens have subscribed to receive electronic news and updates from Maryland State agencies.

A powerful feature of the Maryland.gov portal is the site’s primary search bar. Consistently, Maryland.gov’s top component was search, prompting its update in late 2019. The search bar is now prominently located and features a list of the most popular search items populated from the “links” and “online services” lists. Popular services can also be scheduled to appear seasonally, and trending services show before others. All Maryland agencies have implemented the enterprise search resulting in more than 10 million searches annually across the enterprise of state agencies.

The State’s official chatbot, Agent Mary, provides citizens with 24/7 assistance. In 2020 alone, more than 710,000 conversations have occurred, 37% of which occurred after business hours, and the service has a 93% overall customer satisfaction rating.

The Government Experience Awards recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that excel at creating useful online government services and applications. The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and sets the standard for measuring best practices in state and local government.

NIC Maryland

NIC Maryland builds, operates, maintains and markets the official website of the state of Maryland, www.maryland.gov and its digital government services. NIC Maryland is a collaborative public-private partnership managed by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and NIC Maryland. NIC Maryland helps Maryland state and local government entities web-enable their services and operates without tax funds through a self-funded digital government services contract. NIC Maryland has developed over 150 digital government products and services for the state of Maryland since the contract was awarded in August 2011.

About NIC Inc.

NIC (Nasdaq: EGOV) is a leading digital government solutions and payments company, serving more than 7,000 federal, state and local government agencies across the nation. With headquarters in Olathe, Kan., NIC partners with the majority of U.S. states to deliver user-friendly digital services that make it easier and more efficient to interact with government – providing valuable conveniences like applying for unemployment insurance, submitting business filings, renewing licenses, accessing information and making secure payments without visiting a government office. In the COVID-19 era and beyond, NIC helps government agencies rapidly deliver digital solutions to provide essential services to citizens and businesses alike. Having served the public sector for nearly 30 years, NIC continues to evolve with its federal, state and local government partners to deliver innovative and cost-effective digital government to constituents. Learn more at www.egov.com.