We truly wanted that enterprise, one look, one feel approach. Washington state is also taking an enterprise-level approach to its portal, which will be the facade for the state's complete systems overhaul in preparation for offering electronic transactions. The state plans to use sophisticated security architecture to provide digital signature technology for businesses and citizens to secure online transactions. Even before the state began to Web-enable its systems, it started offering online services through its homepage, Access Washington. Users are ushered into a wide variety of options, such as ordering documents online, looking up a person's criminal history or even applying for college admission.
Businesses can pay excise and unemployment taxes, and they can file wage reports.
The site also offers clear directions. It's not enough to set up an Internet lemonade stand outside your firewall and say you're offering services. Individual agencies will be responsible for funding their own applications. None of the development or maintenance associated with portal operations will be outsourced, and citizens will not be charged to use the services. We see this as a core competency, and we don't believe in giving away core competencies.