October 21, 2009

DOL Information Technology team receives prestigious national award

OLYMPIA — Our state’s Enhanced Driver License and ID Card Project received a top honor from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) at the group’s annual conference today in Austin, Texas.

The Department of Licensing’s Enhanced Driver License and ID Card (EDL) Project was selected as the nation’s top information technology project in the group’s Cross Boundary Collaboration & Partnerships category.

“It’s an honor to have the innovative technology involved in creating our Enhanced Driver License recognized nationally,” DOL Director Liz Luce said. “It’s also a great opportunity to help other states understand the benefits of this groundbreaking program.”

The Enhanced Driver License project challenged state information technology professionals to merge technologies with the Department of Homeland Security to create secure border crossing with a state-issued driver license or ID card. About 32,000 information technology hours were used by the Department of Licensing alone in a six-month timeframe to meet the project’s deadlines.

Washington was the first in the nation to create an Enhanced Driver License program, and several other states and provinces are following suit. To date, 110,932 have been issued.

According to NASCIO, the Recognition Awards Program features categories reflecting the wide range of IT projects currently under development within state government. The group placed emphasis on recognizing programs that exemplify best practices, support the public policy goals of state leaders, represent an innovative use of existing and new technology, assist government officials to efficiently execute their duties, provide cost-effective service to citizens and are transferable to other agencies or units of government.

More information about this award, along with full submissions from all nominations, is posted on NASCIO’s website at www.nascio.org/awards.