EzGov solidifies e-gov alliances

Less than a month after announcing a strategic partnership with one industry giant, EzGov Inc. was at it again Monday, announcing an alliance with PricewaterhouseCoopers to offer business and technology solutions to help governments serve citizens.

Together, the two organizations will provide portal technology, transactional applications and consulting services to federal, state, and local governments.

On April 20, EzGov announced a similar deal with Electronic Data Systems Corp., and last June, the company announced an alliance with IBM Corp. to help EzGov infiltrate the federal marketplace.

"We're pretty excited about both relationships," said Randy Street, executive vice president of sales and marketing at EzGov. "We are a software company...and as such, working with the big integrators is a very important part of our strategy."

Street said EzGov has been working wth both EDS and PricewaterhouseCoopers for about 10 months, but held off on formally announcing the relationships until there were some government wins to announce. "We wanted to have the announcement and then action," he said. "There will be a flurry of [contract] announcements in the coming months."

As part of the joint development and marketing agreement, EzGov will offer its FlexFoundation and StateSuite products, and PricewaterhouseCoopers will provide process improvement, customer relationship management, strategic change and technology services.

FlexFoundation is a scalable e-government software platform that enables governments to build and manage their online presence from an integrated foundation. StateSuite helps state and large local government agencies provide online transactions to citizens and businesses, including:

Driver's license renewal. Vehicle registration. Payment of taxes, tickets and bills. Registration for permits and business filings. Rick Webb, PricewaterhouseCoopers' managing director in the state and local government practice, said citizens are demanding the same customer service from government agencies that they have come to expect from private businesses. "This alliance with EzGov strengthens our combined vision to enable governments everywhere to better their interaction with citizens and businesses while reducing costs," he said in a release.