Texas New eGovernment Portal
Only July 31, 2009 the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) signed a contract with NIC to manage TexasOnline 2.0 for 7 years. As outside counsel to DIR this contract this was a rewarding conclusion to a 17 month process to succeed the current TexasOnline contract which was signed in 2000. TexasOnline currently has more than 2.4 million visitors monthly and processed over $12 billion in transactions. “The new contract calls for maintaining these services and enhancing TexasOnline with new services and “next-generation” Web design and Web 2.0 tools to give citizens easier access to government services.”
DIR’s Plan
Brian Rawson, executive director of DIR and Texas’ Chief Technology Officer said that we “… are pleased that Texas NICUSA will enhance the public-private partnership that is already providing a robust group of services to Texans. The exceptional track record of success, proven leadership and the legacy of innovation NIC brings to the project will strengthen the state’s ability to serve citizens, and set TexasOnline apart as the most successful state Web portal in the nation.”
Who is NIC?
NIC provides eGovernment portal solutions in 23 states and for more than 3,000 federal, state, and local agencies that serve 97 million people in the United States. NIC succeeds BearingPoint who operated TexasOnline since 2000, and many of the individuals who made TexasOnline a great success will work with NIC to develop TexasOnline 2.0.
eFiling in Texas Courts
As Chair of the Texas Supreme Court Judicial Committee on Information Technology (JCIT) from 1997 until July, 2009 one project that provided significant benefits to the Texas Courts was the implementation of eFiling in Texas trial courts. TexasOnline has been the Electronic Filing Manager for that project, and currently has more than 25,000 filings each month. Mike Griffith (Senior Manager for the eFiling Project at NIC) has done an outstanding job managing eFiling for TexasOnline for many years. Earlier this year Mike and I participated in webcasts for the State Bar of Texas entitled: “E-Filing in Texas Courts: How to Save Time and Money”
I am very honored and privileged to represent Brian Rawson and DIR and pleased that I was able to assist Texas in helping construct the RFO and negotiate the 7 year contract in support of the effort to build TexasOnline 2.0, and am certain that the citizens of Texas will be the beneficiaries.
Texas is a large State in geography, population, and local government, as we have 254 counties, more than 1,100 cities, and about 23 million people. Each of the 254 Counties are run by Commissioners’ Courts who also are responsible many other government functions, and there are over 400 District and County Clerks who receive documents filed in the various District and County Courts. Each City finances its own Municipal Court system. Generally local governments are responsible for financing the Court System except the 16 Appellate Courts which are funded by State funds, which include 14 intermediate Courts of Appeal, a civil Supreme Court called the 
Many of the trial courts around Texas are now automating the trial courtrooms so that trial lawyers and judges can use cutting edge technology to display evidence, PowerPoint, video, and websites to juries. .gif)
One statutory charge of JCIT was to implement an eFiling system for case documents. JCIT structured the eFiling project with TexasOnline since the Texas Legislature mandated that all State government agencies use the Texas eGovernment portal. TexasOnline has contracts with more than 36 Counties to provide eFiling directly to the District and County Clerks in a standard pdf format. We refer to 