Our Mission: Self-funded Services

The Information Network of Arkansas and the Arkansas Information Consortium have been providing online services and payment tools for state and local government since 1997.  Our unique self-funded service model allows for modest transaction fees on services that require online payment or add valuable functionality to existing state services.

Funds generated from these transaction fees allows us to reinvest in eGovernment applications that are of benefit to the citizens of Arkansas.  Because of our unique funding solution, INA provides over ____ services free of charge to state and local government.

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eGov Advocacy: Pay Property Taxes Online

About 80% of Arkansas citizens have access to online property tax payments, thanks to INA’s partnership with County Collectors across the state.  But while this great citizen service is accessible to most Arkansans, not everyone uses it.

Online tax payment is easy and fast.  Just head over to Arkansas.gov’s easy property tax payment portal, click on your county, and go from there.  You can choose to pay by e-check or credit card.  Tip:  Using the e-check service could save you several dollars in credit card processing fees.

You can play an important role in engaging Arkansans to do business with government online by trying out online services and sharing your experience with friends and family.  As government experts, you understand better than anyone how these services can and should work.

And we’d like your feedback, too.  Have an idea about how to spread the word on property tax payment?  Send us your comments, we’d love to hear from you.

Cool Tools: Wufoo Makes Online Forms a Snap

Empowerment.  It feels good, doesn’t it?

If you’re a web designer, you have all the tools you need to create custom forms on websites.  Simple things that you might want to include on your agency website, like an event registration or comment form, is super easy if you’re a professional web designer.  Also super easy but requiring a bit more lead time, is simply putting in a customer request with INA and requesting that we build a custom form for you.

But what if you didn’t have to be a programmer or web designer and didn’t have to rely on someone else to build the form for you?  That’s the concept behind Wufoo, an online form creator that let’s anyone create amazing online forms.  Just drag and drop the fields you need and you’re done!  

Wufoo offers a subscription service, but there’s no need to incur costs to your agency. INA partners can use Wufoo for free.  Just give us a call? to set up your login access  and poof!  Adding a form to your website is as easy as 1-2-3.  We’ll store and manage your data for you, and you’ll have access to it at any time.

Recent online forms created with Wufoo include a comment page for the Independent Citizens Commission on elected official salaries and a scheduling request form for the governor’s office.

You, too, can Wufoo.  Drop us a comment or contact our project management office for access.

eGov Inspiration: Reaching Citizens Through Mobile Apps

States continue to innovate to more effectively engage millions of citizens who are “always on their phone.” Check out The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)’s catalog of the 320 (and counting) mobile apps currently offered by government to its citizens.  The catalog is a good source of inspiration to government leaders about the possibilities of mobile engagement.

Stateline.org recently profiled some of the most engaging citizen apps from states and cities.  Prominently featured is YOUniversal Arkansas, an app provided by the AR Department of Higher Education.  The app connects high school and college students to a one-stop shop for scholarship information, allowing users to view and apply for 21 different types of scholarship and grant applications – right from their mobile phone.

From Stateline:

Young people are especially reliant on their smartphones. Arkansas had that in mind when it developed its YOUniversal Arkansas app after first setting up a Web-based portal for Arkansans to apply for college financial aid, said Amy Sawyer, general manager of the Information Network of Arkansas.

When the state created the application process on a Web page in 2010, the state saw a 400 percent increase in aid applications in a year. Since creating the mobile app and web-based mobile app, Sawyer said, applications have quadrupled to about 62,000 last year.

“It’s probably the highest-used app we have,” she said. “We attribute that to the younger demographics.”  See full article here.

So, is it important to engage citizens with mobile apps? A study published by Bank of America last year noted that 96% of millennials would choose to bring cell phones as the one item they might be allowed if stranded on an island.  Running a close second?  The toothbrush.