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govbenefits.gov It wasn’t so long ago that U.S. citizens searching online for government benefits programs would have had to search 31 million different Web pages with no dedicated central directory for finding information on their eligibility for federal assistance. Until recently that is. Working with the Department of Labor (DOL) and key leaders at other agencies, Booz Allen Hamilton created a new Web site, www.govbenefits.gov, that serves as an easy-to-use, single source of information. Citizens no longer have to navigate a maze of benefit programs or understand a specific agency’s mission to get the information they need. Benefit seekers can simply log on to the Internet from home, work, community center, or public library, answer a few questions, and quickly receive a customized list of benefits they may be eligible for, along with whom they should contact. GovBenefits.gov was established as an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) electronic government initiative, part of President George W. Bush’s plan to better connect citizens with their government. The original partnership of 10 federal agencies, managed by DOL, included the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, State, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Social Security Administration. Booz Allen, working with OMB and DOL, first developed a sound business case and established partnerships between DOL and each of the other federal agencies, resulting in adequate funding The initial site had content from all the partners, and has since been expanded to more than 1,000 benefit programs from 55. The original partnership of 10 federal agencies has increased to 16, with the addition of the Departments of Commerce, Interior, Justice, Transportation, and Treasury, and the Small Business Administration. Nine federal benefit programs are also participating, along with agencies from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. “This was an order-out-of-chaos job, a matter of building relationships and breaking down walls,” says Christine Fantaskey, a senior associate in Booz Allen’s McLean, Virginia, office. “And that’s what made it such a great job to work on.” “The Booz Allen team managed relationships, not only with the Department of Labor, but with the other government agencies,” says Curtis Turner, program manager of GovBenefits.gov at the Department of Labor. “To that end, they brought enthusiasm, experience, and expertise.” The end result is a transformation of the way in which citizens connect with their government, and the way government performs its benefit determination and delivery process. When they enter the site, citizens are asked to answer basic questions that lead them to the information they need. Benefit workers in government agencies report that persons referred to them from GovBenefits.gov are better informed and more likely to be eligible to receive the benefits they are inquiring about—saving time and effort for those Based on usability testing, users are able to search the site and locate benefits that meet their needs in less than six minutes. The site also has the potential to reveal benefits users may not have known were available to them. Citizens’ response to the Web site was rapid and overwhelming, with more than 150,000 site visits per month. “The winning proposition was to stop looking at this from each agency’s perspective and look at it from the citizen’s perspective,” says Fantaskey. “They shouldn’t have to understand the structure of government. We wanted citizens to face just one set of questions, not one for social security, another for food stamps, and another for veterans.” Clay Johnson III, OMB deputy director, called the site “a leading example of how the Internet, how information technology, can be used to connect the federal government and provide information and access to goods and services to the taxpayers.” story posted July 2006 Additional Information: Other Related Site Pages...
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