Oakland County's EForms project will be part of a graduate studies program at Michigan State University. Students will work alongside Oakland County's e-government staff to plan the development of an Internet-based digital postmark and signature application. Oakland County's EForms application was one of six projects selected by MSU students from a pool of 14 proposals submitted by businesses, schools and non-profit organizations. The joint application development project is part of the capstone course for MSU Information Technology students. Students in the course are seniors completing a specialization in IT management. The project gives them a chance to test their skills in a real-world project for an actual client. " And its a great opportunity for MSU to serve the community, as well," said Brian Pentland, Professor of Accounting and Information Systems at the Broad College of Business at MSU. EForms is Oakland County's latest step toward a paperless government. It will allow Oakland County residents to fill out and submit forms with a digital "postmark" and "signature" over the Internet, replacing the cumbersome process of completing printed forms and mailing copies to the county. Oakland County officials estimate citizens will use EForms to submit up to 600,000 forms a year. The project is expected to save Oakland County $900,000 a year. More at www.oakgov.com/online_services/ and www.oakgov.com/egov/.
Reprinted with permission from the Great Lakes IT Report, http://glitr.com.
