Article

Government services continue to embrace self-service tech

Government offices from Azerbaijan to Las Vegas continue to find efficiencies in self-service deployments.

July 19, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Halfway around the world, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Justice is embracing self-service technology to provide services and information to citizens.

Here in this corner of the world, officials in El Paso, Texas, are preparing to deploy self-service payment kiosks on the U.S.'s border with Mexico.

And more state and local governments are using self-service kiosks to provide services like renewing vehicle registrations, deploying them in front of their own offices or even down at the local grocery store.

And as the economic recovery continues to lag behind expectations, it only makes sense to expect more government offices to further embrace cost- and time-saving self-service technologies.

In Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, the country's justice ministry installed kiosks to provide e-services following a presidential decree mandating more government e-services.

Closer to home, in Las Vegas, Nev., the Clark County DMV has been rolling out self-service kiosks for about five years, but it recently deployed one in a local Albertsons grocery store, making it even easier for people to access its services while they pick up a gallon of milk. (See video from a local TV news report below.)

South Dakota's Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles, is looking for a location in the Sioux Falls, S.D., area to deploy the state's second self-service motor vehicle registration kiosk. South Dakota is exploring more widespread use of the kiosks with early trial deployments.

NCR Corp. and immigration assistance firm ClearPath Inc. recently announced that the two companies are piloting self-service kiosks to speed up the immigration process for legal immigrants.

The new NCR eGovernment kiosks will help legal residents complete and file their U.S. immigration forms quickly, reliably and cost-effectively, according to the companies. As part of the first pilot, new NCR eGovernment kiosks will be installed in five Houston retail stores.

NCR said its eGovernment kiosks will run ClearPath software providing immigrants the ability to complete common immigration forms at a fraction of the price typically charged by immigration facilitators.

And just yesterday came news from the El Paso (Texas) Times that El Paso could soon become the first city along the U.S. border with Mexico to collect international bridge tolls using self-service tollbooths for vehicles leaving the country.

The El Paso City Council recently voted unanimously to spend more than $1.7 million to upgrade toll-collection technology two international bridges, enabling the installation of four electronic kiosks as early as December — which city officials said will help save money on border personnel costs.

Also, the State of Maryland recentlyrolled out self-service check-in kiosks at its parole offices, allowing low-risk parolees to check in via kiosk rather than waiting to see a parole officer. The kiosks use hand-scanning technology to ensure the right person is actually checking in at the kiosk.

So while some may cry wolf about the spread of self-service technologies in the retail sector, there's no denying they're continuing to spread in the government and public services arena, ensuring a steady stream of continued deployments into the foreseeable future.

(Photo courtesy of Compujeramey.)

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