Centralizing Citizen Services Is Top of Mind in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — At last year’s annual conference of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) in October 2018, Tennessee CIO Stephanie Dedmon described the state’s work toward establishing a citizen-facing app that would give residents a single point of access to government services.

On Tuesday, at this year’s NASCIO conference in Nashville, Dedmon told Government Technology that the state is now very close to rolling out a beta version of that app, slated to go live in late December.

The Tennessee Department of Strategic Technology Solutions has partnered with a number of other state agencies to add a handful of services to the app to start, most notably a digital driver’s license. This is in keeping with what Dedmon said in 2018 when she referred to the project as “an app of apps.”

Going forward, after the project rolls out to residents, Dedmon wants to get more agencies on board with the app. The idea is that the more access it gives to citizens, the more likely they are to download and use it.