Joe Manchin III, Governor

Frank Jezioro, Director

For Release March 16, 2005

Hoy Murphy , Public Information Officer (304) 558-3380 hoymurphy@wvdnr.gov

Contact: Scott Knight , Wildlife Resources Section (304) 558-2771 wildlife@wvdnr.gov

Agent Point of Sale (APS) Electronic Hunting and Fishing License System Now in Operation

  A new electronic system for retail hunting and fishing license agents across the state of West Virginia is now operating. The goWILD! Agent Point-of-Sale (APS) system was demonstrated during a news conference March 16 at the Spring Hill Rod & Gun store in South Charleston by Division of Natural Resources Director Frank Jezioro and the project development team.

  "For seven years DNR has been working to implement an electronic licensing system, and today I'm proud to announce that we now have one," Jezioro said. “This will provide much improved services to our customers. No longer will hunters and anglers have to go from agent to agent looking for a deer stamp the night before the season opens, because it will be part of the license they purchase electronically. It also speeds up the transaction to about two minutes, and eliminates most of the time consuming administration of the old paper system.”

  During the next two months the APS system will be installed at more than 140 hunting and fishing sales locations across the state. The APS system, combined with the goWILD! online Internet license sales system that has been active for about two years, will result in about 95 percent of all license transactions being completed electronically.

  The APS system was developed in-house by DNR staff with assistance from the Treasurer's Office and the Information Services and Communications Division. At a cost of $1.2 million, which is about $800,000 less than the legislature appropriated for the project, APS is one of the least expensive licensing applications in the country.

goWild! APS Quick Facts

•  Reduces the average time to sell a license from 7 minutes to 2 minutes.

•  Users can obtain a duplicate license from the online system at www.wvhunt.com or at any of the more than 140 APS locations.

•  Reduces the operational costs of the Hunting and Fishing License Unit by 10 percent.

•  Increases interest earned by DNR on license sales by collecting license revenue weekly via electronic fund transfer.

•  Eliminates 90 percent of the record keeping requirements for hunting and fishing license agents.

•  Provides the DNR with more accurate and complete data for management decisions.

•  License data is transmitted from the agent location to the DNR central server in real-time, but if connection is lost for some reason the APS machine can continue to sell licenses.

•  Better protects license buyers' personal information against theft.

•  Agents will no longer run out of a stamp or licenses at a critical time.

•  System was developed in-house by DNR at a fraction of the cost ($1.2 million) of similar systems in other states.

**DNR**