Click here to see our full coverage of the 2024 Digital Counties Survey.
1st Jefferson County, Colo.
Jefferson County’s Enterprise Innovation and Expertise division embraces a philosophy of partnership, looking for to assist and advance the federal government enterprise not simply in know-how, however in course of as effectively. That is evident in a lot of its work previously yr, however nowhere extra clearly than in its new Enterprise Relationship Administration program: The division despatched out enterprise analysts to different workplaces, enlisting most county departments and fascinating them within the creation of 80 concepts that at the moment are progressing into strategic initiatives. Equally, the Jeffco Innovation Lab has labored to teach county employees on strategies to eradicate course of ache factors, saving time and sources whereas enhancing service supply. In the meantime, specialised groups work with different departments to help within the creation of knowledge dashboards, functions and chatbots.
One main enterprise previously yr was the improve of the Amanda case administration platform, which enabled the creation of the brand new Amanda Citizen Portal. The portal permits for data lookup — for constructing permits, planning and zoning, atmosphere well being knowledge and retail meals inspections — in addition to direct service for allowing exercise akin to inspection scheduling, price estimation and criticism submitting. The challenge allowed for the retirement of a customized software, migrated providers from on-premises to cloud and logs about 29,000 classes per thirty days.
On high of this core IT work and partnership philosophy, BIT has devoted time towards understanding the longer term, utilizing internships, fellowships and sources to ascertain AI protected utilization protocols for county staff, holding studying classes for greater than 200 staff to find out about generative AI and conducting a pilot challenge to display the feasibility of biometric logins.
2nd Snohomish County, Wash.
Snohomish County, Wash., rises to second place in its inhabitants class this yr on the energy of key finest practices and future planning, utilizing know-how to succeed in residents the place they’re and simplify complicated processes. Leaders launched an initiative that may consider and analyze residents’ digital expertise throughout environments, from net pages to social media, to generate a extra holistic strategy to providers. The IT strategic plan has been up to date to mirror this, with a purpose set round resident expertise by way of an omni-channel strategy. Work is underway on a ground-up redesign for all 4 county web sites.
Officers prioritized innovation, securing $300,000 in particular funding to drive improvement of recent options. Launched in June 2023, the pilot Innovation Fund logged 17 requests for funding in 9 months, with greater than half yielding new options for important enterprise wants as officers work to make the group conversant in rising tech like Azure knowledge lakes, cell system administration, and using synthetic intelligence and machine studying options.
The county is working with the state IT company to face up a Safety Operations Heart. Officers additionally reconfigured Snohomish’s safety data and occasion administration instrument, freed up sources, and are mirroring the state in adopting a brand new resolution for prolonged menace detection and response.
Snohomish created and crammed an information stewardship and privateness supervisor submit with oversight of all types of knowledge. Officers have additionally reinvigorated their Knowledge Governance Steering Committee, infusing it with three layers of oversight that features illustration from all departments. Execs allotted $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding towards enhancing digital fairness by enhancing broadband infrastructure. Plus, a broadband service hole evaluation is underway, and a Public Growth Authority is being created to spearhead protection improvement.
third New Fortress County, Del.
New Fortress County as soon as once more took third place in its inhabitants class for its continued excellence in utilizing know-how to enhance authorities providers. Upgrades to the county website improved accessibility, usability and efficiency, attaining WCAG2.2 compliance and an accessibility rating of 96 %. The county additionally carried out SeeClickFix for residents to report upkeep points at county parks. And in an effort to extend transparency and centralize providers, the county launched the Neighborhood Affiliation Portal as a one-stop store for governing paperwork and sources for frequent curiosity communities.
New Fortress County additionally earned its place among the many high finishers for efforts to enhance its cybersecurity posture. Multifactor authentication was carried out countywide in simply two months for all staff, contractors and distributors. Moreover, a brand new evaluation toolkit led to revised safety settings that improved endpoint lockdown on 1000’s of telework units from 36 % to 90 %. The county additionally carried out tabletop workouts that resulted in improved plans and playbooks for incident response, in addition to constructing credibility and consciousness with management about the best way to collaborate throughout a cyber assault.
Like many jurisdictions, New Fortress County has acknowledged the rising curiosity in synthetic intelligence and the necessity for presidency to think about the best way to use it appropriately. The county is planning to work with stakeholders and county management to develop insurance policies to make sure accountable use of AI. Additionally it is on the lookout for a high-value, low-risk alternative for an AI pilot challenge to display the probabilities of this rising know-how.
third Westchester County, N.Y.
Westchester County, N.Y., climbed the ranks to 3rd place in its inhabitants class this yr because of the Division of Data Expertise’s (DoIT) continued dedication to enhancing digital fairness and exploring rising applied sciences.
In collaboration with Westchester County’s Workplace of Financial Growth, DoIT launched Join Westchester, which gives key digital sources, coaching and education schemes, and entry to reasonably priced Web to low-income residents. This system, established in October 2023, companions with numerous nonprofit organizations just like the STEM Alliance and the Westchester Library System to make all of it occur. The IT crew’s important function in supporting this initiative brings Westchester County one step nearer to creating digital fairness a actuality for its residents.
With path from the county’s CIO and assistant CIO for governance, a brand new committee that focuses on all issues associated to rising know-how was established in June 2023. Made up of DoIT representatives and known as the Strategic Expertise Structure Roundtable (STAR), the committee drafted Westchester County’s first coverage on applicable AI utilization. This is just one instance that displays the county’s dedication to utilizing new applied sciences in a accountable and clear means. STAR additionally up to date consumer interface requirements for the county’s functions and gives finest practices in areas like cell apps and consumer expertise. Past creating tips, STAR checks and paperwork use instances of AI. Additional, the group explores rising know-how use instances for important wants like fortifying cybersecurity.
4th DeKalb County, Ga.
DeKalb County, Ga., is making a cloud push, shifting functions like its public security and judicial programs administration to a software-as-a-service resolution. This spares IT employees from dealing with the upkeep and upgrades, makes budgeting extra predictable and reduces the necessity to handle, keep and exchange loads of servers, databases and the like. The county requires new software program to be SaaS or vendor managed. To cut back third-party dangers, DeKalb seems for distributors who’ve FedRAMP or different resiliency certifications, and it additionally accomplished a vendor danger diversification evaluation to grasp the place its instruments and distributors might depend on the identical providers or infrastructure.
To raised safe staff’ units towards loss or improper entry, the county adopted a cell system administration system. All newly bought units now require staff to make use of face-based identification to unlock them and staff should reauthorize themselves after a interval of inactivity. Plus, units could be remotely wiped if misplaced. This yr, the county goals to conduct at the least one reside catastrophe restoration state of affairs with manufacturing programs in a cloud atmosphere. It additionally completed segmenting its networks, an necessary cybersecurity measure.
DeKalb is utilizing new tech-enabled approaches to entice and retain extra IT staff. It adopted a brand new platform and workflows that speed up the hiring course of and assist with conducting inner fairness critiques, which frequently result in elevating current staff’ salaries.
fifth Cobb County, Ga.
To extend their potential to interact with the almost 772,000 residents of Cobb County, Ga., officers have launched using Sprout Social to boost neighborhood engagement talents. The county additionally revamped its 911 website to raised talk with residents, in addition to enhance its recruitment posture. Confronted with staffing shortages, the county’s redesigned web site goals to showcase its tradition, values and alternatives.
A 30-year-old knowledge heart was retired as Cobb County moved into a brand new facility, full with new applied sciences, enhancing resiliency, computing, storage and safety. The brand new knowledge heart will allow the county to develop its IT infrastructure — or shrink it — as extra functions migrate to the cloud. Third-party fee processors can now be discovered throughout a lot of the county’s on-line service platforms, enabling residents to buy bus passes, pay their water utility invoice and property taxes, and extra, saving time for each the residents and employees. Residents also can share footage from their house video safety programs with the Cobb County Police Division by way of the Citizen Camera Registry program, a voluntary program the place regulation enforcement can request footage from residents when against the law happens within the space.
Distributors hoping to do enterprise with Cobb County have a brand new procurement system to work together with, often known as the EProcurement and Contract Lifecycle Administration System, a completely digital and streamlined platform. An upcoming challenge contains AI-enabled know-how to assist in property assessments, eradicating a lot of handbook steps within the valuation course of. The county’s cybersecurity construction has been enhanced with added multifactor authentication to incorporate delicate file and server entry.
sixth Macomb County, Mich.
Taking sixth place in its inhabitants class is Macomb County, Mich., whose strategic plan, created in 2018 and most just lately up to date earlier this yr, goals to prioritize enhancing digital authorities providers and cybersecurity. The county redesigned and launched its web site in November utilizing a Drupal 10 platform for improved search and repair performance. Internet site visitors originating from search engines like google and yahoo has elevated because the new web site launch. And in October, the county began utilizing Workday for hiring; over 5,000 folks have utilized for positions via the portal because it went reside, and greater than 200 new staff have been employed utilizing this modernized course of.
In 2023, Macomb County completed automating and digitizing its public works on-line portal, a challenge begun in 2020. The platform permits a spread of individuals, from land builders to householders, to request and handle permits effectively. This workplace doesn’t draw back from implementing know-how, together with the recent implementation of drones and AI.
In cybersecurity, the county launched a phishing consciousness marketing campaign in January 2023, aiming to supply academic interactive workouts. Macomb additionally carried out a brand new catastrophe restoration plan in mid-2023.
seventh San Mateo County, Calif.
San Mateo County, Calif., is utilizing dashboards to spice up its on-line presence and improve transparency. The county’s tech professionals have collaborated with the Division of Housing to create what officers name a collection of interactive dashboards that helps residents preserve tabs on native reasonably priced housing — one of many key factors related to poverty avoidance and wealth accumulation. Since early 2023, the dashboard, which resides on the housing division’s web site, has attracted greater than 10,000 views, serving to to deliver extra transparency to the difficulty whereas additionally figuring out the areas with the best want for reasonably priced and accessible residing quarters.
As that effort continues, the county is utilizing tech to raised tie collectively numerous departments.
By way of its use of the GovDelivery platform, as an example, San Mateo County has boosted communication amongst its workforce and constituents by way of e-mail and textual content message, which in flip helps officers present faster updates on providers, neighborhood occasions and emergencies. The platform now has greater than 274,000 distinctive subscribers and gives greater than 100 subjects to an viewers unfold throughout all county departments. The interactions carried out by way of such an effort additionally present invaluable knowledge and insights to county officers as they proceed to suggest and work on coverage.
eighth Polk County, Fla.
In Polk County, Fla., the IT division is utilizing know-how to bridge the hole between innovation and resolution supply. For instance, within the final 12 months, the county has accomplished a challenge emigrate its public-facing web site to a cloud supplier, permitting IT employees to concentrate on software improvement and constructing an accessible, trendy web site. Different notable efforts embrace making a extra clear, public-facing price range dashboard to enhance its total price range course of and piloting a challenge to interchange legacy PBX cellphone programs with a brand new call-center-as-a-service platform. The latter challenge was a migration of all on-premises name facilities to a cloud-hosted resolution, leading to a collaboration between the Board of County Commissioners, tax collector’s workplace, sheriff’s workplace, state lawyer’s workplace, public defender’s workplace and the clerk of the courts.
Amongst its challenges, Polk County cites implementing state-mandated cybersecurity insurance policies and coaching together with understanding the best way to govern cloud-based software program agreements successfully. To deal with the previous, the county just lately met with its present cyber insurance coverage supplier, danger administration division, lawyer’s workplace and IT leads for different constitutional workplaces to raised perceive what roles these teams would play throughout a possible occasion and the way cyber insurance coverage protects the county altogether. Notable efforts in cloud computing governance embrace making a framework to supply a safe, supported operational atmosphere for the county and including governance to the county’s strategic plan to raised execute software program agreements.
ninth Ventura County, Calif.
Ventura County, Calif., positioned ninth in its inhabitants class with a lot of big-lift IT initiatives. For starters, the Data Expertise Companies Division migrated from a legacy property tax system to a brand new, extra automated system. The division has additionally developed a web-based mapping software for the Public Works Company, known as PWA GIS Viewer, which mixes greater than twenty years of spatial knowledge from a number of departments to trace watershed, sanitation, land improvement and extra.
Equally, the county has additionally carried out data-driven know-how in public security to determine identified drug offenders coming into county jails. The replace to the Ventura County Built-in Justice Data System (VCIJIS) software permits jail employees to determine inmates that could possibly be smuggling medicine into jail amenities whereas additionally serving to to stem the potential of inmate overdoses. In the identical spirit, knowledge mining and analytics capabilities constructed into the VCIJIS now enable officers to inform home violence victims of an offender’s deal with and/or neighborhood of residence.
IT Companies has additionally rolled out an answer to boost safety throughout workstations, servers and e-mail programs, and endpoint safety has been added to all workstations and servers. Efforts to construct the primary leg of a countywide municipal broadband community are within the grant phases.
tenth Chester County, Pa.
In Chester County, Pa., the Division of Computing and Data Companies (DCIS) is tough at work overcoming some staffing challenges whereas persevering with to ship sturdy digital providers for residents. DCIS cites its current employees struggling to adapt to new know-how and problem competing with the personal sector amongst its points. To that finish, the company is updating job descriptions and upskilling current employees, in addition to giving them new alternatives for innovation. They’ve additionally began outsourcing some duties they can’t employees internally, like AI improvement and cybersecurity monitoring. To bridge some further workforce gaps, the county courts will likely be launching AI-powered kiosks in a number of places this summer season to present customers entry to court-related data. DCIS additionally has two chatbot pilots, one for a assist desk database and one for the division of human sources, to assist staff discover details about advantages.
DCIS performs an necessary function within the price range and procurement course of countywide, in order that they’re concerned in any know-how selections, which has helped with higher spending oversight and improved cost-effectiveness. An “ambassador” program polls county departments quarterly to determine challenges and the place tech options can assist, and DCIS management meets weekly with heads of all different companies to verify priorities are aligned. A redesigned county web site is deliberate for 2024 with new branding, and efforts are underway to verify all digital varieties are ADA-compliant.
Click here to see our full coverage of the 2024 Digital Counties Survey.
