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 expertise, however in course of as properly. That is evident in a lot of its work up to now yr, however nowhere extra clearly than in its new Enterprise Relationship Administration program: The division despatched out enterprise analysts to different places of work, enlisting most county departments and interesting them within the creation of 80 concepts that are actually progressing into strategic initiatives. Equally, the Jeffco Innovation Lab has labored to teach county workers on strategies to eradicate course of ache factors, saving time and assets whereas bettering service supply. In the meantime, specialised groups work with different departments to help within the creation of knowledge dashboards, functions and chatbots.
One main endeavor up to now 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 information and retail meals inspections — in addition to direct service for allowing exercise resembling inspection scheduling, charge estimation and grievance submitting. The mission allowed for the retirement of a customized utility, migrated companies from on-premises to cloud and logs about 29,000 periods per 30 days.
On prime of this core IT work and partnership philosophy, BIT has devoted time towards understanding the long run, utilizing internships, fellowships and assets to determine AI secure utilization protocols for county staff, holding studying periods for greater than 200 staff to study generative AI and conducting a pilot mission 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 power of key greatest practices and future planning, utilizing expertise to achieve residents the place they’re and simplify advanced processes. Leaders launched an initiative that can consider and analyze residents’ digital expertise throughout environments, from net pages to social media, to generate a extra holistic strategy to companies. 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 contemporary 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 vital enterprise wants as officers work to make the group conversant in rising tech like Azure information lakes, cellular machine administration, and the usage of 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 assets, and are mirroring the state in adopting a brand new resolution for prolonged risk detection and response.
Snohomish created and stuffed a knowledge stewardship and privateness supervisor submit with oversight of all types of information. Officers have additionally reinvigorated their Information 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 bettering digital fairness by enhancing broadband infrastructure. Plus, a broadband service hole evaluation is underway, and a Public Improvement 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 expertise to enhance authorities companies. Upgrades to the county website improved accessibility, usability and efficiency, reaching WCAG2.2 compliance and an accessibility rating of 96 p.c. The county additionally carried out SeeClickFix for residents to report upkeep points at county parks. And in an effort to extend transparency and centralize companies, the county launched the Neighborhood Affiliation Portal as a one-stop store for governing paperwork and assets for frequent curiosity communities.
New Fortress County additionally earned its place among the many prime 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 p.c to 90 p.c. 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 tips on how 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 tips on how 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 mission to display the probabilities of this rising expertise.
third Westchester County, N.Y.
Westchester County, N.Y., climbed the ranks to 3rd place in its inhabitants class this yr due to the Division of Info Expertise’s (DoIT) continued dedication to bettering digital fairness and exploring rising applied sciences.
In collaboration with Westchester County’s Workplace of Financial Improvement, DoIT launched Join Westchester, which presents key digital assets, coaching and teaching programs, and entry to inexpensive Web to low-income residents. This system, established in October 2023, companions with varied nonprofit organizations just like the STEM Alliance and the Westchester Library System to make all of it occur. The IT staff’s vital position 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 expertise 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 acceptable AI utilization. This is just one instance that displays the county’s dedication to utilizing new applied sciences in a accountable and clear method. STAR additionally up to date person interface requirements for the county’s functions and presents greatest practices in areas like cellular apps and person expertise. Past creating tips, STAR checks and paperwork use circumstances of AI. Additional, the group explores rising expertise use circumstances for vital 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 workers from dealing with the upkeep and upgrades, makes budgeting extra predictable and reduces the necessity to handle, preserve and change 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 threat diversification evaluation to know the place its instruments and distributors might depend on the identical companies or infrastructure.
To higher safe staff’ units in opposition to loss or improper entry, the county adopted a cellular machine 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 may be remotely wiped if misplaced. This yr, the county goals to conduct a minimum of one dwell catastrophe restoration situation 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 inside fairness critiques, which frequently result in elevating current staff’ salaries.
fifth Cobb County, Ga.
To extend their means to interact with the practically 772,000 residents of Cobb County, Ga., officers have launched the usage of Sprout Social to reinforce neighborhood engagement skills. 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 information middle was retired as Cobb County moved into a brand new facility, full with new applied sciences, bettering resiliency, computing, storage and safety. The brand new information middle 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 numerous 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 workers. Residents may also share footage from their dwelling 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 a criminal offense happens within the space.
Distributors hoping to do enterprise with Cobb County have a brand new procurement system to work together with, often called the EProcurement and Contract Lifecycle Administration System, a completely digital and streamlined platform. An upcoming mission contains AI-enabled expertise to assist in property assessments, eradicating numerous 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 lately up to date earlier this yr, goals to prioritize enhancing digital authorities companies and cybersecurity. The county redesigned and launched its web site in November utilizing a Drupal 10 platform for improved search and repair performance. Internet visitors originating from serps has elevated because the new web site launch. And in October, the county began utilizing Workday for hiring; over 5,000 individuals have utilized for positions by way of the portal because it went dwell, 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 mission begun in 2020. The platform permits a spread of individuals, from land builders to owners, to request and handle permits effectively. This workplace doesn’t shrink back from implementing expertise, 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 sequence of interactive dashboards that helps residents hold tabs on native inexpensive 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 carry extra transparency to the difficulty whereas additionally figuring out the areas with the best want for inexpensive and accessible residing quarters.
As that effort continues, the county is utilizing tech to raised tie collectively varied departments.
By way of its use of the GovDelivery platform, as an illustration, 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 companies, neighborhood occasions and emergencies. The platform now has greater than 274,000 distinctive subscribers and presents greater than 100 subjects to an viewers unfold throughout all county departments. The interactions carried out by way of such an effort additionally present beneficial information 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 expertise to bridge the hole between innovation and resolution supply. For instance, within the final 12 months, the county has accomplished a mission emigrate its public-facing web site to a cloud supplier, permitting IT workers to give attention to utility improvement and constructing an accessible, trendy web site. Different notable efforts embody making a extra clear, public-facing finances dashboard to enhance its total finances course of and piloting a mission to switch legacy PBX cellphone programs with a brand new call-center-as-a-service platform. The latter mission 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 tips on how to govern cloud-based software program agreements successfully. To deal with the previous, the county lately met with its present cyber insurance coverage supplier, threat administration division, lawyer’s workplace and IT leads for different constitutional places of work 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 embody 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 numerous big-lift IT initiatives. For starters, the Info Expertise Providers Division migrated from a legacy property tax system to a brand new, extra automated system. The division has additionally developed a web-based mapping utility for the Public Works Company, known as PWA GIS Viewer, which mixes greater than 20 years of spatial information from a number of departments to trace watershed, sanitation, land improvement and extra.
Equally, the county has additionally carried out data-driven expertise in public security to establish identified drug offenders coming into county jails. The replace to the Ventura County Built-in Justice Info System (VCIJIS) utility permits jail workers to establish inmates that may very well be smuggling medicine into jail amenities whereas additionally serving to to stem the potential for inmate overdoses. In the identical spirit, information mining and analytics capabilities constructed into the VCIJIS now permit officers to inform home violence victims of an offender’s handle and/or neighborhood of residence.
IT Providers has additionally rolled out an answer to reinforce 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 Info Providers (DCIS) is tough at work overcoming some staffing challenges whereas persevering with to ship robust digital companies for residents. DCIS cites its current workers struggling to adapt to new expertise and issue competing with the non-public sector amongst its points. To that finish, the company is updating job descriptions and upskilling current workers, in addition to giving them new alternatives for innovation. They’ve additionally began outsourcing some duties they can’t workers internally, like AI improvement and cybersecurity monitoring. To bridge some further workforce gaps, the county courts can be launching AI-powered kiosks in a number of areas this summer season to provide 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 assets, to assist staff discover details about advantages.
DCIS performs an necessary position within the finances and procurement course of countywide, in order that they’re concerned in any expertise choices, which has helped with higher spending oversight and improved cost-effectiveness. An “ambassador” program polls county departments quarterly to establish challenges and the place tech options can assist, and DCIS management meets weekly with heads of all different businesses 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 kinds are ADA-compliant.
Click here to see our full coverage of the 2024 Digital Counties Survey.
