Davidson County named digital award winner
Davidson County has been named by the Center for Digital Government as one of the Top 10 Digital Counties Survey Awards winners, among counties across the nation with a population between 150,000 and 249,999 people. Davidson County placed 7th in its population group.
The Center for Digital Government (CDG) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) have announced the winners of the 20th annual Top Digital Counties Survey. The survey, conducted by CDG in partnership with NACo, identifies the best technology practices among U.S. counties, including initiatives that streamline delivery of government services; encourage open data, collaboration, and shared services; enhance cybersecurity; and contribute to disaster response and recovery efforts.
“Top-notch counties are utilizing the governance frameworks, investment tools, broadband implementations and more that were put in place in response to citizen needs around COVID-19…then capitalizing on those going forward to support digital experience initiatives,” said Phil Bertolini, vice president, CDG. “The Center for Digital Government congratulates this year’s winners for their accomplishments and continuing efforts to use technology to make government better.”
“The coronavirus pandemic underscored the urgent need for bold, cutting-edge approaches to serving our residents, and technology has played a major role,” said NACo Executive Director Matthew Chase. “This year’s Digital Counties Survey winners have demonstrated true leadership when it was needed the most. We applaud their innovation and expertise in leveraging technology to achieve county goals.”
Davidson County has been a leader in performance-based budgeting for more than 19 years. By focusing on outcomes and evaluating programs by measuring the relationship between resources and results, the county has saved over $33.5 million during that time period. A key driver in performance budgeting has been technology improvements in the county departments.
The key focus points that placed Davidson County in 7th place were completion of the new $28 million courthouse expansion with the latest courthouse technology and integration with two existing courthouse buildings. Other focus points were the NG911 implementation using the state’s ESInet network for improved 911 services to citizens, replacement of an outdated telephone system with a full-featured hosted VoIP system that saved the county considerable dollars annually and migrating the county email to Office365 for email access anywhere to employees.
The complete announcement about the 2021 Digital Counties Survey Winners may be seen at: https://www.govtech.com/dc/digital-counties/digital-counties-survey-2021-winners-announced
Joel Hartley
Chief Information Officer
Davidson County
