[Durham INC] Durham County Ties for 2nd Place in National Digital Counties Survey

[Jones, Henry R.]

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release                                      Date: 07/19/19
Contact: Public Information Office                     Phone: (919) 560-0000/Fax: (919) 560-0020
E-mail: publicinformationoffice at dconc.gov<mailto:publicinformationoffice at dconc.gov>

Durham County Ties for 2nd Place in National Digital Counties Survey

Durham, NC - Durham County Government continued its excellent recent run in the national Digital Counties Survey by tying for second place among counties with a population of 250,000-499,999. The congratulatory announcement was made by the Center for Digital Government (CDG) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) came on Thursday, July 11, 2019. This win marks an improvement of three places from a year ago and is the fourth time in five years Durham County has been in the top 10. The survey, now in its 17th year, is conducted by the CDG in partnership with NACo to identify 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 and recovery efforts.

"As the Durham County region continues to thrive and grow, it's increasingly important that we deliver quality services to our citizens," said Durham County Chief Information Officer Greg Marrow said. "Durham County has been focused on enterprise business process improvements, data management and information security. I am extremely proud of the work our County employees have accomplished to maximize the value of technology in serving our citizens and residents of Durham County.  The County will continue to focus on developing innovative solutions and embrace cutting-edge approaches to strengthen our community."


The IS&T Department's collaborative and innovative approach in the interest of making services more effective for taxpayers has led to numerous initiatives that garnered praise in the Digital Counties Survey. They include:


  *   The County's partnership with the City of Durham to establish a joint open data portal as well as the joint Resident Satisfaction Survey;
  *   Operation of over 35 social media accounts across multiple county departments to boost citizen communication and engagement efforts;
  *   Budget Department's public facing website to provide direct access to dashboards that use Power BI and Clearpoint Strategy which help illustrate Durham County Government's overall path forward;
  *   Upgrades to information security, including implementation of new technology solutions that help the county reduce Mean Time to Detect and Mean Time to Respond to incidents; updated email filtering technologies;
  *   Centralized datacenter via Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Cisco DNA to more efficiently serve 2,100 employees and more than 315,000 citizens which has led to a 900 percent increase in time saved.

"At Durham County Government, we continue our aim at being amongst the best operated counties in the nation," County Manager Wendell Davis said. "Certainly, state of the art technology is an imperative in order to be amongst the best. I'm proud of the effort put forward on behalf of our Information Services and Technology staff to yield us the highest-ranking recognition we've ever enjoyed from this association. We will continue striving to be first in the nation. Kudos to Durham County CIO Greg Marrow for his leadership."


Duchess County, N.Y., earned first place in the 250,000-499,999 category. Durham County tied with Chesterfield County, VA, for second. Rounding out the top five were Placer County, CA; Marin County, CA; and Leon County, FL. Cumberland County (9th) and Buncombe County (10th) also placed in the same population category. Other North Carolina counties who fared well included Cabarrus County, which was first in the 150,000-249,999 category, Wake County (5th, 1,000,000 or more), Pitt County (5th, 150,000-249,999), Union County (10th, 150-249,999), and Rowan County (8th, up to 150,000). A full list of first place winners can be found here<https://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/Digital-Counties-Survey-2019-Results.html>.

The Center for Digital Government<https://www.govtech.com/cdg/> is a national research and advisory institute focused on technology policy and best practices in state and local government. CDG is a division of e.Republic<https://www.erepublic.com/>, the nation's only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.

"Innovative counties across the U.S. are leveraging technology and data to complete unique projects that better serve citizens, save taxpayer money and protect citizen data," said Teri Takai, executive director, CDG. "The Center for Digital Government congratulates this year's winners for their accomplishments to make government work for the citizens and businesses they serve."

The National Association of Counties (NACo)<https://www.naco.org/> unites America's 3,069 county governments. Founded in 1935, NACo brings county officials together to advocate with a collective voice on national policy, exchange ideas and build new leadership skills, pursue transformational county solutions, enrich the public's understanding of county government and exercise exemplary leadership in public service.

"We applaud this year's Digital Counties Survey winners for maximizing the value of technology in serving our residents," said NACo Executive Director Matthew Chase. "Technology plays an important role in achieving healthy, safe and vibrant counties. The Digital Counties Survey demonstrates how we embrace cutting-edge approaches to strengthening our communities."

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