Marietta Named One of Top 10 Digital Cities

by City of Marietta

Marietta has been named one of the top 10 digital cities in the country for the city's use of technology to improve efficiency and provide better services to the public while saving money.

Criteria for the award included how the city is dealing with the economic downturn and how prepared city staff are to deal with IT challenges including keeping up with the use of mobile devices for government business, social media technology and management, data safety and usability and integrating mobile computing with smart phones and tablets.

"The awards committee took a very thorough look at all the ways we use technology internally and externally," city manager Bill Bruton said. "They looked at the sophistication of our networks, the integration of our data and software, efficiencies achieved in work processes, data security, disaster recovery preparation, our website and online options for the public."

Top-ranked cities used new technology to reduce overtime of employees, allowed employees to bring their own mobile devices to reduce hardware costs, and developed an app that tracks ways users are reducing power and fuel consumption. 

Highest-ranking cities also saved money by consolidating and enabling shared services and increased citizen feedback and improved services with tools that allowed citizens to engage with their government.

"Being selected as one of the top 10 in the country speaks volumes for the dedication that our staff has shown for years and highlights the success we are able to achieve by maintaining a centralized IT Department that is able to make data and software decisions that benefit the entire organization," Bruton said.

"Over the years we have had many requests to allow departments to select their own software programs or hardware or even to hire their own IT personnel," Bruton said. "That is the approach that many other governments follow, but we believe that data and network integration is paramount and the result is that we have one of the best systems in the U.S."

The survey was open to all U.S. cities with a population of 30,000 or more.

Keep up with news by subscribing to our free email newsletter, liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.