The city of Allen’s director of IT, Eric Matthews, was on hand to accept the Future Ready Award during the Digital Cities Awards event last month. The ceremony was held during the National League of Cities City Summit in Kansas City, Mo.
The city was recognized for its “innovation processes [that] have demonstrated success in both public safety and fire.”
“Drones, SMS citizen interaction, a robotics process automation solution for Fire (Department) for vaccine data entry, 9-1-1 text and video capability and auto-dispatching of Fire units are great examples,” according to the award document. “In addition, using data visualization based on GIS and PowerBI, the city is measuring neighborhood equity to determine underserved areas for service provision.”
Allen has about 106,000 residents in Collin County, and its IT budget from the general fund is $6.3 million for 2022-23.
The IT department has 20 full-time employees, according to the city budget documents, which also outline technology goals for 2023. These include upgrading hardware, launching a digital signature project, providing advisory services for city departments, continuing cybersecurity training across departments, enhancing Wi-Fi in various locations and deploying additional city SharePoint sites.
The Future Ready Awards were created to recognize the innovative vision that cities, counties, and states have for the impact of technology on the people they serve — specifically those jurisdictions that are laying the foundation for the disruptive and converging forces that are shaping an uncertain future.
*A version of this story was published in Government Technology. Industry Insider — Texas, Government Technology magazine and the Center for Digital Government are part of e.Republic.
