“How do you keep data safe and secure while observing regulations and processes?” is a question El Paso’s managing director for Internal Services, Araceli Guerra, mentioned during the recent GovX Summit 2022.
The summit is the Center for Digital Government’s (CDG)* premier annual event showcasing latest trends, best practices and ideas about the evolving experience of government. It is open only to the public sector.
El Paso was awarded a City Government Overall Experience Award during the GovX Summit, placing second of five among several nominees.
This year’s winners have redesigned websites with enhanced languages and accessibility features, developed apps to streamline the flow of funds to those with the greatest need, and used mobile apps, social media, e-newsletters and digital service analytics to improve constituent experience and customer service delivery, according to CDG.
El Paso was recognized in part for its work to redesign and launch its city website, creating a more fluid, user-friendly interface while helping the city capture information that can influence its strategic planning.
“The awards recognize the achievements and best practices of states, cities and counties that are radically improving the experience of government services,” according to a news release.
Guerra was also a speaker on the “Balancing the Government Experience: The Need to Remain Secure” panel.
“We’re improving [residents’] experience and how they utilize our services,” Guerra said. “However, we also want to make sure that we’re being compliant, but that we’re also being equitable.”
Website functions must not only be user friendly but must also keep user data safe.
Some questions Guerra gives as examples to ask about data collection:
- What data do you need?
- What do you need it to do?
- What are you collecting and how?
- Will it inform the strategic plan?
“As an organization, we’re looking at a lot of regulatory compliance issues. We want to ensure that we’re being sensitive to the citizens’ data that we’re putting out there,” Guerra said.
Guerra said city staff is equipped to deal with keeping systems secure; however, staff turnover can easily change this.
“We have a wealth of knowledge within our staff, and we have a great team in our cybersecurity area and our user experience team, our web team who collect the data,” she said. “But it is situational because we’re in a very unprecedented time period where being able to hire and retain is extremely difficult.”
Looking toward this, some issues would be:
- How to retain these skills.
- How to document corporate knowledge.
- How to document data and information.
Partnerships are also important to staying informed, she said, in part because El Paso is in West Texas and not part of a larger metro area. The city has partnered with The University of Texas at El Paso and Coding it Forward to help work on the UX design for its website.
“Data’s extremely vital and important in how we develop our community plan,” Guerra said. “But protecting the data is of the utmost importance.”
*The Center for Digital Government is a part of e.Republic, Industry Insider — Texas’ parent company.
