According to Betsy Keller, the county’s chief administrator, the idea for the dashboard was inspired by a similar platform she saw on the city of Scottsdale, Ariz.’s home page.
“I was at a conference, and I somehow ended up looking at Scottsdale’s web page and saw that they had a public dashboard,” Keller said. “I reached out to them about who drove their dashboard or how they built it, and they said it was Envisio.”
After that, Keller met with the software company and explained that they needed a solution to simplify and digitize all paper processes they were using.
To reinforce this point, Keller held up a thick packet of papers during a Zoom interview with Industry Insider — Texas, stating, “This is just one section of several of our strategic planning process, and so trying to keep up with that, I mean, it was impossible, and sometimes we weren’t all on the same page. So that’s when we knew we needed something more organized.”
The dashboard compiles and showcases the following data online:
- Justice reform
- Focused economic development
- Increasing tourism
- Upgrading infrastructure
- Promoting collaboration and engagement
- Advancing community support services
- Strengthening financial health
- Optimizing internal processes
- Valuing El Paso County family
Under the dashboard, each section is associated with a colored bar detailing where each project currently stands, with more information available in one click.
Katya Maruri
As for how the platform increases transparency, Keller said, “I don’t think we can do enough to make what’s going on internally available to the public. I think the more we can make available, the more trust we will build.”
As a result, Keller said, the county’s goal is to add new features like performance metrics and to make citizens more aware of the tool and how it can benefit them.
