The Center for Digital Government’s winner of the 2019 Digital Cities Survey in the category of up to 250,000-499,999 in population is Miami, Florida. The city merged its Office of Innovation, the Department of Information Technology, and the Office of Strategic Management into a new Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT). The goal of DoIT is to help the city make better and more data-driven decisions and to ensure that technology is strategically aligned to city priorities.
Michael Sarasti, Director of DoIT, states that the new approach to IT projects revolves around two questions: How is it a better use of data in the city, and is it user-focused?
“Data’s got to be at the top of what we do. We’ve got to have clear problem statements, and we’ve got to think about the products that we’re building over the projects that we’re trying to organize,” Sarasti said. “Really embedding those feedback loops. Those things have just become like mantras for us around here.”
Miami’s Innovation Academy – a 2.5-day intensive, hands-on process improvement training program for city employees. Attendees get access to innovation techniques such as process mapping, waste identification, and experiment design to help see and solve problems in their work. One hundred percent of DoIT staff and more than 250 employees have received academy training so far.
The lessons and work strategies have enabled the city to:
- Save approximately $75,000 in redirected staff time for Hearing Boards;
- Train 100 percent of the procurement department, which worked together to shave two days from their architecture and engineering RFQ process; and,
- Reduce the average IT help desk time to close ePlan tickets by 20 percent.
CDG’s annual survey recognizes cities using technology to tackle social challenges, enhance services, strengthen cybersecurity, and more. To see the full list of cities ranked nationally by The Center for Digital Government, click here.
