Schaumburg places fifth in Digital Cities Survey

The village of Schaumburg is pleased to announce it has placed fifth in the 2023 Digital Cities Survey, which is the first time it is competing in the category of municipalities with a population of 75,000-124,999. The Digital Cities Survey evaluates municipalities across the country and ranks their performance on a variety of technical fronts such as strategic planning, constituent engagement, transparency, innovation, project management, network infrastructure, network security, and more.

Survey participants are grouped by the population of the municipality and organization they serve. The Center for Digital Government awarded Schaumburg fifth place in its first year of moving up from the under 75,000-and-under population category.

"Ranking in the top five in the larger population category is a significant accomplishment," said Peter Schaak, director of Information Technology. "The village's systems, applications and processes were compared to those in much larger organizations. Finishing near the top with such tough competition recognizes the organization's commitment to providing the best possible technology services and solutions for employees, residents, businesses, and visitors. This also recognizes the IT team's efforts and the pride they take in providing these services. It is their creativity and curiosity that keeps the organization at the forefront of new technologies."

The village completed several technology initiatives in 2023 to improve safety and ensure continued operations, including:

• Implemented cybersecurity training for all village employees

• Leveraged a technology project review and prioritization process to align with organizational goals

• Created a dashboard for demographics and diversity analytics

• Completed an internal and external network security audit

• Participated in a mock cybersecurity emergency exercise

• Enhanced the village's data warehouse to facilitate improved data-driven decision-making

• Migrated on-premises server environments to cloud-based solutions

• Facilitated an annual technology assessment with each department

• Converted 311 Call Center representatives to remote work

• Deployed advanced aerial mapping tools used for near-real-time overview of village infrastructure

"Schaumburg's Information Technology Department provides critical services that allow the village to continue operating at the highest level for our customers," said village Manager Brian Townsend. "I'm pleased to see Schaumburg ranks well amongst competition in larger cities, and we will continue to set the bar even higher so that we can further enhance our service to the public."

The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on technology policy and best practices in state and local government. The center is a division of e.Republic, the nation's only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.

For more information on the survey and its winners, visit the Center for Digital Government's website at www.govtech.com/dc/digital-cities.