Schaumburg Places Fourth in Digital Cities Survey
The Village of Schaumburg is pleased to announce it has placed fourth in the 2021 Digital Cities Survey, which recognized cities using technology to tackle social challenges, enhance cybersecurity, improve transparency and much more.
"This award acknowledges the dedication and hard work of the entire Information Technology team," said Peter Schaak, director of Information Technology. "It is their efforts that keep the village's robust and complex collection of systems and applications operating efficiently. It is also their creativity and curiosity that keeps the organization at the forefront of new technologies. I am honored to have the department's hard work recognized."
Open to all U.S. cities, the survey honors cities in five population classifications: 500,000 or more, 250,000 to 499,999; 125,000 to 249,999; 75,000 to 124,999 and fewer than 75,000. Schaumburg was ranked fourth in cities with a population fewer than 75,000.
Schaumburg also received a 20th Anniversary Special Participation Award for its continued commitment and dedication to participating in the Digital Cities Survey. The awards will be presented during a virtual awards ceremony on Dec. 8.
The village completed several technology initiatives in 2021:
• SnowStat, the village's public facing snow and ice tracking application, was upgraded to allow the public to view, in near real-time, the plow/salt progress being made on village streets during a winter storm event thus reducing the amount of snow-related calls to the village's 311 Center.
• A custom Memorial Brick application was created using the village's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) infrastructure to help visitors to Veteran's Gateway Park locate memorial bricks by searching for a brick by purchaser's name or any part of the brick inscription.
• A network infrastructure upgrade was completed that migrated the village to a new networking and security infrastructure that replaced all core and edge network hardware as well as provided advanced anti-virus and malware protection.
• Information Technology partnered with the police department to design and implement a security and situational awareness system in the area surrounding Woodfield Mall. A combination of high-resolution, fixed lens, and license plate recognition cameras have been installed in and around the Woodfield corridor. The camera feeds are viewable in a new Real-Time Information Center in the Public Safety building that allows staff to view and monitor ongoing and emergent public safety situations. The project is in its final stages of bringing the various pieces online.
"I commend the village's Information Technology Department for providing innovative solutions to village operations which enables the organization to provide our residents and businesses with outstanding levels of service," said Village Manager Brian Townsend.
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies 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 https://bit.ly/3DiyyoC.