CitySmart Blog Feed

“IT in a Box” Saves Lyndon, Kentucky $45,508 in Modernizing its Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:31:18 GMT

Incorporated in 1965, Lyndon, Kentucky has grown from 500 to more than 11,000 residents in almost 50 years. Despite phenomenal growth, the city’s technology unfortunately lagged behind. Uncertainty existed related to the city’s data backup, ability to recover in the event of a disaster, email, website, and hardware support. Lyndon solved these challenges by using the Kentucky League of Cities “IT in a Box” service.

What a Non-Citizen Should Find on Your Website

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:42:51 GMT

In previous posts, we’ve discussed what citizens and businesses should find on your city website. But what about people who are not citizens? Many cities tend to neglect focusing on non-citizens and either focus on functionality for citizens and businesses or simply focus on business-level economic development initiatives. Your website is a key place to woo potential citizens. As long as you have some of the following basics built in, you will be able to compete with other cities to interest people in moving to your city.

How Well Do You Know Your IT Support?

Clint Nelms, COO — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:53:08 GMT

A simple litmus test to evaluate your quality of IT support is to analyze the people who are supposed to help you on a daily basis. Answer the following questions and see if you’re really getting the IT support you need.

Municipal IT Budgeting Part III: Let Technology Spur Your Vision

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:30:03 GMT

In Part I and Part II, we looked at both fixing your broken technology and maximizing your existing IT investments. But technology is more than just stabilization and settling for what you have. It’s also about the future, helping you execute your city’s vision.

Five Amazing Yet Essential Technology Improvements for Cities

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:26:58 GMT

From a bottom line impact at cities, some advances in technology not only change the way you do your work but can also significantly save you money. Here are five areas of technology that we often find city staff have grown accustomed to, and the “amazing” technologies that need to be adopted instead.

Municipal IT Budgeting Part II: Maximizing Your IT Investments

Dave Mims, CEO — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:20:45 GMT

In our last city IT budgeting post, we discussed how broken technology negatively impacts your bottom line. But even if you fix and stabilize broken technology, the next step is to make sure you are maximizing your IT investments. Ask yourself the following questions to see if your IT spend is maximizing every dollar you invest.

What It Means to “Protect” Your Data

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:09:13 GMT

Protecting data really means paying attention. Where does sensitive data come from? Where does it go? Where is it stored? If you cannot account for data during its entire lifecycle, from user entry to deletion, then your data might not be protected. Here are four things you need to think about as you take a more serious look at data protection.

Municipal IT Budgeting Part I: Fixing What’s Broken

Dave Mims, CEO — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:20:04 GMT

While it might seem like broken technology has little to do with city budgeting, your IT budget can actually reveal how obsolete hardware or underinvestment might be costing you money each year. Bad technology impacts your bottom line every day, and it’s often a hidden source of lost city revenue.

Wasted Money Buried in Your Telecom Contracts

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:43:50 GMT

When beginning our work with a new city, we usually find old telecom contracts and technical setups that are expensive, low quality, and relying on outdated technology. All this despite new technology existing that works better, faster, and cheaper. For less cost, cities could experience a quantum leap in quality of telecom service.

Email Hosting - Five Reasons to Go to the Cloud

Clint Nelms, COO — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:12:35 GMT

While more and more government organizations are moving their email to the cloud, backed up by significant examples that it is one of the safest places for your email, we still see many cities clinging to old or obsolete email hosting methods. Unfortunately, hosting your email improperly or through a method that is no longer a best practice can put your city at risk.

Metadata: The Backbone of Your Document Management

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:27:43 GMT

So where you do start if you’re a metadata novice? While we recommend also talking to someone technically conversant with your document management system (and if you’re a large city, you might want to have an information architecture expert in the mix), we focus here on some metadata basics that we notice when we help cities with their document management systems.

Sometimes It’s Just The Simple Things Done Right: A Vendor Management Story

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:16:02 GMT

To our staff, it’s no big deal. Just doing their jobs. To a city, handling all of the details related to procuring a computer means all the difference in the world. On the surface, obtaining a computer for a customer – in this case the city of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia – seems like a simple activity. However, we use opportunities like this to show cities how we feel vendor management should work. Here is what we did, illustrating some key vendor management lessons.

Know When Your IT Vendor Is Not Worth Your Time

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:52:25 GMT

When we sit down to talk with cities about vendor relationships, many of the war stories center around how vendors waste a city’s time. An important part of any vendor relationship boils down to two things: expertise and communication. Can the vendor do the job, and can they communicate about issues and problems effectively?

Website Design: What Cities Need (and Don't Need)

Clint Nelms, COO — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:15:27 GMT

From our experience, budget-conscious small and medium cities need essential website functionality and a professional appearance, but they often lose money when website vendors oversell them on supposedly “must have” features and custom design. Here’s a quick list of what small and medium sized-cities need and don’t need in their website design.

A Quick Guide to Maintaining Your Hardware

Dave Mims, CEO — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:16:57 GMT

While hardware maintenance involves many complex technical aspects, we are providing a high level overview of five basic activities that your IT staff or vendor must perform to keep your hardware optimally running.

Spring Cleaning: Reducing Your IT Infrastructure

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:28:11 GMT

Taking a look through your existing assets can be enlightening, and sometimes shocking. Often, valuable real estate, power, and IT staff time is consumed maintaining assets you don’t need. Here, we take a look at some common IT infrastructure assets and offer ways to eliminate or trim them down.

Online Payment Security - Two Network Fundamentals

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:19:35 GMT

The basics of secure online payments starts at the network level, and the PCI DSS requirements begin by examining firewall and password policies. These best practices also correspond to many other IT-related services and provide good questions for other aspects of your city business.

Lower Your Cyber Liability: Tips for Cities

Clint Nelms, COO — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:17:25 GMT

Last year, we produced a series of articles addressing data loss, website hacking, and virus attacks, but we want to address some other common issues that impact cyber liability. These best practices can help lower your risk, which then lowers your cyber liability insurance premiums.

Does Your Data Backup Include Mobile?

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:38:46 GMT

Just when you thought you may have figured out data backup and disaster recovery for your city’s servers and workstations, along comes mobile. Partly, that’s because mobile is still so relatively new and blurs the boundaries between business and personal data. But also, the lack of mobile data backup reflects the continuing failure to follow general data backup and disaster recovery best practices. If you’re using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices at your city, here are some tips on backing up data on those devices.

Benefits of PDFs in Your Document Management System

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:11:39 GMT

When managing your documents, the use of PDFs can raise many questions. We’ve worked with cities that became “PDF happy” and turned anything and everything into PDFs, while others went in the opposite direction by clinging to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents without bothering much with PDFs. To help find a good middle ground, here are some benefits and situations that suggest when PDFs can best help your document management.

Shifting to the Cloud: The Bottom Line Benefits

Clint Nelms, COO — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:11:54 GMT

The state of Texas recently made a major shift by transitioning more than 100,000 workers to Microsoft’s cloud services. While this shift is occurring at the state level on a massive scale, many of the reasons why Texas chose to transition to the cloud applies to cities.

Attracting Businesses Through Your Website

Dave Mims, CEO — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:22:36 GMT

Nearly all businesses must eventually use your city’s website to answer a question about taxes, licenses, or other information. Is that experience a positive one for businesses? Or a negative one?

How Old Is Too Old? Signs You Need to Replace Your Hardware

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:20:25 GMT

Rather than maximizing your investment, aging hardware is actually negatively impacting your bottom line. That’s why we urge cities to follow a hardware replacement lifecycle and plan for the replacement of servers, desktops, laptops, and other IT hardware. But we’re still often asked, “Why do you need to replace a computer after only 3-5 years?” Here’s why.

Why You Should Dump Your Landline Phone System

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:01:34 GMT

A traditional phone system might seem as tried and true as, well, a city. However, you might also have noticed people have become less attached to landline phone systems, especially when you consider the mobile and smartphone revolution. Part of the phone technology revolution includes VoIP—or Voice over Internet protocol. Here’s what we tell cities when they are considering the switch.

What You Need In Your Online Payment Processing

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:51:42 GMT

When setting up your city’s online payment system, your payment processing needs to meet certain standards. All online payment vendors are not created equal, and you don’t want to be caught with a major security flaw or the inability to accept payments from your citizens. Whether you know it or not, your online payment system will be judged against the experiences your citizens have every day with services ranging from Amazon to Netflix.

Preparing For a New Accounting System

Clint Nelms, COO — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:24:29 GMT

Through our work with cities over the years, we’ve often encountered accounting systems and have had to help support them, interface with them, and grow accustomed to them. These experiences have also offered us opportunities to compare systems between different cities, understand which ones work better than others, and what successful ingredients are needed to make an accounting system work on a technical level.

Tribune 4.1 Release

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:16:56 GMT

The Tribune 4.1 release has been completed and tested, and Sophicity.com has been running on it now for weeks. Our release date is Friday, March 1.

What You Need In Your Data Backup Software

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:08:32 GMT

To help you sift through your data backup options, we will discuss five key questions you must ask when evaluating your current data backup solution and looking at new options.

Search and Retrieve: A Document Management Time Saver

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:15:12 GMT

A switch to a document management system gives you some excellent time-saving benefits when searching for and retrieving documents. Here are some of the best search and retrieval benefits we’ve seen cities enjoy when they upgrade to an enterprise class document management system.

Kentucky League of Cities Now Offering “IT in a Box”

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:00:00 GMT

The Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) has recently partnered with Sophicity to deliver IT in a Box to cities in Kentucky. This new service was officially launched by the Kentucky League of Cities on Tuesday, February 12, 2013.

Website Templates for Small and Medium Cities

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:11:37 GMT

If you’re considering a website redesign and have not considered a template website, here are some aspects that may convince you that saving money can also lead to a great city website.

GMA’s IT in a Box Commercial

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:14:06 GMT

Saving Money on Computer Hardware Purchases

Clint Nelms, COO — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:17:59 GMT

When it comes to buying computer hardware, many small businesses can sometimes still go to Best Buy or a similar store and pick up the computers they need. For cities, such a move is expensive, risky, and a waste of time. Even if you are a small city, your hardware needs are specific and particular, and you need to make sure you have an assessment and purchasing process in place to get the best, most cost-efficient hardware.

Getting the Work Done: A Look at Online Work Order Systems

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:27:53 GMT

One trend we’ve been seeing at cities is a gradual improvement in how various city departments handle work orders. As cities move their servers and data backup into the cloud, as their websites improve, and as they start using more sophisticated document management and online payment systems, they find that improving the way they track work orders follows suit.

Five Ways To Save Money Through Vendor Management

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:44:35 GMT

From our experience, here are some ways we help cities with vendor management to help them save money, maximize their investment, and get vendors working more effectively and productively.

Five City Services Where You Must Have Online Payments

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:32:38 GMT

If you are wondering where to start with online payments, there are a few common services that are a must. Based on our common experiences with cities, we’ve prioritized the list down to five and explained why it is important to get these online payment services up and running as soon as possible.

Three Essential Email Security Tips

Clint Nelms, COO — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:12:33 GMT

With a set of simple best practices, you can secure your email and even increase the security depending on message sensitivity. Primarily, it helps to focus on three basic areas to make sure your email is secure.

What is VoIP?

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:58:16 GMT

Considering VoIP is an excellent way to challenge your existing phone system contracts and see if you can find some long-term cost savings.

Surviving a Disaster: Your Most Serious Technology Test

Clint Nelms, COO — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:28:43 GMT

There are some important questions you must answer to build a true disaster recovery plan that go beyond merely wondering what happens if you lose a Microsoft Word file. These are questions that transcend but also include technology, since the strength of your technology will help strengthen your overall disaster recovery plan.

Document Management Saves You Time (and Money) Through Ease of Collaboration

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:30:36 GMT

A good document management solution helps you turn natural chaos into order. And by saving time, you are saving money—those unproductive hours that go down the drain when you’re wasting time chasing down documents. Here’s how document management can help your collaboration efforts.

Why Are You Paying $15,000 - $20,000 for a Website?

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:23:11 GMT

Advances in technology and Internet functionality have lowered the costs of what used to make websites so expensive. By examining each piece of your website, you might find some opportunities to save significant money.

Encryption: An Essential Element of City Security

Clint Nelms, COO — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:00:52 GMT

To demystify the complexity surrounding encryption, here is what you need to know—and do—to encrypt your information.

“IT in a Box” Saves Oxford, Georgia $46,812 in Upgrades to IT Infrastructure

Dave Mims, CEO — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:25:00 GMT

While Oxford College offers the full technological amenities of a world-class university and Oxford residents enjoy high-speed broadband, the city found its IT services out of date and unstable. Concerned with the stability and security of their email, server hosting and data backup, city officials needed to upgrade and modernize their technology.

Don’t Make These 5 Common People-Focused Technology Mistakes

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:32:00 GMT

At the heart of most technology issues are people issues. But if you avoid the following mistakes, you will create the foundation you need to really benefit from technology.

How To Make Citizens Happy With Online Payments

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:49:00 GMT

In the past, we’ve discussed 10 questions to ask your online payment vendor. In this article, we’re providing more service-oriented technology tips. Not following these tips won’t break your technology, but failing to consider these service features will potentially make your citizens unhappy.

What’s the Big Deal About Big Data?

Clint Nelms, COO — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:59:04 GMT

In this blog post, we’ll break big data down for you, cut through the noise, and let you know the basic essentials. While the concept of big data may not apply to your city, it’s good to know what it’s all about and some of the ideas might make you think about your existing data - big or not.

Tribune 4.0 Set For Release on Friday, December 14

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:25:38 GMT

We are excited that Tribune 4.0 is going to be released on Friday! Many new features are included in this release, and you can expect much more to come in future versions. We’ve completed, tested, and ran Tribune 4.0 on Sophicity.com for weeks, and we’re excited to talk about what the new version includes.

5 Reasons Your IT Hardware Is In Trouble

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:22:20 GMT

Many cities treat their hardware like it’s simply a machine that just needs to work at the end of the day. But computer hardware requires much more sensitive and ongoing maintenance than other simpler, one-dimensional equipment. If any of the following hardware scenarios apply to you, your city operations and services are at significant risk.

Key City Staff To Involve in Your Website Decisions

Dave Mims, CEO — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:21:22 GMT

In order to increase the success of modernizing your website, switching to a more usable content management system, and keeping website investment costs low, you need to make sure the following people or departments are on board.

Five Myths of Online Data Backup

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:39:20 GMT

When talking with cities, we often hear a variety of negative perspectives and observations about online data backup. Like any technology that has rapidly advanced in recent years, combined with many high profile cases of hacking and data theft, it can seem like modern online data backup is less safe than traditional onsite backup methods. However, many of these perceptions are inaccurate and gloss over the major benefits of online data backup to your city.

We've Moved!

Dave Mims, CEO — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:04:25 GMT

We've moved offices!

Content Filtering That Doesn’t Anger Your Staff

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:58:35 GMT

Here are some areas of content filtering that cities should especially look at given security, productivity, and technical risks that result from failing to filter.

A City’s Cyber Liability: Part III (Virus Attacks)

Clint Nelms, COO — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:57:44 GMT

The protection afforded by free antivirus software such as Microsoft Security Essentials is actually pretty good, so the problem is really not in the quality of software offered by a lot of these free antivirus providers. The problem—especially for a city— lie in three key areas that relate to liability.

Don’t Let Your Printer and Scanner Ruin Your Document Management System

Nathan Eisner, Network Manager — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:05:00 GMT

Often, we’ve seen cities get excited about the prospects of a new document management system—only to find out their printers and scanners cannot keep up with their document demand. How do you know if your printer and scanner matches your document management needs? Here are 5 key questions to ask.

GCCMA Conference Focuses On “Stresslessly” Handling Rough Economic Times

Randy Weaver, Business Development — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:36:00 GMT

From October 24 to October 26, the great city of Valdosta hosted this year’s Georgia City-County Management Association (GCCMA) conference. From my experience, this organization hosts some of the best municipal conferences to attend in Georgia. After sitting in on many sessions, talking to a variety of city and county managers, and taking a lot of notes, I collected some of the key takeaways and themes from the conference.

Why Cities Need a Content Management System

Dave Mims, CEO — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:51:00 GMT

Here are five things that your website content management system must allow you to do in 2012. If you cannot do these things, you are severely limited in your communications efforts with citizens and wasting too much time on what should be simple tasks.

Email Is Not Document Management

John Miller, Network Manager — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:20:00 GMT

One of the most common scenarios we see when cities are struggling with document management is when employees rely too much on email for sending, storing, and revising documents. An excellent infographic from KnowledgeTree has been making the rounds, and it quantifies some of the impact of email on document management. We selected some of the stats that particularly struck us as significant – and alarming.

Cybersecurity Resource for Local Government

Clint Nelms, COO — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:01:00 GMT

In examining the Center for Internet Security’s website, we were impressed to see various guides targeted toward non-technical decision makers such as elected officials, administrative officials, and business managers (such as finance officers). We wanted to highlight a few of the guides we found most beneficial for cities.

Cutting Bloat Out of Your IT Budget

Dave Mims, CEO — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:51:00 GMT

To help you better prevent system bloat in your IT budget, here are some key places to assess what you currently have and see if some cost savings are in order.

10 Questions to Ask Your Online Payments Vendor

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:24:00 GMT

With revenue and money on the line, the failure of an online payment system can be one of a city’s most embarrassing and noticeable failures. Many online payment vendors exist, and the breadth of choices and costs can be overwhelming. On the most basic level, though, a city cannot simply choose the cheapest vendor or be wowed by features. At its core, you have to know it’s going to work and truly serve citizens in a high quality fashion.

Disaster Recovery: The Nightmare Versus The Ideal

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:59:00 GMT

Too many cities still have ineffective data backup and disaster recovery solutions. They may still use tape backup, manually back up data with disks or tape, or keep all of their servers onsite. They may consider an offsite backup solution as storing data in a different building or in a bank vault a few miles away. Considering the nature of disasters, these solutions are not good enough to meet the high standards of modern data backup and disaster recovery best practices.

Flowery Branch, Georgia Sees Potential Cost Savings of More Than $200,000 by Using “IT in a Box”

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:03:00 GMT

Georgia Municipal Association helps city stabilize data backup, disaster recovery and email.

The Cloud May Soon Become Law

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:27:00 GMT

While a federal law does not necessarily signify any local government requirements any time soon, cloud computing may soon become a requirement at the federal level. Some in the media have noted problems with the law (scope, wording, potential overregulation), but we tend to view such legislative attempts—whether they succeed or fail—as signs of things to come. And the law does highlight some of the key reasons to invest in the cloud.

Cities, Telework, and the Bringing Your Own Device Debates

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:15:00 GMT

Lately, a lot of articles are discussing the pros and cons of teleworking and employees bringing their own device to use at work. Since these activities are such a cultural change for organizations, these same debates are probably taking place at your city. In this post, we review some of the most recent discussion points and guide you toward what you need to be thinking about concerning telework.

Speaking Different Languages: IT and non-IT

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:58:00 GMT

Based on our many years of experience working with cities, we offer up some communications tips that you can use to test your current IT vendors and staff. Then, assuming you have a top-notch staff or vendor, we’ll share some advice about what kind of communication makes them happy.

What Cities Can Learn From 2012’s Best Local Government Website

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:13:00 GMT

Back in August 2012, Government Technology and the Center for Digital Government held the 2012 Best of the Web Awards. The first place city website winner was Louisville, Kentucky. A recent interview with Beth Niblock, CIO of the City of Louisville, suggests that there are some ideas that can transfer over to smaller city websites—and still fit your budget.

Security: An Overlooked Document Management Benefit

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:07:00 GMT

People often think of more pressing pain points when it comes to considering a document management solution—finding and accessing files, getting rid of paper-based systems, and better preparing for audits and open records requests. But security matters especially when you have documents that people want to steal. City documents fall squarely into this camp.

A City’s Cyber Liability: Part II (Website Hacking)

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:42:00 GMT

When you see highly publicized attacks by hacking groups such as Anonymous on some of the biggest targets in the world, it can be easy to think there isn’t much one can do about website hacking. But while some of the world’s best hackers may seem hard to defeat if they decide to come after you, the reality is much more mundane—and preventable.

Cities Save Money Through Online Payments

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:18:00 GMT

In case your city wants to make the switch or upgrade from an aging online payments system, here are some reasons why online payments will positively affect your city’s bottom line.

A City’s Cyber Liability: Part I (Data Loss)

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:21:00 GMT

Data loss is an extremely common scenario. There are so many ways to lose data—server failures, computer failures, theft, fire, flooding, power loss, hurricanes, tornadoes, and the list goes on. There is no excuse not to have a full disaster recovery plan in place that includes contingencies for data loss. And not having a plan in place makes a city liable.

Confused by the Cloud: You’re Not Alone

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:25:00 GMT

A recent study from Citrix shows that most Americans are confused by the cloud. The ongoing problem with the term "cloud computing" is that it often complicates an explanation rather than clarifies. Most people use cloud computing every day, but they don't know that they are using it. To help clarify matters, we wanted to give you a layperson's definition of cloud computing. If you ever need to explain it to someone else, use this as a guideline.

Why Telework Works for Local Government

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:50:00 GMT

If your city provides limited or no teleworking options, consider these benefits when making your case for teleworking.

Password Best Practices

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 16:46:00 GMT

While password policies seem like just a small part of IT management, a perfect storm is brewing that places password vulnerability at an all-time high. To assess if you've mastered your Password 101 basics, use the following as a quick checklist.

Cities Increase Customer Experience Through Modernized Websites

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:11:00 GMT

Cities have continually improved their customer experience over time, but even the most well-meaning cities often struggle with their website. And online customer experience expectations increase each year. However, cost-effective options exist for modernizing your website. We share some tips about improving your city's online customer experience without breaking your bank.

Combating IT Vendor Frustration for Cities

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:34:00 GMT

Information technology is already hard enough to manage, and its cost and complexity make it one of the most important investments for a city to manage. Unfortunately, managing multiple IT vendors turns this already difficult situation into a nightmare. Here are three tips that may help you and your city manage IT vendors.

Handling Email Open Records Requests

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:06:00 GMT

While handling an open records request is never easy, it’s a great deal easier with some simple email software and organization. Here is a quick assessment you can take.

How City Employees Can Bring Their Own Devices Without Risk

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:19:00 GMT

Personal devices are not going away, and yet you don't often have the money to buy all city employees business-only tablets and smartphones. What do you do?

Dear Local Government: Be Enthused About Cloud Computing

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:48:00 GMT

A recent IDC Government Insights report revealed an alarming glimpse into the mindset of local government about cloud computing. GovTech’s summary of the IDC report said, "Local government participants were the least optimistic about the cloud with 14.7 percent saying the cloud wasn't important." Overall, the report showed a need for more education about the benefits of cloud computing in terms of not only technology infrastructure but also budgeting.

Information Technology Investments for Cities: Where Do I Start?

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:18:00 GMT

A recent article in "The Tennessean" (and shared in the Public Technology Institute's July 25, 2012 email newsletter) reveals how inundated cities feel by technology pressures. It just doesn't end—new technologies related to websites, servers, desktops, tablets, mobile phones, broadband, and GIS barrage cities every year. All of these investments require money that cities unfortunately lack in this rough economy.

Document Management: The Essential Benefits for City Clerks

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:13:00 GMT

Despite their role, the city clerk does not have superhuman powers. They are limited by time and technology. With increasing demands and pressures, from customer service to government regulations, any significant document management limitations (or lack of any document management in the case of a paper filing system) cripple their ability to work effectively.

Oakwood, Georgia Saves $47,000 Using “IT in a Box” to Upgrade IT Infrastructure

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 05:19:00 GMT

Oakwood faced challenges with both its data backup solution and its email system. The city needed data backup to ensure information is never lost. And, the availability of the email system was critical for both City Hall and the police department to ensure during an emergency, hardware failure, or disaster, that city officials would be able to communicate with each other and residents via email.

Worried About Office 2013’s Compatibility with XP or Vista? You’re Worried About the Wrong Problem!

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:15:00 GMT

A slew of recent articles have pointed out that organizations still using Windows XP or Windows Vista will not be able to use Office 2013. The outcry stems from the fact that XP and Vista are still popular operating systems, and the argument goes that Microsoft is wrong to prevent those people and organizations from using Office 2013.

Georgia Municipal Association Now Offering “IT in a Box”

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:34:00 GMT

The Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) has recently partnered with Sophicity to deliver IT in a Box to cities in Georgia. This new service was officially launched by the Georgia Municipal Association on Thursday, July 26, 2012.

Frequently Tested Data Backup Ensures Cities Stay Up and Running During Severe Weather

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:07:00 GMT

During severe weather, data backup is especially important for cities since citizens often rely on municipalities for emergency information and services. If the cloud is not a cure-all solution, what is the ultimate answer to a city's data backup needs?

GMA Annual Convention: Interview with GMA, Oakwood, and Flowery Branch about IT in a Box

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:13:00 GMT

GMA Annual Convention: Interview with Dave Mims about IT in a Box

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:02:00 GMT

Federal IT Executives Slow to Focus Budgets on Operational Expenditures

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:05:00 GMT

The federal government has encouraged its agencies to focus on operational expenditures rather than capital expenditures during the upcoming fiscal year (October 2012-Septmber 2013). However, only one-third of technology leaders are considering this change according to a recent study by MeriTalk, a government IT network.

In fact, only 36 percent of IT officials are considering a shift of their IT programs to operational expenditures. Respondents cited network and data center infrastructure as likely places to transition funding. They also believe federal financial professionals offer very little consensus on what constitutes operational expenditures. Additionally, they see layers of new approvals needed to make funding changes.

Lessons Learned From Utah

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:10:00 GMT

Security breaches can have more severe consequences than lost or stolen data. In the case of one government official in Utah, cybercrime may have led to his resignation.

According to an opinion piece in Government Technology, Utah’s CIO submitted his resignation last month, after the state’s IT officials discovered that health and Medicaid data for nearly 800,000 residents — including 280,000 Social Security numbers — had been stolen from a poorly secured server operated by the state's Department of Technology Services.

Mobile Site Driving New Web Traffic

Quan Ouyang, Senior Software Consultant — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:18:00 GMT

State and local government are exploring more ways of engaging residents. The most recent example is Texas.gov’s new mobile site.

Since its mid-April launch, the state has received approximately 1.1 million visits to its official website. Of those, 70 percent are new users. State officials believe the new m.texas.gov mobile site is responsible for the new users.

The mobile site connects with visitors through a five-point navigation system consisting of four icons: “Drive,” “Contact,” “Pay” and “Work,” and a search bar.

Cloud First – How Government Agencies are Migrating to the Cloud

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

It has been more than a year since the federal government adopted its Cloud First initiative as a way to get agencies to move certain applications to the cloud to streamline costs and improve security.

And, many agencies are now starting to have more confidence in the cloud’s ability to keep their data secure.

Cloud computing is a disruptive technology that’s fundamentally altering how government does business

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:34:00 GMT

Government Technology recently interviewed the state and local government CIOs to gather their thoughts about cloud computing. Overall, government officials think the idea of moving the cloud is refreshing. They say the move will force government to become more agile, and will force them to decide what IT services are kept in-house versus what is handed off to the private sector.

Security Breaches Rare in the Cloud

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:55:00 GMT

In 2011, more than 174 million online records were compromised; more than 100 million of those were from hacking, according to a data breach report from Verizon. The report analyzed 855 data breaches that occurred worldwide last year. One major finding: hactivism is on the rise.

Minnesota Takes Email to the Cloud

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:50:00 GMT

Today’s mobile technology and the proliferation of mobile devices is making it easier for local and state employees to access information from anywhere at any time.

One Minnesota’s state government agency is maximizing the move to mobile while, at the same time, boosting remote email access and, ultimately, improving employee productivity. The Office of Enterprise Technology, (OET), recently moved nearly 40,000 workers in more than 70 agencies to Microsoft Office 365 for email services and collaborative tools.

Cities turn to telework as viable option to ease traffic, reduce carbon footprint

Nathan Eisner, Network Infrastructure Manager — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:31:00 GMT

It is that time of year again when all thoughts turn to baseball, outdoor concerts, the end of the school year, vacations and, unfortunately, the rising gas prices that seem to creep even higher as the summer vacation season approaches.

A story in Government Technology stated that surging gas prices and reduced budgets were two factors causing state and local government to consider green agendas, specifically teleworking. That story was from 2008 – the last time the U.S. saw average gas prices around $4 a gallon. Many experts expect this year’s gas prices to hit or exceed the $4 mark sometime this summer, maybe even as early as Memorial Day weekend.

Leveraging city websites to share ideas and engage communities

Todd Snoddy, Senior Software Developer — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:49:00 GMT

Late last year, Philadelphia’s mayor announced the launch of a special website called ‘Change By Us Philly’ that provides an interactive, social media platform to enable residents to connect with city officials, community-based organizations and each other to share ideas and create projects to benefit the City of Philadelphia. The website is accessed at philly.changeby.us and is operational.

iPad proves to be an eco-friendly option for city government helping them save time, paper and cut costs

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 21:08:00 GMT

Save time. Save money. Cut cost. When it comes to business operations, those three objectives are always at the top of the list. City governments are looking for ways to communicate and disseminate information quicker and more cost-effective than before. So where do you start? You can stop using all that paper for starters.

Software Development Tip: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 general availability is April 1

Vladimir Maysuradze, Senior Software Developer / DBA — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:21:00 GMT

Microsoft announced that the latest version of SQL Server has been released to manufacturing and will be generally available April 1st (interesting choice for date to release a major product, don’t you think?). This release is packed with plenty of new toys for everyone. DBAs will love the new availability feature called AlwaysOn and performance enhancing columnstore indexes. Developers should be looking forward to the SQL Server Data Tools as well as multiple language enhancements, like window functions. BAs will be interested to learn about multiple enhancements to the SSAS including the addition of the data visualization tool Power View. As always, organizations should exercise caution when adopting new technologies. Enjoy it, with care!

Serve@Work March 2012: Building a Better Beginning @ Sheltering Grace

Dave Mims, President — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:39:00 GMT

Sophicity signed up, along with other corporate sponsors, to help Sheltering Grace Ministry through High Tech Ministries Serve@Work first service project for FY2012. At this project we came out with jeans, T's, and tools to complete a Mome Makeover...

Where are our citizens communicating? Yep, the aggressively growing mobile community on the web!

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:47:00 GMT

Americans are using mobile devices to accomplish everyday tasks from making phone calls and taking pictures to visiting websites and paying bills. According to the *Pew Internet & American Life Project, 88 percent of American adults have a cell phone. As of February 2012, most of those cell phone owners are actually using smartphones. About six in 10 adults (63 percent) go online wirelessly and according to the 2011 Mobile Year in Review on MobileFuture.org, more smartphones were purchased in 2011 than PCs.

Our server is down! Our data can’t be recovered!

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:10:00 GMT

We don’t need to look too far back to recall a recent natural disaster. When it comes to local governments, there are a lot of things to consider and for which to prepare when it comes to natural or man-made disasters – including what happens to your city’s critical data when something goes wrong.

We have met the enemy…

John Miller, Network Infrastructure Manager — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:59:00 GMT

There’s an old quote or phrase that states, “we have met the enemy and it is us.” Although the quote didn’t address technology concerns, in the world of IT security issues, the quote is rather applicable. In fact, many local governments and organizations are vulnerable to IT threats because of employees.

Software Development Tip: Supporting mobile apps on devices with varying resolutions

Todd Snoddy, Senior Software Developer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

I recently wrote a quick blog posting regarding things to consider when making the decision to develop a native or web-based mobile app. Once a decision is made to develop a mobile web app, the developers given the task of implementing that app will likely need to consider which mobile devices their web app should target, and how the content should be displayed on devices with different resolutions. Should the content scale automatically, or should the developer implement multiple views optimized for different resolutions? One good reference that I came across which discusses this in more detail is located here: http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/mobile-web-content-adaptation-techniques.

Using Google Mail’s 2 step authentication to prevent hacking

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:21:00 GMT

Do you know anyone who has had their email address compromised? Have you started to receive spam emails from friends or family members? Unfortunately this sort of compromise has become more and more prevalent.

Incidents like these indicate someone has used a password guesser to gain access to your mailbox. Spammers do this to get your address list. They then blast out spam to everyone in your contacts. Besides being a hassle, this sort of breach makes you feel like your privacy has been violated.

Maximizing the Cloud: 5 Cloud Success Stories in Government

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:32:00 GMT

Forced with budget cuts, local government agencies have turned to cloud computing to streamline their IT needs, lower hardware expenses and improve accessibility and mobility to necessary data.

In a special report on cloud computing, The Center for Digital Government, in partnership with Public CIO, compiled a list of five government cloud success stories, two of which are at the local government level.

Network Support Tip: Pin Up the Folders You Use Most

Scott Miller, Network Engineer — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:57:00 GMT

Pin Up the Folders You Use Most

Windows 7 allows you to “pin up” the folders you use most on your taskbar. Simply hold your mouse over the favorite folder, right click, and drag the folder onto the taskbar. Windows 7 automatically pins itself to the Explorer Jump List. To open the folder, right click on the Explorer icon and select the folder you want.

Network Support Tip: Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

Brian Ocfemia, Network Engineer — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:59:00 GMT

The Windows Logo Key

The mouse proved to be a lifesaver for users who want an easy way to navigate Windows' graphical user interface. Unfortunately, it's not always the most efficient way to interact with your computer. There are several keyboard shortcuts that can help you save time. However, one of the most underused keys on the keyboard is the Windows logo key (found between the CTRL and ALT key). There are many things that you can accomplish by using this key.

How digital is your city?

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:43:00 GMT

The results are in! On November 2, Govtech.com announced the winners of the eleventh annual “Digital Cities Survey.” The survey spotlights the municipalities that best show how information and communication technology are used to enhance public service. The survey is conducted by the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology.

Software Development Tip: LINQ to SharePoint

Ohm Sadasivam, Senior Software Developer — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:20:00 GMT

Microsoft has added many useful features in SharePoint 2010. One of interest for developers is support for Language Integrated Query (LINQ). LINQ abstracts us from data source specific syntax such as SQL for SQL Server as well as Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) for SharePoint content data. Nice! I won’t steal all the thunder, but if you need to programmatically access SharePoint data and you aren’t already using CAML for SharePoint data access then checkout these two articles on LINQ to SharePoint from Microsoft at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee535491.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg620622.

Network Support Tip: Desktop background pictures can impact computer performance

Michael Kappel, Senior Network Engineer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:36:00 GMT

People really seem to enjoy placing high resolution photos on their backgrounds. They will take pictures of places that they visit, their family, or their pets and set that as the background on their laptops or desktops. A lot of people don’t realize that this can actually slow the computer down. To see if your background pictures are impacting performance on your computer, right click on the desktop, click properties, and set the background to a solid color. If that seems to improve your computers speed, you may need to consider either not using the image you choose previously, or getting a lower resolution copy of the image.

Network Support Tip: Windows 7 Snap

Scott Miller, Network Engineer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:18:00 GMT

I have been using Windows 7 for a while. From the beginning, I have liked the “snapping a window” feature, which while simple, is pretty cool. With the feature, you can Snap windows to size by dragging them to the edges of your screen. Read more about snap at: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/snap.

Golf: A Cinderella Story…

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:22:00 GMT

Sophicity was a sponsor for the 4th Annual Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade Golf Tournament held Monday October 17, 2011 in Dublin, GA at the beautiful Riverview Park Golf Course. The proceeds from the tournament will go toward the Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade charity event in December.

Software Development Tip: Native or web-based mobile apps?

Todd Snoddy, Senior Software Developer — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:34:00 GMT

With the ongoing rise of mobile device usage even for non-technical users, many organizations are choosing to provide services to their customers or constituents through the use of mobile apps. People who are responsible for making decisions about creating and deploying those mobile apps will likely face the decision about whether to provide native or web-based mobile apps.

Sophicity Published in Minnesota Cities

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:22:00 GMT

Sophicity recently published Online Payments Can Reduce Cost, Increase Quality in the September-October 2011 issue of Minnesota Cities magazine.

Southern Municipal Conference Fall 2011

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:40:00 GMT

Just returned from the IT Summit in Little Rock Arkansas...

Are you minding your cyber-security P’s and Q’s?

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:12:00 GMT

As technology and hackers become more and more sophisticated, IT security teams have to keep a closer eye on their networks, making sure an electronic attack does not destroy their sites or important data. For state and local government agencies, it is critical that CIOs and other team members understand the security threats, and most importantly, how to keep the IT environments safe.

Software Development Tip: Checkout Code-First Development with Entity Framework 4.1

Quan Ouyang, Senior Software Developer — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:42:00 GMT

I recently participated in a discussion and hands on exploration of Code-First which is a part of the release shipped with Entity Framework 4.1.

New commission reinforces the importance of cloud computing at the SLG level, but where’s the SLG?

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:15:00 GMT

There’s been a lot of rumbling about the cloud lately. In a June blog, I pointed out some stats on cloud usage and security issues in the cloud. And in August,TechAmerica Foundation formed a commission of industry experts on cloud adoption.

Predictable annual IT spending… Is it possible?

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:58:00 GMT

Will your IT costs remain within budget this year? Did they last year? What about the year before?

If your IT spending has not been within budget, you have a problem.

Predictable annual IT spending is possible. Our customers realize it year after year…

IT neglect is an intentional decision…

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:50:00 GMT

I read articles like this that have good recommendations, but I am of the opinion that there is more to it than just the need for policy. Especially when you consider that it is sadly too common for IT to be addressed reactively. Reactive implies neglect.

Ignore IT best practices in your City and be prepared for citizens who ask...

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:26:00 GMT

Anyone would be foolish to say “my IT environment is completely safe”. But many IT security compromises are the result of not following simple best practices. If you are not giving basic ongoing attention to maintenance, patching, antivirus, antispam, strong passwords, expiring passwords, and the like, then it is just a matter of time before you will be compromised.

Sophicity Announces Acquisition of ThinkIT

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:45:00 GMT

Sophicity today announced its acquisition of Think IT Solutions, Inc., a Microsoft-based network infrastructure consulting firm located in Atlanta, GA...

Is your City taking IT as serious as the new U.S. CIO is?

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:34:00 GMT

Is your city being just as intentional as Steven VanRoekel (@stevenvDC)? Steven is our new U.S. CIO, and he plans to focus at the national government level on:

nimble adoption of technology
cloud computing
cybersecurity

If local government is not focusing on these very same things, then:

how much money is being wasted?
how much productivity is being lost?
is city data at risk for loss?
is city financial data at risk for compromise?
is personal citizen data at risk for compromise?
is a hacker being more intentional with our city?

Security in an era of Cloud Computing

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:55:00 GMT

I recently attended the Atlanta Technology Summit’s Security in an era of Cloud Computing event. There were lots of nuggets shared, and one in particular was learning about the Cloud Security Alliance. This is an independent consortium of security professionals working to establish security standards for the cloud...

Hackers shift attacks to small firms

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:50:00 GMT

Not just a risk to small businesses in our communities! This is also a recommended read for awareness for our local municipalities too. Don't take malware lightly. Read more at http://t.co/UVudHND

Hackers target Public Safety

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:46:00 GMT

Be careful of reusing usernames and passwords! That's one way hackers compromised this Public Safety office. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/42mjhur

Police use iPhone to identify people with a criminal record

Todd Snoddy, Software Development Practice Manager — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:43:00 GMT

Imagine law enforcement being able to instantly and accurately ID a suspect by snapping their picture from up to five feet away with an app on their mobile device. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/44l39pn

Sophicity Published in South Dakota Municipalities

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Sophicity recently published The Myth Behind 'Managed Services' and the Cost to Municipalities in the July 2011 issue of South Dakota Municipalities magazine. The magazine is published by the South Dakota Municipalities and focuses on a variety of contemporary municipal issues. We encourage you to read the complete article and also visit South Dakota Municipalities online.

Is Your City Missing the Cloud Computing Boat? You’re (Unfortunately) Not Alone

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:40:00 GMT

Compared to the private sector, state and local government is adopting cloud computing at a much slower pace. The statistics are alarming, and here’s why.

Is Presenting to City Council Sometimes Stale? Learn From Steve Jobs

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:34:00 GMT

Watch Jobs do his magic at a City Council meeting, and take notes for the next time you need to present to your elected officials!

Hackers Becoming More Aggressive - Does Your Security Match Up?

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:29:00 GMT

While no one organization is 100% safe, it is unfortunate that many of these organizations are hacked easily because of weak security. Local government is ripe for such attacks because of limited budgets, lack of information security regulations or standards, and obsolete or missing technologies.

Alexandria, Virginia Saves Money Through Cloud Computing

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:14:00 GMT

You may feel your municipality or organization is in the Dark Ages of information technology with aging computers and software, and that modern trends have passed you by. Actually, if so, this is the best time to explore cloud options.

Cloud Computing is Historically Inevitable

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:06:00 GMT

Information technology is going through a revolution and despite some recent highly publicized outages, the reliability of cloud computing is all but 100%. It’s now just a matter of jumping into the cloud – and bringing your costs down.

Sophicity Helps MUST Ministries Feel Like Home

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:51:00 GMT

Sophicity was a sponsor for High Tech Ministries Make it Feel Like Home project May 4 - 7, 2011 at Must Ministries Marietta. With the help of 120 volunteers and six corporate sponsors, three projects were completed within 72 hours that included a playground, kitchen, and welcome center.

Easy and Dynamic Project Management

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:44:00 GMT

Are you still managing project tasks with post-its all around your PC? Are your estimates realistic? Are all team members and project sponsors on the same page? Do you have to crunch the numbers again and again to report status to decision makers?

Sophicity Published in Texas Town & City

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:38:00 GMT

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager at Sophicity, recently published “Three Reasons Why Cities Should Consider Hosted Email” in the March 2011 issue of Texas Town & City.

If The Pentagon is Using Cloud Computing…

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:27:00 GMT

You may have already implemented or considered cloud solutions, especially enticed by the reductions in technology costs. But many people are still concerned about security. “What happens to my data when it’s ‘out there’ in the cloud?”

Wall Street Journal Compares Cloud Computing to Industrial Revolution

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:50:00 GMT

It’s understood that cloud computing has distinct benefits. If you suffer headaches from purchasing and maintaining software or email on your own servers, then cloud computing’s “buy as you use” model (which works similar to utilities) can reduce your costs and increase performance without the worries of software maintenance. But comparing it to the Industrial Revolution?

Avoiding the Pain of an ERP Implementation

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:55:00 GMT

To maximize the investment for a complicated project such as an ERP system, it’s essential to follow a clear methodical process that includes rigorous requirements, vendor selection, and project management.

Are You Secure Enough for Social Media?

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:56:00 GMT

Security issues and social media are two unwilling dancing partners in the evolution of the communication services that are revolutionizing how we communicate. However, with just a few basic IT network and security precautions, a municipality can be assured that entering the world of social media will involve no more risk than Internet access and email for employees.

The Longer You Wait, The Worse IT Gets

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:05:00 GMT

Often, the longer a city waits to stay current with information technology, the more expensive it becomes to upgrade in the long run.

Aging Baby Boomers Threaten Information Technology Staffing

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:46:00 GMT

Despite the late-2000s recession and current recovery slowing down the exodus of Baby Boomers from the workforce, it is inevitable they will leave in mass numbers in the next few years. Municipalities will see parallel trends with its IT staff.

The Socialization of Transparent Data

Todd Snoddy, Software Development Practice Manager — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:33:00 GMT

Transparency has become a government buzzword over the last few years. However, what happens to that data often gets overlooked.

IT Maintenance Not a “Nice to Have”

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:44:00 GMT

Network World recently published a great article quantifying the financial impact of deferring IT maintenance. IT often simply seems like a cost center, but it is further behind than ever. This lag affects services to citizens and city staff productivity

Top Digital Cities in the Southeast

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:33:00 GMT

The Center for Digital Government recently released the results of its annual Digital Cities Survey. Many of the top technology-savvy cities were located in the Southeast.

Data Backup Failure at New Orleans

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:03:00 GMT

The City of New Orleans lost 20 months of real estate records through a disorganized faulty data backup and disaster recovery management process. Rather than dwell on this unfortunate situation, it should serve as a reminder for local government to not ignore data backup and disaster recovery. The results are often disastrous, embarrassing, and a way to make taxpayers very angry.

A Good Critical Look at Gov 2.0

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:05:00 GMT

As cities get barraged with tons of information about Gov 2.0, eGovernment, Web 2.0, whatever you call it, it’s difficult to sort out the substance from the hype. This Fast Company article does an excellent job analyzing the current landscape.

Wireless Security Risks

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:58:00 GMT

This lengthy report from the United States Government Accountability Office highlights that government agencies often compromise their data and information because of basic security lapses with their wireless technology.

Server Virtualization Now Common for Local Government

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:44:00 GMT

This CIO Update article presents some interesting data that shows how common and mainstream server virtualization has become for local government. If it is this mainstream, that means the ROI of virtualization must be growing more and more compelling as these technologies mature.

Open Data Debate

Todd Snoddy, Software Development Practice Manager — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:52:00 GMT

This article about San Francisco’s shift toward open data illustrates both sides of the argument.

2010 State of City and County IT National Survey Released

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:55:00 GMT

The Public Technology Institute and INPUT recently released their annual State of City and County IT National Survey.

"Cheap Backup Solutions Aren’t Worth the Risk" Published in Minnesota Cities

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:55:00 GMT

"Cheap Backup Solutions Aren’t Worth the Risk" Published in Minnesota Cities

Freeing the IT Department: Sharing the Social Media Burden Across Your Organization

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 18:05:00 GMT

At municipal IT conferences and conventions this year, we’ve heard feedback from IT directors and managers that the burden of social media has been unfairly placed onto them. There is often an understandable assumption on the part of non-technical decision makers that social media is simply information technology. The press, Web 2.0 companies, and consumers help create this perception by focusing on social media tools and technologies, but what is often left out of the discussion are marketing, branding, media, and communications principles that form the core of any successful social media initiative. This presentation analyzes why the burden of social media is placed upon IT, why social media is not IT, why organizations need a social media strategy, and what IT’s social media role should be.

Your Biggest IT Security Worry is Not From the Outside

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:49:00 GMT

Often, cities are so worried about spam, viruses, and hackers from the outside that they fail to realize the biggest threats are internal.

The Best Twittering Cities

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:32:00 GMT

In case you are still figuring out ways to utilize Twitter for your city, check out the cities that Twitter the most.

To Open Source Or Not to Open Source

Todd Snoddy, Software Development Practice Manager — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:38:00 GMT

The open source battle wages on into the 2010s as city administrators and IT directors argue for and against its use in government.

Golf: Aaaarrrgghhhh!

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:38:00 GMT

Sophicity was a sponsor for the 3rd Annual Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade Golf Tournament held September 13, 2010 in Dublin at the beautiful Riverview Park Golf Course. The proceeds from the tournament will go toward the Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade charity event in December.

Cities Using IT to Find Opportunity During the Great Recession

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:29:00 GMT

It's been quite clear for some time that cities are hurting. Revenues from income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and other sources are down. If business (especially small business) is hurting, then cities are hurting. That means cutting budgets, staff, and even the essentials of city operations is commonplace.

Looking Toward the Future with Smart Cities

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastructure Practice Manager — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:45:00 GMT

To imagine the future of cities, it might seem like a pipe dream to simply build a test city as a lab experiment...

Best City Websites

Todd Snoddy, Software Development Practice Manager — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:33:00 GMT

Cities everywhere are understanding the urgent need to have websites that help economic development initiatives in attracting businesses and residents to their communities. As cities evaluate features and options, it sometimes helps to learn from the best. The recent e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government's 2010 Best of the Web and Digital Government Achievement Awards honored ten cities in its city portal category, including first place (Boston, Mass.), second place (Louisville Metro Government, Ky.), third place (Fort Collins, Colo.), fourth place (Castle Rock, Colo.), ...

Citizen Relationship Management Involves More Than Just Managing Requests

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:28:00 GMT

During the past few years, we've seen a trend in cities exploring more robust citizen relationship management (CRM) solutions. Due to pressure from the federal government and increasing citizen demands for transparency in an Internet and social media driven world, cities are taking steps to evaluate and implement CRM solutions that meet these demands. As this article from American City and County argues, cities may be unnecessarily limiting their view of how CRM can assist their operations. The article includes 5 ways that CRM can be utilized beyond just managing citizen requests.

Today is Power IT Down Day

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastrucutre Practice Manager — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:10:00 GMT

Started last year, Power IT Down Day is a program to drive awareness of energy conservation in the Government IT sector. The premise is simple: at the end of the day, turn of unneeded workstations, monitors, printers and other devices. The energy savings can add up quick, especially if left on over an entire weekend. So if you’re leaving the office to enjoy the weekend, make sure you turn off all of your IT equipment and save your city a bit of money. In fact, if everyone at your city did it, it could end up saving the city a lot of money. Just make sure you leave your servers on!

Creating an IT Security Plan

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastrucutre Practice Manager — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:30:00 GMT

As a follow up to my last post about Nashville's IT woes, I want to point you to another GovTech article that walks government folks through creating an IT security plan. This is exactly the kind of thing that we work on with our customers – creating a citywide, comprehensive IT security plan that covers all areas of the IT infrastructure from laptop policies to theft prevention. City’s store a lot of sensitive data and do a tremendous amount of business with money, yet often they lack the kind of policies needed to adequately protect these areas. GovTech gives you a great place to start if you’re looking to implement such policies at your city.

Nashville Demonstrates the Need for IT Security Policies

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastrucutre Practice Manager — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:18:00 GMT

GovTech is running an interview with Nashville’s Technology Chief Keith Durbin about how the city has learned from the mistakes of its numerous security breaches. Durbin primarily focuses his thoughts around how the lack of robust IT security policies led to most of the breaches. Whether it’s a misplaced thumb drive or a stolen laptop, without encryption and security policies in place, vast amounts of citizen data can be leaked. Unfortunately for Nashville, they had to learn the hard way and suffer the negative media attention. But you don’t have to. Read over the article, learn from it, and begin putting IT security policies in place right now to prevent this sort of thing from happening at your city.

Sophicity to Display at the Florida League of Cities Annual Conference

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:12:00 GMT

The conventions keep on coming. Join Tim and I at the Florida League of Cities Annual Conference in Hollywood, FL next week! If you are planning to attend, drop by Booth 24 and let us know what’s on your mind. Conventions are fun but staying at an awesome hotel on the beach makes them even better!

Citizens Turn to Twitter for Emergency Communications

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:27:00 GMT

Social media, especially Twitter, is often a frequent topic of discussion amongst government professionals. We’ve heard it come up a number of times at conventions and there are always a few folks who seem to dismiss it as a fad for children. The problem is, that’s just not true. Many government organizations are finding ways to use Twitter that are dramatically changing the landscape of G2C communication. In fact, as this recent study shows, citizens are using Twitter and expect their government too as well. 18% of those polled said they would turn to social media for any emergency updates. Problem is, if the government’s not listening, they may lose an opportunity to communicate with almost 20% of their citizenship. That’s a significant number during a disaster communication scenario.

Michigan's Undercover CTO

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:25:00 GMT

GovTech is running a great article on Michigan’s CTO and how he’s followed the TV show to go “Undercover CTO”. The article lays out what he discovered by spending time in the trenches with the folks in his organization. He found that most folks were hard workers, with serious gripes but no way to air them. He found it refreshing that he could hear business issues from real people and how that affected his future police decisions. If you are managing a large organization think about taking some time to hang out with the folks that are doing the hard work out in the field. You’re likely to learn a lot about how to add efficiency and increase morale.

Local Government IT Professionals Focusing on Social Media

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:56:00 GMT

Kevin and I just got back from the GMIS International convention held right here in Atlanta. It’s a collection of IT professionals from the City and County governments that meat to discuss how IT is shaping city governance. This year the two hot topics seemed to be city websites and social media. Twitter and Facebook are seeping into the government sector and often the task of administering these initiatives falls to IT. This is a difficult situation because this is not a traditional IT function. In the best case, this is a function hat should be handled by the internal communications and marketing department. Yet at the end of the day, cities with tight budgets are asking the IT team to watch over these sites. If your city is going down his route, you might want to seriously consider hiring in in-house social media expert.

Sophicity to Display at GMIS International Convention

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:28:00 GMT

If you are planning on going to GMIS International this year, we are pleased to announce that we will be displaying at the event. The conference moves from city to city each year but this year it’s in our hometown of Atlanta. GMIS is one of the most targeted conferences for us in the IT field and is a great way to hear what’s on the minds of government technology professionals from all over the country. Hope to see you there!

Google Shows Off Its Apps for Government Solution

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:18:00 GMT

We’ve discussed Google’s efforts to get into the Government sector in the past but the latest news is Google’s strongest commitment yet to the sector. This week the company announced that its now offering Google Apps for Government. This is the same Google apps that many people already use but the key difference is that it is on its own, secure cloud meant only for governments. Google has even had the system federally tested so that it now meets standards to store all non-classified information, which should meet the need of most governmental organizations. This should help to alleviate the fears that many leveled at Google during its roll out of Los Angeles’s Apps implementation, namely that the information would be easily compromised.

South Carolina Cities Look to The Web

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:12:00 GMT

Tim and I just returned from the MASC convention and I must say it was one of the best conventions we’ve been to all year. This year South Carolina’s cities seem to be focused on websites and a number of folks stopped by our booth to chat about their plans for upgrading and improving their web presence. It’s further evidence that cities across the country are realizing that a website is more than just an online directory – it is a crucial part of the city’s communications and services strategies. From YouTube’d mayoral addresses to integrated 311 applications we heard a number of really good ideas of where cities wanted to take their websites. As more city services move to the web is your city’s website up to the demand?

Seattle CIO Discusses Why Not to Cut IT Out of the Budget

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:22:00 GMT

GovTech has a great interview with Seattle’s CIO Bill Schrier about having to potentially cut IT staff and projects out of the budget for next year. At the mayor’s behest, he’s been compiling information to show the importance of the IT staff and the projects they will take on. Instead of simply taking out the scalpel, Schrier is looking at how IT can actually increase efficiency and thereby reduce the stress in other areas. He also delves into the drastic consequences of cutting IT staff even as cities come to rely more on IT for operations. If your city is thinking of cutting back on its IT staff or project, you might want to check out this interview for some great insights into how to reduce the strain without making the painful cuts.

Google Spurs Community Involvement in Broadband Adoption

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:19:00 GMT

We’ve been tracking Google’s efforts to provide super fast broadband to a few lucky cities around the nation. As Google begins to award the bids and roll out the services, it’s launched a website to keep cities everywhere informed on the progress. The site also acts as a call to action to get cities more involved in improving internet access in their area. Essentially, Google is making the case (and rightfully so) that like sewer and water, internet access is a critical part of a city’s infrastructure. Check the site out for some great information and a very Google-ly YouTube video to explain the program.

Happy Fourth of July!

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:10:00 GMT

Everyone here at Sophicity wishes you a safe, happy, and respectful Fourth of July weekend!

Fresh ideas and hard work are what made this country what it is and we are proud to help cities continue to improve and provide examples of how government can be effective, efficient, and energetic!

Thanks to all who have fought, planned, and worked to make our country great!

GMA Puts on Another Successful Convention

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:08:00 GMT

We just got back from the GMA convention in Savannah and as always GMA put on a great show. It was great time to sit down with city decision makers from all over Georgia and learn what was on their minds. The biggest topics of conversation seemed to revolve around two things: City websites and project management. Many cities are starting to realize that having a good web presence is now an absolutely necessary part of their overall city strategy. Many are looking to update or redesign their current websites. Also, because it is budget season, many are looking at the potential of putting projects into action and are looking to make sure they are managed properly. IT projects can go bad real fast if the people managing the project aren’t in good shape.

San Diego Sets Example for Hybrid IT Outsourcing

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:08:00 GMT

We’ve discussed IT outsourcing before and even given a few examples of how it can go horribly wrong. But it doesn’t always have to end badly. Gov Tech looks into how San Diego took its IT outsourcing woes and turned them around into a model of a hybrid approach.

Cities Look To Reduce IT Energy Costs

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:58:00 GMT

As many cities search for ways to trim their budgets one area that getting a lot of attention is energy savings. This week in Omaha, city officials from all of the country met to discuss ways that city’s can reduce their energy consumption. Topics ranged from updating buildings to swapping out street lights and, of course, IT energy use.

Twitter to Hire Government Liaison

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:18:00 GMT

If you need further evidence that governments the world over are leveraging Twitter to communicate with their citizens, look no further than Twitter itself. The company announced this week that it is hiring its first government liaison. The position will be based in D.C. and the company is looking for someone that can help them better understand the needs of government and how they might better use Twitter to communicate with citizens. This is an important move for Twitter as it signifies that they are serious about tackling the needs of the government space and moving beyond their traditional sweet spots.

Governing and Adobe Host Event on Citizen Engagement

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:24:00 GMT

If you live in the Tallahassee area you might want to check out the “Getting it Right: Customer Service and Citizen Engagement” event being put on by Governing magazine and Adobe. Speakers John Miri (Center for Digital Government) and Josh Van Tonder (Adobe) will discuss what governments are doing to increase citizen engagement while reducing the costs of communication. The event is on Tuesday, July 13 at 8:00 am.

Confused About Social Media and Government? Florida Can Help

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:01:00 GMT

Is your city grappling with issues of social media policies and do’s and don’ts? Check out this great website put together by April Edmonds of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. She is responsible for the agency’s use of Twitter and Facebook to communicate with hunters, fishers, and other people interested in Florida’s wildlife and game. She’s learned a few lessons along the way and she’s opened up for any government agency to share and collaborate. If you need a primer on proper Twitter etiquette and Facebook rules, this is the website for you.

Will Government Be the Next Big Web Boom? Bloomberg Thinks So

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:58:00 GMT

Lately we’ve been looking at how mobile apps are making the jump into the mobile space but a new Bloomberg piece suggests that it might just be http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/may2010/sb20100526_721134.htm" target="_new"> the next internet boom. From open data initiatives to app contests and 311 improvements, private sector companies are lining up to help transition government entities into the modern business world and perhaps even give them an industry of their own.

A Lesson in Backing up Data

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:19:00 GMT

While backing up your data is an important first step forwards data security what is possible more important is how that data is backed up. It might seem like a simple cost effective solution to back up data on a CD or a thumbdrive and store it in a safe. However, anytime your putting data on a physical object it is subject to the limitations of physical world, namely being lost or destroyed.

Hybrid Model For Outsourced IT Wins the Day

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:03:00 GMT

Governing is running a great article about the black eyes that outsourced government IT has received over the past few years, especially in Virginia and Texas. Its great read because it espouses and important fact that we are committed to here at Sophicity: a hybrid approach is the best method for outsourcing your IT. In places where a vendor had complete control, the projects did not often go well. The key is having both government departments and the vendor working in lock step to create an IT infrastructure that efficiency supports the city. We’d much rather be in touch with city staff on the ground then trying to run the whole thing ourselves. To trot out a platitude, it’s a real team effort. Check out the article if you’re thinking of completely outsourcing the IT at your city.

D.C. to Expose Operations to App Developers

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:55:00 GMT

This month we wrote about government mobile apps and Governing has a great companion piece on what DC is doing for the Government App Explosion. They’ve held an app contest, but that’s nothing new. What they want to do now is expose more of their operations to the public in hopes that app developers will come up with ways to actually improve the operating efficiency of the government. Releasing pubic data is one thing, but releasing operational data will be a whole new era of transparency. I’ll be very interested to see what they come up with as this is a challenge we at Sophicity face every day – how to make our government clients more efficient.

Citizens Support Technology Spending

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:49:00 GMT

Google recently commissioned a study to look at citizen opinion on how government should be spending on technology. With the economic downturn, many cities might be thinking to cutting back on their technology spending, but Google’s data shows that a choice like that might not ring too well with the constituency. The study found that 70 percent believed that the government should use ‘the computer power and expertise of private companies to improve information technology departments in government agencies’ and 75 percent said they support spending on "quicker and more efficient e-mail systems" to increase productivity. That represents a significant portion of the voting population and it shows that most people understand that while technology can be expensive, it can save governments far more money than it costs.

Data Proves That Public Uses Government Websites

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:00:00 GMT

We spend a lot of time talking about how many people are looking to government websites for information but we don’t always have the luxury of looking at some actual metrics. A recent Pew study offers a number of really fascinating statistics about how the public is using the internet. Here’s a few of the highlights:

City Web Portals Go Mobile

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:24:00 GMT

City portals have been on the web almost since its inception but they are just not starting to be repackaged as mobile apps. This is arguably a better format for them because if your using a portal you are probably out looking for something to do and not sitting at home on your PC.

Training is the Secret to Data Security

Clint Nelms, Practice Manager: Network Infrastructure — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:51:00 GMT

Earlier this month MeriTalk and Axway released the results of a survey they conducted in the Federal government regarding file transfer policies. It may come as no surprise that many of the employees at the agencies do not use safe file transfer methods - after all, people are people. What’s interesting here is that the surveys uncovered that most of the agencies have policies and technologies in place to safely transfer data but few employees knew about them or were trained to use them properly.

City Implements Automated Emergency Management System

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:56:00 GMT

In the unfortunate event that a disaster strikes your city, who are the citizens going to turn to? Their government. Alvin, Tx. Understood this when they implemented a emergency management system that allows them to instantly inform citizens via email and phone during the event of a disaster. This is the kind of technology that saves lives and helps people put more faith in their government. It’s great to see cities using technology effectively for the betterment of the community.

Government Web Data Goes Big Time

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:23:00 GMT

I’ve written a number of times about the various open data initiatives that have been going on in the Government space and it looks all the excitement around this topic is actually having a measurable affect. The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently did a study and discovered that 40% of the adult internet going population has looked up government data online. Folks are looking up information on bills, stimulus spending, Data.gov and other data initiatives. Bottom line: like everything else in our modern age, the power of the web is now rapidly transforming governments. I’m glad I get to be a part of making this happen.

City Website Pitfalls

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:10:00 GMT

We talk to a lot of cities about their websites. One thing that we see a lot of is the age-old war between design and usability. Many times cities want very pretty and elaborate looking websites that end up actually detracting from the usefulness to the average citizen. If your city is thinking about desiging a website soon, check out this link from GoverningPeople called Citizens ‘wish list’ and frustrations with local government websites. It details some of the common pitfalls of city websites and provides some insight on how to improve them - a must read.

Deloitte Gov2.0 Portal Site Is a Treasure Trove of Information

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:23:00 GMT

Looking for a great resource on everything Gov 2.0 Check out this portal site from Deloitte. It’s got a ton of research, resources, articles, and data on how governments large and small are embracing the growing Gov2.0 trend. This goes beyond operational advantages and delves into how these technologies are actually transforming democracy and making it…well…more democratic. More than ever before the people have a voice and a window into the interworkings of government. It’s an exciting time to be in this business!

Using Comparative Advantage Thinking to Overcome Cost Objections

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:38:00 GMT

One of the hardest things about selling IT services and products to local governments is justifying costs. When we are selling something that helps reduce the amount of money a city is spending, it’s a no-brainer. But when we are trying to sell something that costs more but adds other benefits (like decreasing risk or increasing productivity) the case becomes much harder to make. We typically try to help folks see the value in these types of decisions by comparing the increase in cost to the value of the benefit our product or service offers. For example, if we’re increasing productivity, we’ll have the city look at how much staff time or resources this increase will save instead of just a direct comparison to current versus new cost.

Report: Making the Most of Social Media: 7 Lessons from Successful Cities

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:07:00 GMT

The mobile app explosion combined with the expectations of the Facebook Generation have created what is arguably one of the biggest disruptions in the status quo of government-to-citizen communication since the radio. From open budget initiatives to map mash-ups, every facet of G2C communications is being co-opted into this new way of thinking. Some call it Gov2.0, we call it progress. Still, not all cities are jumping on the bandwagon and in many cases this is due to some lingering fears about how to properly use it. Our friends over at the Georgia Municipal Association point us to a study from the Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania that details seven social media lessons for cities. If your city is grappling with how to use social media, this may be exactly what you’re looking for to break through that barrier.

The Metrics Behind Gov 2.0's Impact

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:21:00 GMT

Continuing on our Gov2.0 theme for this week, is another study from Grant Thornton and FreeBalance that looks into the actual measurable effects of social media on the government space. We can talk about this all day but what about some metrics? Check out this post from SmartPlanet that highlights some of the best advantages that government organizations are seeing from social media. In fact Atlanta’s own Beltline project is gets a shout out for its mass mobilization of supporters using Facebook. And if you want the details, check out the study itself. It’s an interesting look at how governments are thinking different and winning big.

County Saves Big With Cloud Computing

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:18:00 GMT

Continuing with our Cloud Computing theme, GovTech has an article about how a county in Minnesota is using virtualization and cloud-based services to increase its operational efficiency. The county was able to afford much more computing horsepower for a lower cost, leading to huge decreases in data retrieval times. In one case, an operation that took 48 hours is now taking just 8. Check out the article to find more ways that the county is benefiting from its move to the cloud. We’ll continue to report on cloud computing in the government space as we firmly believe this is where a lot of the services of the future are heading.

Federal CIO on Cloud Computing

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:09:00 GMT

Lately we’ve been discussing cloud computing and how it is revolutionizing the government space. (In fact, stay tuned next week when we release a full article about it). For anyone interested in just how powerful this technology can be, look no further than our Federal CIO Vivek Kundra. This week he gave a talk on how the Feds are using cloud computing to dramatically reduce the over $76 billion a year they currently spend on IT infrastructure. Naturally most cities are going to be dealing with those kind of massive numbers, but there are still lessons to be learned and money to be saved, even at smaller towns. Check out the full version of his speech and look for the attached slide presentation. Good stuff.

More on Facebook and City Services

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:13:00 GMT

We’ve discussed a number of times how Facebook and other social media sites are changing the way governments interact with their citizens. Many activities that once had to be performed in face to face meetings with officials can now be quickly handled through online social networks. Still, we can philosophize about this all day. It is real examples that will help bring the idea home to those that may still be on the fence when deciding to start a social media campaign at their city. This article from a the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette provides some real examples of how Facebook is helping cities in Pa. offer better services by leveraging social media.

Google Contest Calls for 3D Versions of Towns

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:25:00 GMT

In its continuing interest to get more on the mind of towns, Google has launched a new content to make 3D models of your home town using Google’s SketchUp , Building Maker and popular Maps applications. Cities all over the world have some amazing architecture and by using these tools you can take those flat buildings in Google Maps and turn them into 3D versions in all of their glory. Google opened the contest to the entire world and the entries are starting to pour in. Check out the contest homepage to get instructions on how to build your own town and even vote on which town should win the contest. (Our vote is on the entry from Braunschweig, Germany for the beautiful cathedral the artists created.)

Tallahassee Launches Nation's First SmartGrid

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:51:00 GMT

SmartGrid Technologies have been a hot topic recently as several cities make preparations to roll out their version of the technology. What is a SmartGrid? The easiest way to think of it is as a modern update to the way utilities are managed. It’s essentially hooking up electric, water, gas and other utilities into a giant network that has access to the internet and has the potential to change utilities in much the same way computers changed the office environment.

Driving Member Services using the Web

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:00:00 GMT

At the Spring 2010 Southern Municipal Conference (SMC) in Richmond, Virginia, I presented to a number of state municipal leagues on Driving Member Services Using the Web.

City Embraces Parking Mobile App

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:28:00 GMT

City governments, and governments in general, have been struggling with the new legal hurdles that the internet and widespread access to connected mobile devices bring. What happens when jurors tweet? Are text messages subject to Open Records Act requests? Are apps that help you find legal parking an obstruction of justice? Each one of these questions and many more are in play at cities across the nation. In some cases, cities choose to fight the technological onslaught and in others they seek to work with it as a way to improve their operations. Personally, I tend to embrace the later ideal, because I honestly feel that cities can revolutionize the way they do business by embracing technology instead of shunning it.

Portland Expands the App Contest Idea

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:25:00 GMT

We’ve discussed a number of App contests that cities are running, most notably in New York, but the newest version comes from Portland, Or. where they have given their developers access to a wider data set from cities, counties, and various other agencies like transportation (Portland has some of the best mass transit in the country) and traffic. In the end, what you get is more data for the application developers to build off of. It’s a bit like giving an artist more paint – the results are likely to be much more robust and fruitful when the contest comes to a close. And like the other contests, anything developed for it must remain open source so that anyone can further modify it to their liking. As a data geek, it’s a good time to be alive. Where’s your app contest, Atlanta?

Sacramento Uses Kindles for City Council Meetings

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:35:00 GMT

Here at Sophicity, I’ve been pushing the team to do everything it can to eliminate paper. Everything we do is scanned and stored electronically in SharePoint, we work off monitors and laptops whenever possible, and many other ways to reduce our paper. It’s not just about cost reduction, it’s about efficiency too. Most of the time it’s just faster for us to use electronic formats. Anyone who know me personally, also knows that I love ebooks on my Kindle or my iPhone. Instead of lugging a library of business books around, I can get them all into one little device.

Sophicity at the Georgia Governmental Purchasing Conference and Products Exposition

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:34:00 GMT

Next Tuesday and Wednesday (March 23rd and 24th), Sophicity will be exhibiting at the Georgia Governmental Purchasing Conference and Products Exposition at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta. We’ll be at booth #314 so if you’d like to chat, please stop on by and say hello. We’re always excited to meet the folks that make the RFP magic happen.

Mobile Aps Transform City Government

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:49:00 GMT

From increased citizen services to better G2C (government-to-citizen) communications, smartphones and their mobile aps are transforming city government. We’ve detailed a number of these innovative applications over the past year but anyone looking for a good primer should check out this piece in Governing by former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith. He gives bit of insight into how apps are transforming everything from 311 services to traffic advisories and beyond by creating instant and trackable two-way communication between cities and their citizens. We’ve been watching the mobile ap space very closely and we’ll continue to do so over the next year as they really begin to take off. In fact, right now I'm learning how to develop mobile apps for Andriod. Stay tuned over the next few months and I'll tell you how it goes.

Sophicity a Finalist in AMY Marketing Awards

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:47:00 GMT

Sophicity was a finalist in the American Marketing Association Atlanta Chapter’s 2010 AMY Awards in the B2B Visual Branding/Identity category. While we didn’t win the award, just being a finalist in this prestigious event was an honor in itself. Special thanks to our marketing partner Arketi Group for giving us an identity that we’re all proud of. The award event itself was a great time and full of beautiful marketing folks (myself included) in the equally beautiful FOX Theatre in Midtown Atlanta. Here's to another year of great marketing!

Security Starts with the Simple Stuff

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastrucutre Practice Manager — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:09:00 GMT

No matter how secure your environment is to outside threats, if you don’t properly protect the internal PC’s that access you network all of the firewalls in the world are rendered useless. Case in point, a city in Ohio has its website hacked and harmful files were flooded onto the web server. The city thought it couldn’t possibly be blamed because it had “an extremely strong firewall” but after an investigation it was discovered that one of the PC’s used to update the website was not protected by any sort of antivirus software, giving the hackers a back door into the web server. In a sense, they didn’t have to do any fancy hacking, the PC probably had a key logger installed which grabbed the password to the website, giving the hackers full access. In a case like this, your firewall won’t protect you.

Smartphones in City Government

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:33:00 GMT

As smartphones become more prevalent in the municipal government space the rules and regulations around how they are used are just now being written. One of the interesting sticking points is what to do with the information that comes through these phones. Is it all publically available data? Only some of it? Are personal calls/txt’s subject to FOIA requests? Once such case comes to us from Boulder, Co. where city officials have been given iPhones, causing some to question the reason behind the move. While handing over email logs is easy for cities, handing over phone records, conversations, and even texts is hard because the city does not operate the mobile network.

Federal CIO on Inefficiency in Government

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:31:00 GMT

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has been a busy man since he first entered office. While his main push has been for transparency, he’s also been really looking at how the federal government uses IT, or perhaps better yet, how it doesn't . In this interview, he details some of the inefficiencies he’s discovered at various Federal departments and how it affects their service delivery. While this is at the Federal level, cities face many of the same problems and could benefit from such an analysis. If your city is still doing things manually, it might be time to start looking into a assessment to uncover some of those unsightly inefficiencies.

Open311 API Allows Cities to Link 311 to Social Media Sites

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:15:00 GMT

Looking to bring more features into your municipal Twitter and/or Facebook profile? The ever forward thinking San Francisco, in conjunction with a number of other cities, has just released an new API called Open311 that will allow any city to link up its 311 system with various social media sites. As an open platform it will be available for free but will likely require customization in order to work directly with a specific 311 system. This is a great example of how cities can work together to create an application that better helps them stay connected with their citizens. This isn’t likely to replace existing eGov services but it is a great additional channel. We’ll be watching this one closely to see how it evolves.

Topeka Renames Itself to "Google"

Tim Verras — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:21:00 GMT

Last week we wrote about Google’s new municipal broadband plan and cities appear to be very excited about the prospect. Topeka was so excited that it actually renamed itself to Google, Kansas for the month of March. The act has caused a lot of buzz (and given Google loads of free advertising) and it’s nice to see that Topeka’s city government has a sense of humor. I’m sure that will get Google’s attention but only time will tell.

Wilmington, NC Tests White Space Internet

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:04:00 GMT

Here’s a novel idea for internet access: why not use some of the unused space between the TV frequencies to provide internet access. That’s exactly what a few companies are doing and the first test cities are going live as we speak. Engadget has a write up on how the technology, called White Space Internet, works and details how Wilmington, NC is the first major city in the nation to adopt the technology. What does it mean? It means free wifi in city parks, increased traffic camera monitoring, and various infrastructure uses for the city (probably for public safety.) This could be an interesting technology to watch.

Will Facebook Kill City Websites? Not Likely.

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:18:00 GMT

GovTech is running a piece that questions whether Facebook will end up killing the traditional city website. It looks at the story of San Francisco, which is moving most of its eGov services to its Facebook page. Chris Vein, the city’s CIO, seems to envision a day in which Facebook will be the dominant form of government communication and is making moves for San Fran to be on the forefront. However I don’t think that this is really case. While Facebook and any other social media platform may represent new channels for information, they are by no means ubiquitous. Just like email hasn’t killed the telephone, there are always going to be folks who prefer to use the webpage, go directly to city hall, or just call over the phone. Also, its important to note that Facebook actually controls the data on the site and might raise privacy concerns over who has access to key city data.

Governing Holds Local Gov Tech Conference

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:53:00 GMT

Interested in a trip to California? Governing is holding its annual Managing Technology conference in Sacramento from March 17-18. It’s a collection of state and local IT experts discussing best practices for employing technology at the government level. The IT industry moves at light speed so these kinds of conferences are great for continuing education and for staying on top of the latest trends in the IT space. Hit up this page for more information.

Google Offers Broadband Infrastructure to Cities

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:59:00 GMT

One of the major initiatives of the Stimulus has been to get broadband out to rural areas to help realize the goal giving every American fast internet. This week there were a few announcements that kept the excitement up. First, Google announced that it was going to start building a 1GB high speed network at a test-bed of cities, just to see if it was feasible. Your city has a chance to get in on the action by submitting an RFP to Google.

Norfolk, Va. Attacked by Viral Time-Bomb

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:23:00 GMT

This story is a great example of why virus protection and good policies are absolutely important to running a city network. Last week the City of Norfolk, Va. lost almost 800 PCs to what can only be described as a virus time-bomb. At a certain preprogrammed time the virus went into action, destroying critical operating system files and rendering the computer useless. The city isn’t sure if the attack came from outside or a disgruntled employee but the lesson is the same: keeping anti-virus programs up to date and maintaining end user security are two absolutely essential elements to running a modern city, especially with the number of services and functions moving away from manual processes. Imagine what would happen if every single PC in your city suddenly went dead…

California to Save $3 Billion with Consolidation Plan

Clint Nelms, Practice Manager: Network Infrastructure — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:08:00 GMT

More news out of California about how consolidation can save absolutely huge sums. How much? In California’s case a staggering $3 billion in 3 years. The project will reduce energy costs by 30% and data center square footage by 50% via projects that the Governator signed into law this week. We’ve spoken a number of times about the benefits of consolidating IT infrastructure but its always nice to get a reminder of just how much it can really do. I think the down economy has really helped cities see IT as a way to save money instead of a black hole.

Snow Day In Atlanta!

Tim Verras — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:05:00 GMT

To Open Source or Not to Open Source

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:51:00 GMT

With many cities in a budget crunch curiosity about open source software is starting to peak. We often get asked by our customers whether they should consider an open source project and we always tell them the same thing: Do an assessment. Whether its standard software or open source whichever solution you choose needs to meet particular needs and an assessment will help you identify those needs. In some cases open source can work great, especially if it’s for a smaller job function. But more important applications require an in-depth analysis and open source applications still have difficulty meeting the rigorous support needs that many cities have. At the end of the day, it comes down to not just looking at pure cost, but rather: what is the best choice to meet our needs? If that means an open source software product then great just don’t skimp on the analysis because of the nice free price tag.

Governing's Editor Bows Out, Provides A Look at Innovation in Government

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:35:00 GMT

The Editor of Governing, Alan Ehrenhalt, is leaving the publication after 22 years and his final column is an elegant look at the locus of innovation at the state and local government level. Traditionally, he argues, innovation has taken place at the state level, where governors have made sweeping policy changes that lead to true change in their state. However, with many states currently facing massive budget shortfalls and crippling pension costs, the locus of innovation has shifted to city government, where many are using their budget problems as a reason for change instead of a detriment to it. Ehrenhalt doesn’t delve too deeply into how the cities are doing this but I think it’s largely due to many of them embracing technology as a way out of the rabbit hole. Many are implementing open data initiatives, IT consolidation plans, and plans for crowdsourcing budgets...

Colorado Cities Crowdsource Open Data Initiatives

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:59:00 GMT

We’ve discussed a number of cities and states that are moving to open data initiatives, so this is nothing new, but now a number of cities in Colorado are jumping on board. What’s interesting here however, is that instead of an individual entity doing it, like a city or state, here we have a co-op of cities all working together to share data. Seeing as cities tend to be protective of their data, this is an interesting move and one that I hope we see more of. The benefits here are great, from more accurate GIS to integrated crime fighting databases, this should help cities look at themselves less as islands and more as part of a community at large, working for the better of the citizens. Let us know if your city is looking into an open data initiative, we’re all ways curious to see how they pan out.

85% of Government IT Projects Don't Meet Expectations

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:21:00 GMT

I’ve mentioned more than few times how important planning is to making sure an IT project stays on track. Need further proof, take a look at this article from Stateline that states that a staggering 85% of government IT projects come in over budget, over time or both. We’ve gone over a few horror stories here in the past, so I won’t dig them up, but some of the numbers quoted in the article are mind-blowing. California’s state court system project, for instance, went from $240 million to over $1billion, due in large part to mismanagement. If your city is about to implement a big budget IT project (whatever big means for your government), careful planning, management and vendor selection are incredibly important to making sure that you’re in that upper 15% of success stories. Whether you tap internal knowledge, outside help, or both, take the time to lay out a plan and a budget and do whatever it takes to stick to it.

Further Proof That A Hybrid Approach is Best for Large Cities

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:09:00 GMT

Atlantic City, NJ recently had an audit done which uncovered that the city was being charge far too much by its completely outsourced IT vendor. This is further proof that for larger cities, a hybrid approach may be the best way of both keeping costs low and ensuring good service. With internal employees keeping in lockstep with your vendor, both parties can work to utilize their strengths to the table – internal employees will always have more institutional knowledge and vendors can bring a lot of technical resources to the table. Of course, you’ll also need to find a vendor that is willing to work with you on such a model, which is why we always suggest vetting any vendor thoroughly (including us!) before singing on. Hybrid models work because they create a good system of check and balances that help city and vendor alike.

Portland 's ERP System Woes Demonstrate the Value of Training

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:04:00 GMT

Portland recently switched to a new accounting system and now there are reports that things are going a bit rough. This in and of itself isn’t much of a big surprise as any project this large is bound to have a few hiccups. More interesting is a look at the reasons. While some of the faults in the system could be attributed to bugs and errors, many of the problems are caused by employee error, or more specifically, a lack of adequate training. This is a good lesson to show that such huge projects need to be 360 degree affairs, from the technology implementation to the end user training. Even the best coded system is worthless if your staff can’t use it. If you’re planning a huge new technology overhaul, be sure to plan for plenty of end user training and communication. It can make a world of difference.

Local Gov Web App Contest!

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:54:00 GMT

Over at GovFresh they’re running a piece on Code for America, which is an organization that is looking to crowdsource the development of Gov 2.0 apps for five lucky cities in 2010. Developers will work with the cities to implement some brand new applications to help cities communicate with their citizens in whole new ways. It’s really great to see so many of these sorts of contests going on, especially in the local government sector where modern web apps can really make a difference. There’s an application process for your city if you wish to join the contest and get a few new apps to spruce up your website.

States Look to Provide Data Center Services to Cities

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:04:00 GMT

One interesting trend that we’re starting to see is a number of States experimenting with providing data center and cloud-computing services to the local governments within their borders. The thought is that the State will be able to provide more updated technologies that cities can typically afford, at a price that will be hard to argue with. Instead of each city having its own massive IT infrastructure, they could simply purchase services from their State, sort of like a utility. It will be interesting to see how these types of programs pan out, especially when it comes to getting the buy-in of the various decision makers and department heads at each city. But it has the potential of truly changing the way that local governments do their IT.

Cities Look into Archiving Twitter Feeds

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:14:00 GMT

Over the last year, I’ve been closely following how city governments are using Twitter. It’s a powerful tool but many of the rules of how to use it are still being written. One area that some cities are struggling with is transparency and open records. Sure you might think “But Twitter is open to everyone anyway” but the problem is a bit more complex than that. GovTech points us to an interview they did with a few local government reps who have been looking into ways to catalog and archive twitter and social media posts so that cities can readily provide the communications if requested. If your city is actively using twitter (which I’m sure many are), this article might give you a few good tips on how to manage your twitter feed storage.

The Secret to Municipal Wireless: Don't Make it Free

Clint Nelms, Network Infrastrucutre Practice Manager — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:39:00 GMT

Many cities have tried municipal wireless programs to varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, many of those degrees tend to be on the lower half of the scale. However all hope is not lost… there are a few successful models and the one constant seems to be “don’t try to make it free.” The internet may quickly be approaching a utility, but even then, people don’t expect to get utilities free. If your city is thinking about a municipal wireless program, check out this write up for some war stories.

News Item: ERP Is Difficult

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:58:00 GMT

To anyone who’s been involved in an ERP implementation, however, this is old news. Tying together every single aspect of a city government into one coherent system is a daunting task. That’s why we recommend that any city undergoing the task doesn’t going alone. Bringing in outside help is almost a requirement for picking up all the rocks and dusting off all the corners necessary to bring the process to completion. But even so, success isn’t guaranteed: you’ve got to choose the right vendor. GovTech has an incredibly in-depth article about Portland, Or.’s trials, tribulations and eventual successes in implementing its ERP system. If your city is thinking of embarking down this path, this is a must read. My advice to you is to study up and really research any vendor that you’re bringing in to help.

Houston Integrates its GIS Data

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:11:00 GMT

Consolidating GIS data from cities, counties and other agencies can be a touchy subject, as this information is usually closely guarded. The result is a bunch of data silos with information that has varying degrees of accuracy. However, new IT initiatives are changing the minds of GIS keepers all over the country. For example, take Houston, which has recently integrated its GIS data into one central system that is over 95% accurate (Many individual systems are as low as 40% accurate.) How did they accomplish this feat? Interestingly, not by focusing on the technology. Instead, the program manager focused on the value that such a system would bring: decreased network loads, increased accuracy, lower costs. This is exactly the kind of thing I like to see, because it’s what we are always striving to do for our city clients: focus on value.

Website Offers Free 311 Services

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:55:00 GMT

The New York Times is reporting on a new locally-focused free web service called SeeClickFix.com that might perk up the ears of your 311 staff. Using Google Maps, the service allows users to click on a specific area and report a problem like a pot hole, graffiti, or an abandoned house. The system then uses the GPS coordinates of that location to automatically communicate the problem to local governments, businesses, and other entities. This is a further example of how the web can tie together a lot of different pieces of information to help cities improve their services (and hopefully their infrastructure.) If your city is looking into automating some of its 311 functions, you might want to check out SeeClickFix before you purchase any software!

Happy New Years from Sophicity!

Tim Verras — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:30:00 GMT

The folks here at Sophicity wish everyone a happy and safe New Years! Take a moment to celebrate the present, ponder the past, and wonder about the future. We’re looking forward to a great 2010!

72% Of US Cities Use Facebook

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:23:00 GMT

GovTech has an interesting look at social media use in the government sector. Quoting the PTI (Public Technology Institute), the article states that over 72% of cities are now using Facebook as a way of reaching out to citizens. That’s a huge number! With over 19 thousand cities in the US, that means close to 13500 cities are using the popular social network. There are likely many reasons for this rapid growth but I think one of them is that social networks fulfill a need that cities have had for a long time: how do we cheaply, effectively communicate with our citizens? The new crop of social network sites require no maintenance by the city, are free to use, and have an enormous population from which the city can attract its audience.

ERP Systems Migrate to the Public Sector

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:10:00 GMT

More news out of Santa Anna, Ca. According to GovTech, the city has recently implemented a new ERP system that should tie many formerly separate departments together in all new ways. They expect to eliminate a lot of redundancy and in turn save money. We’ve managed the implementation of a few ERP systems for cities and they usually represent a huge positive change to the city’s operations. While these systems might cost a pretty penny upfront, the benefits more than make up for it, especially when many cities are being asked to do more with less. Private sector companies have used these types of system for years and it’s great to see them migrating into the public sector as well.

Happy Holidays From Sophicity!

Tim Verras — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:26:00 GMT

Happy Holidays from the crew at Sophicity! We’ve been working hard all year to help cities and leagues with their IT needs, and we have to admit, we need a vacation. The Sophicity CitySmart blog is going to take a week off and then we’ll be back – rested and ready for 2010! Best wishes to everyone for a restful, fun, and safe holiday season!

2009 Trend: Crowdsourcing Government Decisions

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:17:00 GMT

Another interesting trend we saw last year is municipal crowdsourcing. What’s that? Well, it’s pretty much a fancy word for “asking a bunch of people to help you make a decision” and its one of the best things to happen to local government in a long time. For instance, Duluth, Ga. Opened up its budgeting session to citizens and asked them to provide feedback on how the budget could be better spent. Or when Oakland County, Mi. faced budget cuts, it put up a website and solicited suggestions from its employees on how it could cut costs or make money, which resulted new ideas that cut the budget by tens of thousands of dollars. What we’re seeing here is technologies that enable cities to put more decision making power into the hands of citizens – a win-win for everyone.

Detroit's Data Loss Woes

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:24:00 GMT

Another story of data loss woe: Detroit has recently lost data that contained the social security numbers and other information of some 10,000 people. It didn’t come from a hacker, or a meltdown, or a virus, it came from classic, old school physical theft. This illustrates a great point: You can have the best network security in the world, but if you store the information locally on laptops or desktop computers which can be easily stolen, it does little to prevent data loss. In this case, now the city has to provide credit monitoring services for each of these people for a year, the cost of which might have put a serious dent in the cost of coming up with a good remote worker policy that prevented sensitive information from remaining on local devices.

Sophicity Holiday Party a Success!

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:49:00 GMT

Sophicity recently had our holiday party at the Sage Woodfire Tavern in Alpharetta. After working hard in our offices all year, it’s nice to get out once in a while and enjoy the finer things in life. We all had a great time and look forward to a prosperous 2010. Check out our Facebook page for photos of the event!

2009 Trends: Local Governments Embrace Cloud Computing

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:02:00 GMT

As we look over the last year, there’s no doubt that the biggest news for local government was the emergence of cloud computing initiatives – from LA embracing Google’s Gmail to New York’s open data app contests, local governments everywhere have been looking to the cloud as a way to put more power into the hands of its citizens. GovTech is running a great “Year in Review” piece about how local governments have been embracing cloud computing. If your city is thinking about some of these initiatives, this is a good place to start.

2009 Trends: Open Data Initiatives Come to Municipal Governments

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:14:00 GMT

This is the first of a few posts we’ll be doing on some of the local government trends for 2009. Perhaps the biggest change over the last year from the vantage point of the citizenry is the open data initiatives that many cities are starting to implement. From NYC to LA, cities large and small are making municipal data available in ever-more accessible formats. When combined with pre-existing technologies like Google Maps, these data sets – everything from crime to traffic data – create what are known as “mashups”. Want to see when, where and what crimes were committed in your neighborhood?

Govenments Seek to Evolve Emergency Broadcast Systems

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:10:00 GMT

With recent fears of a flu epidemic and the lingering danger of terrorist attacks, many cities have been taking a serious look at their emergency broadcast capabilities. In many cases, they’re finding that these systems are woefully inadequate for the modern age. Systems that rely on land line phone calls or TV broadcasts have been hampered by changing customer tastes. Land line systems, for instance, are not nearly as effective because many people are dropping their land lines in favor of cell phones. And while a sizeable portion of the nation still watches TV, many have shifted to computers and video game consoles as a primary form of entertainment. Add these two up and you have the potential for a lot of missed people when a emergency notification goes out.

Government Data Breaches Skyrocket in 2009

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:28:00 GMT

GovTech is reporting that electronic theft of government records has skyrocketed this year. In 2008, only(!) 3 million records were compromised but 2009 saw more than 79 million records in the hands of the bad guys. That’s a huge jump and it makes me wonder why. I’ll leave the statistics to the number crunchers but I’ve got to think that many of these records are do to poor data management policies for remote workers. In fact, the article points out that a sizeable portion of the records were lost because of stolen laptops, hard drives and other external storage devices

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tim Verras — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:47:00 GMT

The team at Sophicity wishes everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday, filled with food, drink and merriment all around!! (We sure could use a few days off as we've been real busy helping cities and municipal league prepare for 2010!)

Virginia's Continuing IT Woes

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:38:00 GMT

The State of Virginia has had a rough year. After having medical records held for ransom, and numerous other IT woes, comes its ongoing tense relationship with Northrup Grumman over the State's outsourced IT contract. This time, it appears that many critical network services were left without backup connections, meaning that if the internet connection went down, so did all the services attached to it. In this case, the DMV system went down repeatedly causing havoc in DMV offices across the state. When folks dug into the contract, it appeared that the reason the backups were not in place is because it was not specified in the contract and so NG didn't build it out. While folks continue to argue over what is or is not included in the contract, Va.'s system continue to operate at risk. This is further proof that when implementing any It project, whether it be in or out sourced, planning is absolutely essential to make sure all of the bases are covered.

Connencticut Cities Embrace Web-Based Permitting

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Connecticut is demonstrating some creative thinking with a new web-based permitting system that can be shared by the state’s municipalities. Essentially, this will allow the cities to handle the issuance of building permits and similar documents by providing citizens an easy way to request them online. The technology is nothing new, but what’s interesting here is that they are forming a sort of IT co-op so that smaller municipalities can afford a system that would normally be well out of their reach. This is the kind of thinking that will help cities make those much needed budget cuts.

NSA's Tips on Network Security

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:18:00 GMT

When the NSA talks about network security for governments, it’s probably a pretty good idea to listen. In a recent interview with GCN, the NSA’s information assurance director provided three best practices to thwarting attacks on your network. They are:

Implementing best security practices
Proper network configurations
Strong network monitoring

What are “best security practices” and "proper network configurations"? He doens't really get into that, but I happen to know a few people that can help you with that… ;)

GMA Launches 2010 Gubernatorial Media Site

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:22:00 GMT

The Georgia Municipal Association today launched its 2010 Connection website. It’s a pretty cool idea, as it links local Georgia cities with the candidates for the 2010 Gubernatorial Election via social media. There’s videos, profiles, Twitter feeds and a ton of other information. The best part: it’s hosted on top of our Tribune Content Management system (I know, I know, a shameless plug. But I am the marketing guy…) . If you’re a local city in Georgia, check it out and get in touch with the candidates!

Reducing the Municipal Carbon Footprint

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:20:00 GMT

Scientific American is reporting on how cities are making efforts to reduce their carbon footprints through innovative plans like carbon taxes, municipal solar power, and other emerging green technologies. Once thing the article skips is that cities can reduce their carbon emissions by reducing their power consumption in the IT department. This is a topic we’ve written about before and its fitting here because before a city embarks on an expensive solar project, reduced carbon emissions could start at home for free by using smart energy management policies for their network.

Green Lighting Infrastructure Maintenance

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Washington Post discussed the DC traffic outages this week, highlighting the need for municipalities to have regular equipment checks and on-the-books lifecycle management. Traffic signals all over the DC area were knocked out after a 37-year old computer literally melted down. The lost business revenue from the crippling gridlock traffic is estimated to be in the millions, probably far more than it would have cost the city to replace the system. This is a good example of why regular maintenance and tracking the operational life of critical infrastructure is important. Unlike your dishwasher at home, you don’t want to just wait until brakes to get a new one.

Creating a Municipal Risk Management Plan

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:05:00 GMT

GovTech continues its run of excellent articles with a piece on IT risk management for government agencies. While the article is focused more on the state and federal level, the five tips that are detailed still hold very true for cities. Risk management is arguably the most intensive and difficult problem facing any IT manager because it requires an understanding that goes far beyond technology, delving into how the business of running a city is affected by a loss of services. This is more than simply having a good data backup plan in place. A true risk management plan needs to address how critical city services will function in the wake of a disaster, an outage, or even a flu outbreak.

Texas City Opens R&D Lab for Citizens

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:54:00 GMT

The Cloud Ave blog has a great post on Dustin Haisler, the CIO for Manor, Texas who recently opened a website called Manor Labs. The site is essentially a city-owned R&D lab designed to collect and test citizen’s ideas about improving the city. They can sort their idea by department and then open a discussion about how this will affect the city. It’s a great idea and one more way that technology is helping to crack open governance by making it a true community effort.

Top Digital Cities for 2009

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:11:00 GMT

The Center for Digital Government has released its list of the top digital cities for 2009. These cities have displayed that they are using technology in an innovative way to better provide citizen services. Essentially, cities of population 30k and over are asked to respond to a survey and then the results are tabulated and judged. Hit the jump for the full list of cities and find out who won! Sadly there's no Georgia cities on the list, but I know someone who can help get you there...

How (Not) To Do Social Media

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:31:00 GMT

So we’ve talked a lot about how many cities are trying innovative new things with social media. But not everyone gets it. News from Bozeman, MT shows that the city requested social media logons and passwords from potential employees. That’s right, they wanted to log into their private feeds in order to perform a background check. Naturally, once word got out there was somewhat of an uproar and the city reversed its decision, but the damage was done. This is a further example of why having social media policies in place at your city is a mandatory thing in this day and age. It’s easy to cross the boundary from the public to the private, so making sure everyone is on the same page about social media use during the hiring phase is boon to everyone.

5 (More) Tips for Outsourcing

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:07:00 GMT

GovTech is running a great piece with five tips for outsourcing. Naturally, we’ve discussed this topic here for a while, but we also think it’s important to get an outside view. While outsourcing might work for everyone, it’s far beyond just a simple decision. It needs to be a city-wide discussion before a vendor is even brought in the door for a talk. Obviously, we’re in favor of a hybrid approach to outsourcing, but only when and where it makes sense. We strongly suggest anyone thinking about outsourcing goes to a trusted advisor and external article like GovTech’s to help them navigate the path. In the end, while we’d love to outsource for you, we want you to do it because it’s right for your city, not just right for us.

Application Integration Can Save You Millions

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:19:00 GMT

Alemeda County, California is set to save a projected $15 million in a single year due to an application integration project for its social services programs. Now that’s ROI. Essentially its linking a whole bunch of formerly separate systems to give its case workers a wide view of each enrollee across multiple systems. Where are the savings coming from? Mostly by detecting errors and fraud within the system. If the databases aren’t talking, someone could spend years getting benefits that they aren’t qualified for, costing tax payers millions of dollars. Naturally, not every city has the 1.5 million dollars that this project cost to implement, but this does demonstrate the value of having an integrated, intelligent system across the board.

Houston Looks Into Hybrid Outsourcing

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:18:00 GMT

More evidence that major cities are looking into a hybrid model of outsourcing. GovTech is reporting that Houston, Texas has hired a firm to look into consolidating the city’s IT and potentially outsourcing services. Apparently the company is going to show them three models: in-house, completely outsourced, and a hybrid model. In a city this large, it makes total sense to look into a hybrid outsourced model, as Houston will surely need folks with long time experience in the environment to make it happen. We’ll be tracking this one, but we’re going to place our money on the hybrid model as the clear choice.

Ten Tips for Using Social Media to Promote Your City or Town

Municipal Association of South Carolina — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:57:00 GMT

*This is taken from a recent flyer given out by the Municipal Association of South Carolina at the SMC convention. All credit goes to them for this, but we simply had to repost it as it's great advice.

SharePoint Governance Presentation

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:26:00 GMT

At the Fall 2009 Southern Municipal Conference (SMC) in Charleston, South Carolina, I presented on SharePoint governance, an often overlooked topic until the current SharePoint implementation has devolved into a mess. SharePoint is a powerful platform that can solve many issues quickly with out of the box functionality, but without governance your independent departmental solutions will grow into ugly chaos when viewed at the organization level.

Virginia's On-going Troubles with Data Security

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:42:00 GMT

More troubling news out of the State of Virginia. Yesterday the State sent out notification letters that it had misplaced files containing the personal information of over 100,000 former adult education students. The culprit? An employee stored the data on an unencrypted thumb drive and then promptly misplaced the drive. The State says there’s no indication that the data has been accessed, but if its on a thumb drive, how are they sure?

To Do More With Less, Governments Go Digital

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:32:00 GMT

We spend of lot of time on this blog discussing how governments are going digital to help add efficiency to their operations. With shrinking budgets and labor shortages, many cities have no other choice but to take a serious look at updating their IT infrastructure. Sure, it might cost more upfront, but the savings can be drastic and the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality is no longer enough to justify sticking with the status quo. Take this example from the NY Times about how cities and counties around the country are going digital.

GMIS-GA Fall 09: Top 10 Trends

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:09:00 GMT

While talking with all of the GMIS-GA IT folks at their 2009 Fall Conference, I heard ten topics that seemed to be on their mind:

A Quick Web Design Primer - Listening to Your Audience

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:09:00 GMT

I've been in and around the web design business since the 90's and when it comes to creating a new site, there's one mistake I see over and over again: Not listening to the audience. Remember that when you design a website, its intent is to be read by users outside the organization, and so usability becomes a key factor. Your marketing department might want a super-sexy website with Flash and animation, but never forget that citizens are coming to the site to get information quickly and consistently. This is a lesson that Fairfax County, Va. just learned as they went about redesigning their web presence. Initial sites were high design, but the user's panned them on usability. They soon discovered that the simpler they made the website, the higher the approval rating went. In the end, their website was so simple it actually won an award. All by taking the time to do focus testing and listening to their audience. As any comedian will tell you, the audience makes or brakes you.

NYC Gets a Lesson in Data Security

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:58:00 GMT

A cautionary tale from The Big Apple. We've mentioned NYC's efforts for an open government platform in the past. But today came news that when the city released its data, it inadvertently released a slew of personal and private information into the data set. In this case it was something fairly benign - answers to secret questions for a password reset feature - but it illustrates a point: If the government is going to provide open data sets, which by all means they should, it is their responsibility to ensure that the data is properly scrubbed before it hits the public. If this would have been credit card or social security numbers, it would have been a colossal blunder, but instead NYC got a free lesson in basic data security.

Ken Miller's 10 Paradoxical Commandments Of Government

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:49:00 GMT

During my daily read through Governing's website, I came across this great post by blogger Ken Miller. He's typically focuses on change in the government sector and how difficult it sometimes is. At the end of his post, he relayed what he calls the 10 Paradoxical Commandments Of Government. Instead of commenting on them, they're so brilliant I'm just going to repost them here and them sink in:

Web Apps Hit the Golden Gates

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Exeprience — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:52:00 GMT

Earlier we discussed San Francisco’s DataSF.org and it seems to be growing nicely. Spurred in large part by Google, app challenges seem to be all the rage these days. Most recently to the game is San Francisco, which has just released the first round of its app challenge. There’s some cool stuff here, like an app to navigate the transit system, crime reports and others. Check it out for some cool ideas for adding a little bit of government 2.0 to your own city.

City of Oakwood, Ga. Launches New Web Presence on Sophicity’s Tribune City Website Manager

Tim Verras — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:23:00 GMT

Sophicity announced today the release of the new website for the City of Oakwood, Ga. - www.cityofoakwood.net. Oakwood’s website was completely rebuilt using Sophicity’s Tribune City Website Manager and features a design that is representative of what this unique city brings to the state of Georgia.

Bloomberg's IT Bravado

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:02:00 GMT

NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg gets it. He understands that in order to save money, sometimes you’ve got to spend a little. We’ve already talked about his efforts to modernize 311 but recently he also announced an effort to combine and virtualize the city’s 55 data centers into one centralized data hub. Sure, this is going to cost millions in labor and technology, but in the first year alone the move is projected to save over $30 million – and that’s just in energy costs. When you factor in savings in office floor space, staff, and maintenance that number is likely to be much higher. The mayor clearly realizes that if the city was going to sustain the weight of its massive IT infrastructure, it was going to have to get over its departmental silos and share the resources. There are a million different ways that cities can re-invent their IT, sometimes it just takes a little bit of classic New York bravado to make it happen.

KLC Conference a Success!

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:26:00 GMT

VVrrooommm instead of Woosh, this time. We drove instead of flew to Covington, KY for the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) 2009 annual conference last week. Just an incredible view along I-75 thru Chattanooga, Knoxville, Lexington, and then Covington, right below Cincinnati!

PTI Study Shows Cities Embrace Social Media

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:18:00 GMT

If you’re a PTI member, check out this recently released survey on how local governments are embracing social media. Per GovTech, 100 percent of the cities surveyed are using wikis internally. That’s honestly quite a surprising statistic but it’s one I’m glad to see. At Sophicity we’ve used a wiki to great effect for knowledge sharing, operations, and other administrative functions. It allows us to get new folks up to speed faster than ever and it makes sure we don’t lose any of the knowledge that the geniuses here are always cooking up. How are you using a wiki at your city?

Twittering About in Traffic

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:55:00 GMT

Anyone that has been following my writings here knows that I’ve been very curious how cities were going to embrace Twitter, and I’ve found some surprising ways. Like this week, GovTech is reporting on how municipalities are using Twitter to disseminate traffic information for major roadways. What’s interesting here is not so much the traffic, as most navigation systems can route around it these days. What I find interesting is that some are using it to discuss the progress of road construction. We often just drive by such sites day in and day out, always wondering when they’ll be done. Now we have a way to stay better informed and crack the lid on those mysterious construction projects. Anyone who deals with Atlanta traffic on a daily basis knows what a relief this could be.

GovLoop: The Government Social Media Site

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:02:00 GMT

You knew it’d only be a matter of time before someone came out with a government-centric social media site and finally it has arrived. Enter: GovLoop. We’ve been toying around with it for a few weeks and there’s a lot of really great information, discussion, and folks that are using it. It’s great to see that government is becoming hip again. If you sign up, make sure you friend us!

Sophicity Attending Kentucky League of Cities' 2009 Conference

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:26:00 GMT

This month in Sophicity’s on-going travels: The Kentucky League of Cities’ 2009 Conference in Covington. I'll be meeting with folks from all over the state to discuss how technology is affecting their municipal operations. If you’re going to the convention, stop by our booth (#411) and say hi!

Golf Shenanigans

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:36:00 GMT

You should have witnessed our amazing (just phenomenal, really) level of play yesterday at the Georgia Municipal Association's (GMA) Annual Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade Golf Tournament. Sure we sponsored the event, but we made every effort to not retain our last place title from last year. We drove, and putted (and putted… and putted…) but still we came up short (and long… and in the water… and the woods) and did retain our last place crown with a score of 95. Good news is, we did improve our score by 26 strokes and we came off the course with just as many clubs as we began with. However, I think our crowning achievement came at the award dinner when a very nice gentleman from the City of Vidalia sat down at our table and said “I don’t mean to stereotype, but I knew you were IT guys.” I guess there’s just some things you can’t hide. =)

Sophicity Helps Georgia Municipal Association Raise Over $24k During Charity Golf Event

Tim Verras — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:41:00 GMT

Sophicity was a sponsor for the 2nd Annual Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade Golf Tournament held September 14th in Dublin at the beautiful Riverview Park Golf Course. The $24,000 in proceeds from the tournament will go towards the Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade charity event in December.

Sophicity Selected to Present on Silverlight for GMIS Convention

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:22:00 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that Sophicity has been one of only four vendors selected by the Georgia chapter of the Government Management Information Sciences (GA-GMIS) organization to do a presentation for the "Racing Into The Future: Driving IT Home" event during October's Fall Tech Expo Conference in Savannah. If you’re planning to attend, I'll be showing a really cool presentation about how Rich Internet Applications built in Microsoft Silverlight will change the face of government-to-citizen communication.

San Jose, Ca. Examines Public Records Act and New Technologies

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:11:00 GMT

Another bit of news from San Jose - I guess there’s a reason they call it Silicon Valley. This time around, the City is being an innovator in changing its public records laws to better handle things like email, text messaging, and social networking. The problem is that the laws for public records don’t seem to mesh too well with the modern era. Text messages can’t be downloaded and stored in a fashion to meet the requirements and, as Florida is finding out – no one is really even sure if the laws cover these devices anyway.

San Jose, Ca. Uses Wiki for City Planning

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:54:00 GMT

GovTech is reporting that that San Jose, CA has recently launched a wiki planning site that will allow citizens to have a say in the city’s future planning needs. Using the wiki software, citizens can fill out a survey and add notes and photos to pages about places in and around the city. This information will be used to create the city’s Envision 2040 city planning initiative. This is a really interesting example of how cities are using wiki’s to bring citizen interaction into the next age. The more I hear about cities using this kind of innovative thinking, the more excited I get about the opportunities for real change at the local government level.

Crowd Sourcing for IT Budget Cut Ideas

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:27:00 GMT

Digital Communities editor Todd Sander has an interesting OpEd piece on the struggles that City Governments are having when it comes to cutting the IT budget. He details one case of a city that is considering passing a law which mandates that all purchases under $25k will have to be made through local vendors. While this might seem like a great idea for stimulating the local economy, it is not feasible in most places because critical service and products might not even be available locally, especially in rural communities. Instead, he advocates an outward looking approach by engaging citizens and vendors from all over to find creative solutions to problems. I think this sage advice and we’ve even seen a few local cities, like Duluth, Ga. Open up their budget process to the outside world, often to great benefit. If you’re struggling with cutting the IT budget, this is must-read.

2009 Best of the Web Awards for Government

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:39:00 GMT

The Center for Digital Government has just announced the winners of the 2009 Best of Web Awards. The city government winner’s this year have more than just a nice website, they are using innovative eGov services like integrated 311 and online video to make their web presence more powerful. It nice to see these cities being rewarded for bringing government to the next level. Congrats to all who won!

Event: Gov2.0 Expo

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:10:00 GMT

IT Publisher O'Reilly is putting on Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase, a one-day event happening September 8, 2009 that previews the larger Gov 2.0 Expo scheduled for May 2010. The website describes it as "the practical, cutting-edge efforts it highlights, married with a profound shift in thinking across the government, are helping to build what Tim O'Reilly has called "government as a platform." On September 8 in Washington DC, 24 innovators will show how this is really happening, concretely, right now, inside (and outside) government." Check out the event if you're in the DC Area, as it's sure to be a great education and networking event.

Public Safety 2.0

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:48:00 GMT

Daphne Levenson, Director of the Gulf States Regional Center for Public Safety Innovations, has an interesting write-up about the barriers that municipal public safety departments face when thinking about how to implement Web 2.0 technologies into their infrastructure. While it’s understandable that police may not want sensitive data to be floating out in the cloud, Levenson claims that they must find ways to embrace the new technologies or they may risk putting themselves at a disadvantage when trying to keep the public safe. This is an excellent read if your public safety department is grappling with how to implement new technologies.

San Francisco Releases Open Data Website

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:36:00 GMT

After the Federal government released Data.gov last year, and recently updated it again, it seems that many state and local government are jumping onboard the Open Government Initiative. Take San Francisco for example. Chris Vein, the City’s CIO, recently announced DataSF.org, a repository of data from the cities vaults, including crime statistics, a building permit database, and other information useful to the public. Again, it’s not the availability of the data that’s new, it’s the accessibility. Now anyone can quickly go online, download the data, and add it to a mash up or an application. It will be interesting to see if more local government entities will pick up on this trend. I’ll be sure to report here as I see new ones pop up.

The Increasing Role of IT in Legal Proceedings

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:01:00 GMT

As Public Safety, Courts, and Lawyers move more information online and in electronic formats, municipal IT staff members are being increasingly involved in the legal process. GovTech has an excellent write-up covering what every IT professional should know about the legal process and how they might be involved from a technical standpoint, especially in terms of expert witnesses and information retrieval. An excellent read if you are in a municipal IT department that works closely with public safety and the courts.

Pittsburgh Brings eGov to the iPhone

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:46:00 GMT

The City of Pittsburgh is the first American city to release an application that submits requests and complaints to the city’s government via the popular iPhone. This seems to be the next logical step in eGov services and will allow unprecedented communication between citizen and city officials. Dubbed iBurgh, the application ties into the city’s 311 system where citizen can enter information about potholes, vandalism, and other complaints. Not only should the application increase 311 requests, it should also help to reduce costs as less physical calls and letters will need to be processed by employees. This is another example of cities looking for smart, innovative ways to help citizens and reduce costs at the same time.

Sophicity at the Florida League of Cities 83rd Annual Conference

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:15:00 GMT

Woosh! That’s the sound of Sophicity running all over the map as we meet with cities across the Southeast. Most recently, Kevin Howarth and I went to sunny Orlando for the Florida League of Cities 83rd Annual Conference. It was the perfect way to meet with city leaders and decision makers to learn what’s on their minds and I congratulate FLC for putting on a great conference.

Data.gov Continues to Grow

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:10:00 GMT

A few months ago, I wrote about a new initiative of the federal government, Data.gov. This is an interesting project as it aims to provide a wealth of public information online in a variety of formats for free. When I originally checked out the site, there were only a handful (around 40) of types of data available but now the government has greatly expanded the variety of data formats and tools available as well.

4 Ways That Software/Hardware-as-a-Service Can Improve An IT Budget

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:43:00 GMT

Trends are working against a city’s information technology infrastructure even if the city does nothing or keeps to the status quo. But taking advantage of flat monthly operational-cost IT services means the following:

What Happens When Twitter Fails?

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:24:00 GMT

I’ve been writing a lot about Twitter lately, especially when it comes to how its being used in the government sector. As many of you may know, Twitter (along with Facebook and Myspace) was attacked last night by a Denial of Service attack originating in the country of Georgia. When I heard this, I began to think about how that could impact the efforts of New York and LA, which are starting to use Twitter for important roles within the operations. As a response to this GovTech has a great article about why governments might want to put some serious thought before using Twitter. What if it goes down? What if it gets hacked? All of these questions need to be firmly grasped before any Twitter project starts. If you’re thinking of using Twitter, I suggest you give the article a read.

FCC Hosts Talk on Open Government and Civic Engagement

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:11:00 GMT

The FCC today hosted a talk about the future of E-Gov and Civic Engagement.

Sophicity's Allen Koronkowski Cooks Up a Great Idea

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:24:00 GMT

As you know, at Sophicity we’re all about helping municipal governments manage their IT infrastructure in a way that’s cost effective, responsible, and transparent. We’re always trying to cook up new ways to ensure our customers get the most from their technology and it’s something we try to take to our personal lives as well. One great example is our very own Allen Koronkowski (Practice Manager: Projects). You may know him as a frequent writer on this blog, but to many in the Atlanta-area, he’s simply known as Mr. K, The Cookieman.

Mi. County Cuts $600K from IT Budget By Polling Employees

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:01:00 GMT

This one hits close to home for me – quite literally. GovTech is reporting that Oakland County, Mi. has cut $600k from its IT budget this year simply by soliciting cost cutting suggestions from its employees via an internal blog administered by the county’s CIO. Oakland County, just north of Detroit’s West side, is perhaps the most active county in Michigan and, more importantly, is where I lived for a number of years. When the economy gets tough, this is exactly the kind of innovative thinking I like to see. Employees are the ones in the trenches doing the work and so it’s no surprise that they often have incredibly simple yet effective ideas on gaining efficiency. If your municipality is facing looming budget cuts, this might be a great way to tap into the brain power of your employees.

Peer-to-Peer Network Leaks Sensitive Federal Information

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:30:00 GMT

The Federal Government IT sector was sent scrambling this week when the Washington Post broke the news of a report given to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that peer-to-peer file sharing software installed on sensitive government computers by employees, was responsible for inadvertently releasing vast amounts of data into the public. It was identified as a major problem at all levels of the government including the FBI. This is another red flag for cities, which deal with sensitive data like police records and evidence files. Have a discussion with IT staff or vendors about locking down such file sharing applications on the network to prevent this data from going public. One more reason to have strong IT policies in place throughout the organization.

Guidelines for Setting Up Government Twitter Feeds

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:53:00 GMT

I found this template from a government department in the UK, which includes guidelines for setting up Twitter, by defining purpose, metrics and other important considerations. If you’re interested in finding out who in government is already on Twitter, you can go to www.govtwit.com for a complete list. In Georgia, there are many cities using it of varying size, such as Atlanta, Marietta and Tyrone. Many state representatives are on the list as well.

Tips For Renewing Voice and Data Plans for City Business

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:13:00 GMT

Lately, we’ve been seeing an uptick in interest from cities reviewing their voice and data contracts, looking for ways to save money. If it’s been a while since you’ve even thought about it or if your contract is coming up for renewal soon, our experience is that money savings here is “low hanging fruit.”

The Benefits of Energy Efficiency

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Governing has a great article about energy conservation at the desktop level that fits in nicely with our recent piece on reducing municipal energy costs. As municipal governments are being asked to make cuts, even small reductions in the power consumption of the municipality’s buildings can save money which in turn can prevent the loss of jobs or critical citizen services. While the environmental benefits discussed in the article are a good side benefit, the real treat for cities is the ability to reduce that ever growing monthly electric bill.

Sophicity at the Florida Local Government Information Systems Association's Annual Conference

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:44:00 GMT

I’ve just returned from the Florida Local Government Information Systems Association's (FLGISA) Annual Conference in beautiful St. Augustine. FLGISA is an organization of IT decision makers from municipal and county governments in Florida that gather for knowledge sharing and education

Recovery Act Reporting Webinars

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:44:00 GMT

If your municipality received funds from the Recovery Act, then it should be no surprise that reporting how those funds are spent is a big part of the acceptance. The Federal Government's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Recovery, Accountability and Transparency Board, recognizing some confusion about how the reporting should take place, are offering a series of free webinars to help cities better understand the rules and regulations behind the Act.

IT Financial Management: Bringing IT Into the Light

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Helping municipalities cut costs through data collection and better management of the budget is something that Sophicity has been focused on for some years now. In the present economy, this kind of thinking is getting a lot more important than it used to be. No longer can we afford to let IT be a magic black box (or some might say black hole) in the basement.

Twitter enhances 311 services in San Francisco

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:04:00 GMT

I recently compared Twitter to the Dremel tool my fathergave me a while back - at the time, I couldn’t figure out what it was good for. But every couple of months, a problem comes up where it’s the perfect solution. Its value is still ambiguous--if you ask me what it’s good for, I’ll answer “all sorts of things.” There’s no single answer to the question but I always keep it handy “just in case.” So it is with Twitter.

Attending the Florida Local Government Information Systems Association Annual Conference

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:09:00 GMT

Just wanted to drop a quick note that I’ll be manning the Sophicity booth at the http://www.flgisa.org/" target="_new">Florida Local Government Information Systems Association's (FLGISA) Annual conference, which is running all this week down in St. Augustine, Florida. If you are planning on coming, drop by and chat with me about your City or County and the challenges that the IT Department is currently facing. Looking forward to a great show!

Saving Money Through Virtualization

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:52:00 GMT

Many cities are starting to look at virtualization as a way to save money and its a common question topic that our customers ask us. While the implementation can be complex depending on the environment, the benefits almost always outweigh the costs. Still, there is a lot of confusion about why anyone should virtualize in the first place. This quick guide is a good place to start if you're looking for high-level info on virtualization to take to city council. It discusses the five main benefits from the technology: Increasing cost efficiency, mitigating vulnerabilities through better security, improving agility, using IT hours more efficiently, and simplifying IT initiatives.

Webinar: Web 2.0 and Citizen Interaction

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:05:00 GMT

If you're interested in how Web 2.0 is changing government and citizen interaction, I suggest you check out this webinar being put on my Governing Mazgazine and Adobe. Between Obama's Open Government Initiative, increasing security demands, and higher citizen expectations, government is facing some large challenges ahead, yet Web 2.0 thinking has the ability to overcome many of these. The webinar is scheduled for next Thursday at 2p.m. Eastern and pre-registration is required.

Big Ideas in The Big Apple

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:40:00 GMT

New York city is http://www.govtech.com/gt/698825?topic=290174" target="_new">using Twitter to collect requests and complaints through a new 311 system. Rather than calling on the phone, citizens go online to submit requests, track their progress, and file complaints. This is expected to reduce call volumes to the cash-strapped 311 system and help to avoid future cuts.

Sophicity Announces Cornerstone Partnership with the Kentucky League of Cities

Tim Verras — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:13:00 GMT

IT consulting firm Sophicity announced today that it has become a Cornerstone Partner with the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC). Sophicity specializes in reducing IT costs for municipal government and state municipal leagues. Its partnership with KLC will expose the company’s unique focus to municipal officials throughout Kentucky. The Cornerstone Partnership means that KLC will recommend Sophicity to municipal officials that approach the league about technology services.

Creating Effective Government Blogs

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:08:00 GMT

Government Technology has piece on creating an effective government blog. If your city is thinking of starting a blog, it offers some great tips. First and foremost, the article cautions against simply making the blog a place to post press releases. The best blogs, it says, are ones that have a personal point of view.

Vendor Transparency: Knowing the Ingredients of a Proposal

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:11:00 GMT

Within the collective team at Sophicity, we have a rule that everyone has to be able to "answer why". The rationale for each decision is expected, so I think that it improves the overall process. Nobody gets to say something like "because I have 15 years of experience." Right or wrong, you have to be able to explain your thought process.

Open Government Initiatives Gaining Popularity

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:42:00 GMT

We’re continuing to see a push for a more open government on every level from local to federal. Innovative cities like Duluth, Ga. are asking citizens to help with the budget, and the Federal government has launched a website that details all of its IT expenditures. Both of these moves provide unprecedented access to information that was often difficult or even impossible to obtain.

So, How Would Your City Withstand a Security Attack?

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:07:00 GMT

Although this incident occurred in England, the repercussions of a serious security breach applies to American cities – many of whom have the same weaknesses. ZDnet's Zero Day blog reports:

Covington, Ga. Wins Free Network Assessment Drawing; Sophicity Offers Free Cost Assessment To All Cities

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:02:00 GMT

The city of Covington, Georgia won the drawing for a free CitySmart Network Health and Security Assessment (valued at $3,975). Our certified network engineers will do an in-depth investigation and analysis of the city’s network, and then draft a detailed findings and recommendations report. Find more information about our assessments here.

The Emergence of Twitter

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:26:00 GMT

Two weeks ago, I was having a discussion about Twitter with several business executives and the general consensus was that it was a “cute technology” but lacking in practical applications. It was notable that we all actually had accounts, but really couldn’t think of a reason to “tweet.” I pointed out to the others how some cities were beginning to use the technology for informing residents about important information, such as crime alerts, accidents and other such events, but this fact was anything but revolutionary in their minds. After all, there were many ways to push that information to those interested.

Application Trends in Government 2.0

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:59:00 GMT

The ZDnet Emerging Tech blog has an interesting post on a talk about Government 2.0 given by Google’s Andrew McLaughlin during the Web 2.0 Expo in San Diego this week. He discusses a number of government-related web 2.0 applications and how they allow governments to do work that once cost millions of dollars for an estimated 1/10 of the cost.

Advances in Open Data Applied to Cities

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:15:00 GMT

David Eaves posted this short piece on the Creative Class blog about the use of open data to help citizens decide on best places to live within a city. While cutting edge, this application might give cities some ideas on how data might be creatively harnessed to market cities in more user-friendly ways for citizens, utilizing both existing city data along with user-generated data (photos, reviews, etc.).

Visit Us at the 2009 GMA Convention

Dave Mims, President — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:08:00 GMT

Georgia Municipal Association’s 2009 annual convention is upon us. As cities gather in Savannah, Georgia Saturday June 20th through Tuesday June 23rd, it will be during a year that has brought significant challenges. Many cities have reacted to this serious economic recession by cutting budgets, laying off staff, freezing pay, and delaying projects, making your job more difficult and forcing you to do even more with less

Sophicity Twitter Feed!

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Communications — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:33:00 GMT

We're seeing a number of innovative cities and leagues start thier own twitter feeds to better stay in touch with thier citizens and membership. And now we've got one too! Keep in touch and follow us at twitter.com/Sophicity!

Cities Must Consider Data Security and Privacy if They Also Consider Social Media

Kevin howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:14:00 GMT

Cities currently are wondering how to embrace blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media tools for enhancing their communication, collaboration, public relations, and general tech savviness. Any government entity needs to fully consider the implications of these tools, especially in terms of data security and privacy.

Information Security: Staff Errors Put Data at Risk

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:06:00 GMT

Government Technology published a must-read article about managing the people side of data security. For anyone attempting to put systems and procedures around data security practices, this article outlines a few hard lessons experienced by some.

Software Helps Ease Stimulus Reporting Woes

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Public CIO is running a wonderful analysis of the software solutions that are popping up as a result of the intense reporting demands created by accepting the stimulus money. I know a number of our city customers have stated they are wary to accept the money for this very reason – reporting may take up so much time that it might not be worth it for the organization to embark on a stimulus project.

FTC Delays Red Flags Rule

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:44:00 GMT

The Federal Trade Commission of the new “Red Flags Rule” until August 1, 2009, to give creditors and financial institutions more time to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. For entities that have a low risk of identity theft, such as businesses that know their customers personally, the Commission will soon release a template to help them comply with the law.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Last week, I attended the Georgia GMIS conference on St. Simon’s Island. The weather remained unusually stormy and windy during all four days of the conference, perhaps reflecting the economic storm currently overhanging cities and counties in Georgia.

During a session entitled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” city and county IT directors shared insights about their current challenges and projects. Here were some of the overall trends:

Sophicity Selects Arketi Group to Help Launch New Brand

Arketi Group — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:15:00 GMT

ATLANTA -- Arketi Group, a high-tech business-to-business public relations and marketing firm, announced it has been chosen by Sophicity, an IT services provider formerly known as Mimsware, as its agency of record to help launch the company’s new corporate brand.

Federal Government Launches Data.gov

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:15:00 GMT

I came across an interesting PCMag.com article today announcing the launch of Data.gov, a new online service from the Federal Government. This service is interesting in that its goal is to make a wide variety of non-sensitive government data available to the general public in a variety of formats including CSV, XLS (Excel), XML, and ESRI (used by GIS applications). In addition to the raw data, Data.gov also makes available a variety of tools for mining the various datasets available. Data.gov is freely accessible requiring neither user registration nor a fee for access.

Virus Infects FBI, Forces Shut Down

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:46:00 GMT

Not even the FBI is immune to being attacked by viruses. The Associated Press is reporting that a virus has infected the FBI and U.S. Marshall’s offices, forcing them to disconnect their networks from the internet.

A Viable Way to Reduce Spam?

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:24:00 GMT

Government Technology magazine wrote an article highlighting a new service the city of New Lenox, Illinois is using called Zumbox. This technology ties e-mail to a physical geographic location, such as your office or home address. Because of that association, e-mail can be geographically focused, allowing targeted (or isolated) communication. The City cited the example of notifying residents of road work in the subdivision in which they live. They knew the street addresses, but didn’t have everyone’s e-mail address, so they used Zumbox to contact the appropriate residents.

Georgia's CIO and Chief Operating Officer Explain Why the State Went to the Private Sector for IT Services

Dave Mims, President — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:34:00 GMT

The April/May 2009 issue of Public CIO has an article explaining why Georgia outsourced its IT services to private industry. Writing: "Georgia's decision to outsource IT infrastructure is part of a larger effort by the Perdue administration to bring private-sector practices to state government services."

Microsoft Launches Cloud-based Government Applications

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:59:00 GMT

Government Technology is reporting that Microsoft is offering government applications on a cloud platform. My guess is it’ll take anywhere from 3-5 years for the client base to become comfortable with it as a solution. We’ll see some early adopters and it’ll grow, but based on my past experience with Software as a Service, it takes that long to get permanent traction.

Enough About Doom and Gloom!

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:31:00 GMT

What do you expect to happen when financial troubles occur?

Sophicity Sponsors TechBridge Digital Ball 2009, Steals the Dance Floor

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:14:00 GMT

Sophicity was a sponsor of the 2009 TechBridge Digital Ball, a ceremony awarding non-profits that use technology in innovative new ways to help their cause. The black tie event, hosted at the Georgia World Congress Center, draws hundreds of technology movers and shakers from Atlanta’s bustling business industry. Along with a cocktail party, dinner and the awards ceremony, the event also featured a live soul band and a massive dance floor, which was promply taken over by our very own Dave And Marti Mims, Kevin Howarth, and yours truly. All in all, we had a great time.

Are Your Outsourced City Government Services Cost Effective and Transparent?

Dave Mims, President — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:40:00 GMT

Yesterday, I wrote about Spolsky’s article on the differentiators between prospering and failing companies. However, for City Government, these differentiators are not “should haves” they are “must haves.” Cities have a responsibility to their citizens to spend tax money in a responsible and transparent manner. That is why checks and balances like RFPs and public documentation have been implemented. There are no “trade secrets” in city government.

It Isn't the Economy, Stupid!

Dave Mims, President — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:17:00 GMT

Joel Spolsky recently wrote an article for Inc. magazine about what differentiates prospering and failing companies today, and his opening sentence on the print version of the piece pretty much says it all: "It Isn't the Economy, Stupid." Joel outlines differentiators that some might consider common sense, "sweating the little things," or any number of other clichéd business terms, but I think he’s dead-on.

Federal Government Embraces Cloud Computing

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:24:00 GMT

USA.gov, the Federal Government's information site, has moved to a new cloud computing platform that they expect will reduce costs by up to 90% and streamline operations. What’s most interesting is not so much the technology but the shift in culture it took to move away from a basic web presence built around an in-house server model to the current cloud model.

State of Virginia Demonstrates The Need for a Secure Network

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing / Customer Experience — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:03:00 GMT

According to this Washington Post article, The State of Virginia’s Prescription Monitoring Program was recently hacked and is now being held for ransom by the hacker, who claims to have access to over 8 million records worth of personal data like Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. To make matters worse, the hacker also claims to have deleted all of the system backups, leaving the State without a proper way to get that information back. The hacker hopes to make the State pay millions in order to get the sole surviving copy of the records back.

Google Launches Google Public Data

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing / Customer Experience — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:43:00 GMT

Today, Google launched a service called Google Public Data, which integrates census and unemployment data directly into the search window. This is a further example of Google leveraging its vast resources to make available data that was once buried deeply within government websites. At the present time, the search can pull data on states and counties but more search options expected soon. As with many Google products, expect the company to tinker with this feature often.

Duluth, Ga. Asks For Citizen Input on City Budget

Kevin Howarth, Director of Business Development — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:16:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on an innovative idea with the City of Duluth’s budget: opening it up to citizens. Similar to the notion of open source in the technology world, the City of Duluth is hoping to gain more insights about how to save money and maximize its tax dollars by harnessing the collective knowledge of the public.

Shedding Light on Silverlight

Todd Snoddy, Software Development Practice Manager — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:23:00 GMT

Microsoft's Silverlight technology is ready for business. How do you know if it's the right solution for you and your League?

Fighting Murphy's Law: How Best Practices Can Save Your Software Project

Jeramie Mercker, Director of Technology — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:38:00 GMT

At the April 2009 Southern Municipal Conference in Atlanta, I offered practical advice on how leagues can apply best practices to improve their software development project outcomes.

Putting the Share in SharePoint

Dave Mims, President — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:38:00 GMT

At the 2009 Southern Municipal Conference in April here in Atlanta, I presented tips on implementing League-wide Collaboration and Document Management Processes in SharePoint based on lessons learned when we implemented it here at Sophicity.

Helpful Links and Information for Cities About the Recovery Act

Allen Koronkowski, Practice Manager: Projects — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:37:00 GMT

Helpful Links and Information for Cities About the Recovery Act

Welcome to Sophicity's CitySmart Blog

Tim Verras, Director of Marketing — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:10:00 GMT

Welcome to Sophicity's CitySmart Blog

Sophicity Saves City of Duluth, Ga. $1.6 Million on Citywide ERP Application

Tim Verras — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:53:00 GMT

Sophicity (sophicity.com) announced today that it has saved the City of Duluth, Ga. (duluthga.net) nearly 1.6 million dollars on the purchase and implementation of a new enterprise resource planning application.

Mimsware Sponsors Georgia Municipal Association Golf Tournament

Tim Verras — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:32:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation sponsored the 11th hole at the first annual Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade Golf Tournament held September 22nd in Dublin at the beautiful Riverview Park Golf Course. The over $15,000 in proceeds from the tournament will go towards the Mayors’ Christmas Motorcade charity event in December.

Mimsware Acquires Catalyst Consulting

Tim Verras — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:52:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation today announced its acquisition of Catalyst Consulting, a Microsoft-based network infrastructure consulting firm located in Atlanta. For over 7 years, Catalyst has provided managed network services to clients including Brown and Company Jewelers, Gwinnett Sexual Assault Center and Children’s Advocacy Group, Homeside Properties, and Prince of Peace Catholic Church.

City of Vienna, Ga. Launches New Website Powered By MimswareCMS

Tim Verras — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation announced today the release of the new website for the City of Vienna, Ga. - www.cityofvienna.org. The city's website was completely rebuilt from the ground up to use MimswareCMS and now has branding and graphical elements that are representative of what this unique city brings to the state of Georgia.

Mimsware Completes Enterprise Assessment for Duluth, Ga.

Tim Verras — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Mimsware recently completed a citywide Enterprise Assessment for the City of Duluth. The company worked closely with City staff to develop a long term technology strategy and address an immediate need to replace an Accounting System by conducting a comprehensive look at their systems, infrastructure, and related processes across all City departments. Armed with this information, and recommendations for improvement, the City of Duluth will be able to plan its IT growth for several years.

Mimsware Gains Fifth Microsoft Competency

Tim Verras — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:57:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation gained the Business Intelligence Microsoft competency today, marking its experience in consulting and implementing solutions in the field of Business Intelligence. This is Mimsware’s fifth Microsoft competency joining the Custom Development Solutions, Network Infrastructure, Data Management Solutions, and ISV/Software Solutions competencies.

City of Jackson, Ga. Launches New Website Powered by MimswareCMS

Tim Verras — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:25:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation (www.mimsware.com) announced today the release of the new city website for the City of Jackson, Ga. (www.cityofjacksonga.com). The city's website was completely rebuilt from the ground up to use MimswareCMS and now has branding and graphical elements that are representative of what this unique city brings to the state of Georgia.

City of Cornelia, Ga. Launches New Website Powered by MimswareCMS

Tim Verras — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:22:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation (www.mimsware.com) announced today the release of the new city website for the City of Cornelia, Ga. (www.corneliageorgia.org). The city's website was completely rebuilt from the ground up to use MimswareCMS and now has branding and graphical elements that are representative of what this unique city brings to the state of Georgia.

City of Buford, Ga. Launches New Website Powered by MimswareCMS

Tim Verras — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:11:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation (www.mimsware.com) announced today the release of the new city website for the City of Buford, Ga. (www.cityofbuford.com). The city's website was completely rebuilt from the ground up to use MimswareCMS and now has branding and graphical elements that are representative of what this unique city brings to the state of Georgia.

Microsoft Certifies MimswareCMS

Tim Verras — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:14:00 GMT

As part of Mimsware’s ongoing Microsoft Gold Certified Partnership, the company had its flagship product for website content management, MimswareCMS, tested and certified to meet the ISV/Software Solutions Competency on the Windows Server platform and the Managed Code component, ensuring Microsoft compliance and performance.

Mimsware delivers proactive Technology Services to the City of Forsyth, Ga.

Tim Verras — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:04:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation (www.mimsware.com) furthers its momentum in the Municipal Technology sector as it continues to successfully implement the City of Forsyth’s (www.cityofforsyth.com) new IT infrastructure. Delivering the Georgia Municipal Association’s Technology Services, Mimsware performed a detailed IT Assessment, network stabilization and centralization, build out of a fiber backbone-supported Network Operation Center (NOC), updated technology platform, and continued IT support and maintenance. The City is very pleased with the results.

City of Tybee Island, Ga. Launches New Website Powered by MimswareCMS

Tim Verras — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:56:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation (www.mimsware.com) announced today the release of the new city website for the City of Tybee Island, Ga. (www.cityoftybee.org). The city's website was completely rebuilt from the ground up to use MimswareCMS and now has branding and graphical elements that are representative of what this unique city brings to the state of Georgia.

Mimsware Earns 4th Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Competency

Tim Verras — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:19:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation expands its Microsoft Gold Certified Partnership with Microsoft by earning the Custom Development Solutions competency with specialization in Application Infrastructure Development.

Mimsware has been a Microsoft Certified Partner since 2002 and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner since 2006 by earning the Information Worker competency and the ISV/Software Solutions competency covering our flagship content management system, MimswareCMS. Mimsware has now earned an additional competency for Custom Development Solutions with a specialization in Application Infrastructure Development.

Mimsware Becomes A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner

Tim Verras — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:22:00 GMT

Mimsware Corporation, offering a broad range of technical expertise covering Microsoft-based IT services spanning software development, network infrastructure, and products to corporate, government and small- or medium-sized businesses, achieves Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status, the highest level within the Microsoft Certified Partner Program.

Mimsware Becomes Microsoft Certified Partner

Tim Verras — Tue, 05 Feb 2002 20:25:00 GMT

Microsoft Certified Partners encompass a broad range of technical expertise providing Microsoft-based IT services and products to corporate, government and small- or medium-sized businesses. As one of the most important resources in providing Microsoft solutions, its partners have this in common: a commitment to emerging technology and providing excellence in customer solutions. "Mimsware is excited to announce our partnership with Microsoft. We work very hard to reach the highest standard of excellence in software development targeting Microsoft tools and technologies. Our drive, knowledge, and expertise are core to building successful software solutions," said Dave Mims, President of Mimsware.