City receives awards for technology achievement from the Public Technology Institute

Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) announced today that the City of Boston has won two distinguished awards from the Public Technology Institute (PTI). The awards recognize the city’s BostonMaps as the winner in the Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) category and the Boston Goes Google Project as the winner in the IT & Telecommunications category.   This annual competition recognizes PTI members who demonstrate how they use technology to innovate, solve problems, reduce costs, and improve services and internal operations.

“Boston is recognized as a leader in technology and innovation,” said Mayor Walsh.  “We continue to find creative ways using technology to collaborate, improve services and increase efficiency. These awards represent the City moving forward with an innovative open GIS Mapping platform available to all, and a new communications system that provides access anytime, anywhere.”

An independent panel of judges has identified the recipients of PTI’s 2013–2014 Technology Solutions Awards. This year, the competition featured a wide array of interesting and innovative entries.

Winner in (GIS) category: BostonMaps: 
The City of Boston’s Mapping Platform - Creating a Spatially Aware Workforce

BostonMaps represents a modern platform for the City of Boston to allow access to GIS and maps for improved communication, collaboration, and decision-making. Mapping and location-based analysis are a fundamental aspect of the City’s efforts to enable all City staff   access to a common set of tools and resources, and help transform the way GIS is used to support businesses.  BostonMaps also provides a mapping platform to support external stakeholders such as civic coders, as well as the general public.  BostonMaps is the City of Boston’s branding for its Esri ArcGIS Online implementation. 

Winner in the IT & TELECOMMUNICATIONS category:                                                            

Boston, MA Boston Goes Google                                                                                               

In December 2013, Boston successfully moved 76,000 city employees and students to the cloud with Google Apps. This includes all City departments, the Boston Police Department, Boston Public Schools, teachers, administrators, and over 50,000 students, each with an individual Google apps account.

In less than four months since the start of the project, the Boston Goes Google team successfully converted all users from their legacy accounts to new Google Apps accounts. Over twenty million email messages were securely migrated to the cloud. For the first time the same platform is in use across the City, allowing for a consistent, positive user experience.

The Google Apps platform enhances the City’s delivery of key services allowing for anywhere, anytime, access to email, calendar, and files. Anywhere, anytime access also increases effectiveness and provides greater efficiencies through the ability of employees to respond in real time to urgent situations or meet tight deadlines.

Public Technology Institute –Created by and for cities and counties, the not-for-profit Public Technology Institute promotes innovation and collaboration for thought-leaders in government, and advances the use of technology to improve the management and delivery of services to the citizen.