City's ITS Department Earns Second Place Digital Cities Award

The Center for Digital Government (CDG) announced the winners of the 2020 Digital Cities Survey today and the City of Cape Coral placed second among cities with a population between 125,000 to 249,999. The annual survey recognizes cities using technology to tackle response to the pandemic while continuing strategic initiatives to enhance services.

The City took second place for the third year in a row, demonstrating a continued commitment to smart technology use. Late last year, the City’s Information Technology Services (ITS) department created a Smart City Strategy and met with the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization and the County’s transportation department to ensure the strategy is supportive of their objectives. The City and County expanded their pre-existing fiber sharing agreement to include spare strands for connected vehicle use in the future. Also, in the interest of expanding fiber, the ITS and Utilities departments are partnering with a fiber-optic design vendor to build a citywide fiber-optic map to optimize installation and connection locations. This award also reflects the Department’s cybersecurity efforts and it’s multi-year security plan. Another recent digital city initiative is the implementation of an automated software solution to improve the procurement process. The new software system saves time and improves efficiency.

“Innovative cities are utilizing technology and analyzing data to better serve their citizens, respond quickly to citizen needs around COVID-19, and support digital experience initiatives,” said Phil Bertolini, co-director, CDG. “The Center for Digital Government congratulates this year’s winners for their hard work and their efforts to use technology to enhance citizen interactions with government.”