4 questions city leaders should ask before adopting technology to solve problems and improve public services

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4 questions city leaders should ask before adopting technology to solve problems and improve public services
Kazi Awal/Insider

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4 questions city leaders should ask before adopting technology to solve problems and improve public services
Phoenix, Arizona, lets the public track 130 of its metrics, including public safety, sustainability, and heat response.Getty Images
  • The pandemic accelerated the need for digital equity and for cities to deliver services virtually.
  • But before proceeding with digital transformation, city leaders should ask several key questions.
  • Decide if the solution is resident-forward, if workers are equipped, and if the risks are worth it.

Digital transformation — adopting technology and leveraging the data it generates — can enable city leaders to provide more efficient public services, build stronger relationships with residents, and find solutions to common problems.

4 questions city leaders should ask before adopting technology to solve problems and improve public services
Jim Anderson.Courtesy of Jim Anderson

"Digital transformation represents an incredible opportunity for local governments to produce more value in people's lives, oftentimes to do it more efficiently, and almost always to do it in ways that meet people where they are," Jim Anderson, the head of government innovation programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, told Insider.

Digital transformation for cities can include anything from systems to processing ticket payments to incorporating the internet of things in traffic management, said Vanessa Frias-Martinez, an associate professor at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies.

4 questions city leaders should ask before adopting technology to solve problems and improve public services
Vanessa Frias-Martinez.Courtesy of Vanessa Frias-Martinez

"It can also refer to systems and infrastructure that can more directly improve quality of life, including affordable broadband service for digital equity," she said.

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Many cities don't yet have a strong digital-transformation strategy, Anderson said, but the pandemic has accelerated the need for it and for municipalities to deliver better services to older residents, the homeless, and other vulnerable populations virtually.

If you're a city leader considering putting plans in place to invest in tech, here are the most important questions to ask yourself to make sure you see positive results.

1. Is digital transformation truly the answer to our problems?

Technology isn't the solution to every issue cities face.

"Will the communities affected by a given digital transformation embrace and benefit from that solution?" Frias-Martinez said. "Sometimes, improving neighborhood and community relations or streamlining decision-making processes might be more helpful than deploying new technology."

When Bloomberg Philanthropies works with cities to create digital strategies that drive growth, Anderson said it asks leaders to think about ways digital transformation aligns with a city's goals and a community's values.

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"Where we see success is when mayors and community members are clear about the problem they want to solve," he said. "They're approaching that problem with an innovator's openness. Maybe technology is part of the solution, maybe it's not."

Phoenix, Arizona, for example, is leveraging data collection by launching the City Manager's Performance Dashboard this year to let the public track 130 metrics, including public safety, sustainability, and heat response. The city also launched FUNDPHX to educate residents on the city's budgeting process and improve transparency and access to funding.

2. Are we engaging residents and focusing on their needs?

Many cities have made incremental progress on innovation, but Anderson said the pandemic showed cities that they need to set more ambitious goals.

"The pandemic has brought about many societal changes that require technology," Frias-Martinez added. "Remote work by city employees or virtual learning in public-school systems cannot be carried out without access to affordable, quality broadband and to devices to connect to the internet."

Residents should be involved from day one. Involving the community helps city leaders understand what the needs of the members truly are, and giving residents a say in how digital transformation is deployed and implemented will make adoption easier, Frias-Martinez said.

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Kansas City, for example, surveys residents each fiscal year to understand how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with city services, such as police safety, airport services, and city communications, and learn about residents' priorities. Survey results are then displayed on an online public dashboard.

3. Are city workers trained in data fluency and analytics?

Upskilling existing staff on data fluency and ensuring that new hires have data skills is crucial as cities embrace digital transformation.

"If we're trying to build local governments that are able to take advantage of data in daily decision-making and to leverage data as a strategic asset, we need to have a workforce that can be the steward of that information and understand how it's used," Anderson said, adding that Bloomberg Philanthropies offers the "What Works Cities" certification, which provides city leaders with technical support and training.

Public-private partnerships, such as between cities and academia or community organizations, can also help cities source the infrastructure, people, and technical resources needed for innovation, Frias-Martinez added, as well as train and create new job opportunities for residents in communities affected by digital transformation. For example, the National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities initiative funds research to identify a community's local challenges and develop and test solutions for those problems.

4. Are cities prepared for the risks that come with digital transformation?

Digital transformation may be crucial for cities to meet residents' demands of the future, but the solutions "might come at a cost — both economic and human," Frias-Martinez said.

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For example, digitizing systems increases data-security risks, which may require that cities invest more in cybersecurity. Some digital-transformation projects can negatively impact communities, like gunshot-detection systems that increase stop-and-frisk instances.

Before deploying digital-transformation projects, city leaders should think through any negative impacts the technology will have, which groups might be impacted, and how they'll protect residents' privacy, Frias-Martinez said.

"Think about the implications and trade-offs of deploying such technology," she said.

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