The Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government, recently recognized Phoenix as one of the Top Ten Digital Cities for 2007.

The designation was determined by results of the 2007 Digital Cities Survey, which examined how cities are using technology to better serve their citizens and streamline operations. Phoenix tied for sixth place with Miami, Fla. in the 250,000+ population category.

Phoenix’s featured accomplishments were the Phoenix Regional Wireless Network (PRWN) and the city’s e-commerce infrastructure, both administered by the city’s Information Technology Department (ITD).

PRWN provides a public safety and public service radio system serving Phoenix and 20 adjacent metropolitan jurisdictions, and at least a dozen federal, state and county agencies. In Phoenix, the system currently supports the Police, Aviation, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Public Transit, Street Transportation, Water Services, Human Services, and Library departments, Municipal Court and Valley Metro Rail, with more than 11,000 radios on the network. The Fire Department has several hundred radios on the network for interoperability with police, but is still working to transition onto the system for full operations.

The city’s e-commerce infrastructure supports more than 18 different types of payment/purchase processes, including the Interactive Voice Recognition system for water bill payments. Website visitors conducted nearly 700,000 transactions and the city collected more than $74 million via e-commerce in 2006-07.

"The city of Phoenix is pleased to be ranked number six in the Digital Cities Survey, but not completely satisfied,” said Charles Thompson, chief information officer. “Constant improvement, based on our survey responses, is a positive indicator of the city's progress, having moved from number ten in 2006 in our particular population category.”

“As we continue our movement toward a Web-enabled city, the true measure of seamless customer service is citizen usage and acceptance of digital services," said Deputy City Manager Cynthia Seelhammer, who oversees ITD. “These results will be an impetus for the city to continue to learn, change and improve in the way we provide services to our customers.”

The Top Ten Digital Cities were honored Nov. 15 at a special awards ceremony during the National League of Cities “Congress of Cities” annual convention in New Orleans.

Additional information regarding the survey is available at centerdigitalgov.com.