King County is one of America's top 10 digital counties—a distinction we've earned in 11 of the past 12 years from the Center for Digital Government.

Our team of 400+ technology experts is changing the way local government interacts with the public. Thanks to KCIT, here are a few ways technology supports our region's most critical services.

Reduced transit fare for low-income riders.

Making it easier for residents to get where they need to go

Implementing ORCA LIFT was a major change to the regional ORCA system, which allows people to fill up a payment card so they can easily access buses, trains, street cars, and more.

• ORCA LIFT required a robust public-facing website with a sophisticated back-end database capturing customer information.
• Development required collaboration from KCIT services such as Business Analysis and Business Solutions.
• More than 25,000 people signed up for ORCA LIFT in the first year.
• KCIT's work on ORCA LIFT earned a NACo Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties.

Electronic health records and patient management systems.

Reducing medical errors and improving quality of care

Electronic health records strengthen business efficiencies and meet the needs of our diverse population. KCIT's practice management system allows Public Health – Seattle & King County to succeed through key technology enhancements.

• Modernized administrative systems.
• Collects electronically transmitted data for easy analysis.
• Assures patient safety and protects private information.
• Improves capacity to monitor the health care delivery system.
• More than 20 health clinics in King County have adopted the new technology.

Cloud backup strategy saves time, money.

Driving a more efficient, productive government

Data backup is about creating copies of all records. King County is America's 13th largest county, so our data storage requirements are significant. KCIT's cloud infrastructure accelerates new services and increases operational efficiency.

• Legacy model was expensive and prone to error.
• New back-up strategy reduces complexity while improving mobility.
• Instead of massive tape libraries with a huge footprint and costly storage needs, we now have a digital dashboard staff can access from anywhere.
• KCIT's cloud solution won a Best Practice Award from Amazon Web Services.

Expanded outreach through digital civic engagement.

Helping King County do old things in new ways

King County's digital media program provides near real-time customer service and targeted communications while allowing staff to make smart, data-informed decisions about public outreach.

• 200+ social media pages and 500+ email and text message topics people can subscribe to.
• 350,000 email and text message subscribers, reaching 1 in 6 county residents.
• 12.3 million emails and 5.1 million text messages sent in 2015.
• Nearly 1 million average monthly visitors to www.kingcounty.gov.
• Re-imagined press release program won a Digital Strategy & Impact Award from GovDelivery.

Online property assessment appeals program.

Creating a mobile government for the future

KCIT and the King County Assessor's Office teamed up to create eAppeals, allowing residents to file an appeal of their property valuation online.

• Property owners can easily review the valuations of comparable properties, forecast potential tax savings, and submit evidence to support their appeal.
• Provides in-depth property information 24/7 while saving time and resources for property owners.
• More than 30% of appeals countywide are now coming via eAppeals.
• Our work on eAppeals won a NACo Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties.

I-Net: State-of-the-art fiber optic network.

Supporting schools and libraries through powerful technology

KCIT's Institutional Network (I-Net) connects approximately 300 public facilities across King County. The network is used for data, voice, and video communications by libraries, schools, law enforcement agencies, and more.

• Contains cost for telecommunications expenses.
• Two-way interactive video is used as an instructional tool for educators.
• Improves ability to share information and resources between public and educational institutions.
• Enhances participation in public and business meetings.
• Expands and upgrades to support future technology requirements.

Improved customer service through CRM.

Building better relationships with our residents

Customer or constituent relationship management (CRM) is a system for managing interactions with people using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize records.

• Instead of re-implementing costly single CRM solutions, we chose an enterprise strategy to increase collaboration.
• Streamlined our processes for handling issues and concerns by sharing real-time information across organizations.
• CRM provides a security model that protects data integrity and privacy.
• New Public Records Request app utilizes enterprise CRM to deliver consistent technology solutions to nine different agencies, saving approximately $260,000 in purchase costs.