In a short few years, New Orleans has come from obscurity to being recognized nationally and internationally for taking the lead in offering cutting edge e-Government solutions to the combat the problems facing municipal government. When Mayor C. Ray Nagin took office in 2002, he brought with him a technology oriented business mentality. Mayor Nagin elevated technology as a major part of his platform and set in motion building the organization that could apply private sector worthy technology initiatives across the whole of city government.

To spearhead the charge he brought in Greg Meffert as the city’s first Chief Information Officer (CIO). Mr. Meffert brought a wealth of industry experience to the job and put together a plan to overhaul the city’s long neglected and outdated systems. He created and staffed the Mayor’s Office of Technology (MOT) as a cohesive group of technology professionals used as project teams to tackle each major step. By bringing in the technological expertise very rarely found in a municipal environment, Mr. Meffert created what many Fortune 100 vendors have noted as a new model for taking on the challenges all city governments face.

Upon arrival of the administration, the city faced a large budget crisis and had only two days worth of cash on hand to help address it. One of the first steps taken was the reengineering of the budget issues and associated contracts. By scouring the existing infrastructure for waste and inefficiencies, millions in savings was immediately realized and reprogrammed towards even greater financial and efficiency rewards for the City of New Orleans. Immediately, the city began restructuring in moving the city’s mainframe off-site and outsourcing MIS services, creating a significant savings. By standardizing the city’s data center, and creating true “active” partnerships with Microsoft, Dell, Sony, Cisco, and others, the city was able to negotiate a major upgrade of equipment while simultaneously realizing almost 30 percent decrease in costs. Included in this overhaul was an improved communication system using a Cisco VoIP network, yielding millions in future savings while providing a vast upgrade in functionality and reliability.

Improvements to technology and departmental practices have brought recognition from US and International agencies in both public and private sectors.  Some of these improvements include:

• Implemented new financial reporting system allowing users to produce ad hoc reports, thus increasing cash flow to the city generating millions in recaptured interest.
• Implemented state of the art kiosk based systems allowing private citizens and businesses access to municipal services in a way that offered drastically reduced wait and fulfillment times within affected departments.
• Created a working partnership with Microsoft and Dell to provide a technical program addressing the Digital Divide in the City’s community.  Citizens in disadvantaged communities receive free access to technology and the Internet in a simplified interface that provides self-paced learning, productivity software, and age appropriate content in both city and non-profit centers.
• Created an e-government environment from ground floor that is currently delivering prompt and cost-effective responses to citizens by providing extensive online services that include, but are not limited to:
  • Paying parking/traffic tickets, personal property taxes, real estate and sales taxes.
  • Reporting minor incidents, vandalism, missing property, potholes, abandoned cars, clogged catch basins and traffic signal outages.
  • Accessing assessor information, crime stats, Safety & Permits wait time, city ordinances, and public bids and proposals.
  • Finding recreation centers, after school care programs and brake tag stations.
• Implemented technology improvements throughout the New Orleans Police Department.  These improvements include but are not limited to:
  • Deployed city-wide Surveillance Camera Security Canopy and wireless network resulting in a reduction in the number of violent crime and homeland target protection. This system has already been cited by Sony, Microsoft, CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, and other national publications as the #1 leading crime/homeland security system and design in the U.S.
  • Orchestrated structure and rollout of DHS/UASI grants for Interoperable Technology grant to link voice, video and data communications between 90 local, state and federal first responder agencies.
  • Implemented a new case-screening application enabling the District Attorney’s Office to screen cases in 2 days, cutting the process time by over 70%.
  • Replaced Citizen False Alarm and Amber Alert systems to create more responsive and accurate system to residents.
  • Implemented state of the art GIS-based technology in the Crime Analysis Department for faster and more complete case management and evidence flow.
• Centralized GIS data across the City’s network allowing shared access by City staff.  GIS data has been used for new FEMA flood zone mapping providing a more accurate flood risk assessment of City neighborhoods.
• Deployed a GIS-based property database on the City’s website to provide automated information flow and process on acquisition blighted and adjudicated properties.
• Implemented a new paperless contract management system that provides real time administrative views of any contract as it progresses through the system allowing managers to identify bottlenecking and create a standardized system of accountability across all departments.