The City?s eGovernment initiative ? its use of Web-based technologies to deliver applications serving citizens, customers, business partners, employees, and other governments ? is one of the things Colorado Springs is known for in municipal government circles. Most notably among the City's achievements is its award-winning Web site, SpringsGov.com. The municipal portal receives more than 13.2 million hits from approximately 110,000 user sessions each month. Transactional and business services generate $2.2 million in annual revenues through online permitting, class enrollments, transit pass purchases, and parking ticket payments. Just as important is the site's role in maintaining communications with just over 13,500 citizens and businesses enrolled in the CityWire email service (3Q 2004). SpringsGov.com provides key information on all aspects of city government to the community.

 

The SpringsGov.com eGovernment website replaced Colorado-Springs.com in July 2001. Colorado-Springs.com went live in late 1996 and received numerous national awards before changes in technology prompted a transition.

After ten months of development, the SpringsGov.com site and services went live. The solution earned the Trailblazer Award from eGov Magazine two months after its debut. Government officials and public foundations recognized SpringsGov.com for having a full range of transactional services, interactive features of prime interest to citizens and local businesses, and for improving public access to government information. Citizen communications options grew substantially with the menu of automatic e-mail notifications such as notices of streets closures, updates on public works projects in the community, and opportunities to respond to bids and proposals. In addition, the City established public computer banks at seven area community centers and at a municipal services office at one of the community's two major malls to assist the 30 percent of community members lacking personal online connectivity.

 

A crowning achievement occurred in late 2001 when the Center for Digital Government and Microsoft named the City of Colorado Springs one of the nation's Digital Cities of America. The CDG rated local governments across the United States on their use of technology to deliver services, including whether Citizens could do business with a click of a mouse, how well it used geographical information systems, the organization's use of enterprise resource planning solutions, accessibility of elected officials, and similar positive attributes. Among cities with 250,000 people or more, Colorado Springs tied Houston for fifth place, trailing Honolulu, Chicago, New York and Seattle. Impressively, Colorado Springs is nearly one-third the population of next smallest city in this prestigious group and has a fraction of the average winner's technology budget.

 

Since that first Digital Cities of America Award, the City of Colorado Springs has placed in the top 10 of municipal information technology operation every year. In 2002, SpringsGov.com placed as a finalist in the Best of the Web contest while taking 6th Place in the Digital Cities of America contest. Colorado Springs earned 2nd Place in the 2003 Digital Cities contest, tied with Los Angeles, and took a Pioneer award for its FireWise online wild fire mitigation solution. In 2004, Colorado Springs again placed as a finalist in the Best of the Web contest for its website, took 10th place as one of the Digital Cities of America, and earned a 1st Place award for its Police Intranet Information and Application Portal. The Digital Cities Award was sponsored by the Center for Digital Government and Oracle in 2004.