Shelby Review

The National Association of Counties (NACo) has announced Macomb County as a recipient of 12 Achievement Awards for 2022. The annual awards program, now in its 52nd year, recognizes innovative and effective county government initiatives that strengthen services for residents. Awards are given in 18 different categories, including children and youth, criminal justice, county administration, information technology, health and civic engagement.

“The exceptional services provided by Macomb County are once again being celebrated on a national level,” said Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel. “These awards allow our departments to showcase their innovative programs, while also demonstrating their problem solving abilities and resiliency. Our incredible teams absolutely deserve this recognition and I’d like to commend them for doing a great job on behalf of our residents.” 

The Macomb County IT Department received several awards for the following work:

• Software-Defined Networking

  Macomb County Information Technology implemented software defined networking equipment to provide a robust infrastructure that can accommodate the dynamic, and often unforeseen, challenges that have been presented by the global pandemic.

• Pivot Point Property Value Assessment Tool

  The Macomb County Equalization Department needed an automated, digitized means of conducting property value assessment to replace their legacy manual processes. For this need, Pivot Point software was selected and Macomb County IT oversaw its implementation.

• COVID-19 Vaccination Center and Scheduling System

  When COVID-19 vaccines became available, the Macomb County Health Department, as mandated by the State of Michigan, was in need of a scheduling system for vaccine distribution. Along with a scheduling system, vaccination centers had to be developed to accommodate the volume of patients requesting COVID-19 vaccines. So Macomb County Information Technology, under the direction of the Office of the County Executive, implemented a scheduling system for COVID-19 vaccination appointments.

• Flu Clinic Scheduling System

  Traditionally, scheduling of flu shot appointments with the Macomb County Flu Clinics has been done via phone. From the success of the COVID-19 Vaccination Scheduling System, an improvement for flu shot appointments was identified. Macomb County Information Technology therefore, in cooperation with the Macomb County Health Department, implemented an online Flu Clinic Scheduling System.

• Amazon Connect Cloud Call Center

  In January 2021, Macomb County Information Technology, with the assistance of an implementation partner, established an Amazon Connect Cloud Call Center to properly handle the hundreds of thousands of calls that the County was receiving on the COVID-19 vaccination phone line.

“Our journey of digital transformation has continued throughout the pandemic,” said Jako van Blerk, chief information officer for Macomb County. “As a matter of fact, it accelerated to a large extent. It spans across changing the way we do property assessments in the county while at the same time increasing productivity and reducing errors, to standing up a fully functional call center for people to get vaccinated in a matter of days. The enhancements improved cyber security, business agility and improved business processes for the county. Dedicated, innovative teams are key to these successes.”

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office also received seven NACo awards for efforts aimed at enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. This is the 41st year that Macomb County has participated in the NACo Achievement Awards Program. In 2020, the county received four awards.

Started in 1970, NACo’s annual Achievement Awards program is designed to recognize county government innovations. Each nominee is judged on its own merits and not against other applications received.

Original source can be found here.