New York City is a pioneer in use of technology in many ways. For instance, the work of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics has been cited repeatedly as an example of smart city innovation. But the innovation doesn’t stop there. Two projects that used SAS data visualization and data management, respectively, were recently honored at the Center for Digital Government’s Best of New York Awards.

The New York State Department of Health and Office of Information Technology Services received the Best Data Analytics/ Business Intelligence Project award for the New York State Prevention Agenda Dashboard. SAS Visual Analytics supports a public dashboard, customizable by each county and available on mobile devices.

From the awards page, “The New York State Prevention Agenda Performance Tracking application is used to promote civic engagement, transparency and government performance. Developed in response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 95 of March 2013, the interactive, Web-based public dashboard displays the progress made in improving public health. Staff from the Department of Health and the Information Technology Service Health Cluster designed the platform with comprehensive capabilities for optimized functions even on mobile devices. Currently the dashboard provides progress images and visualizations for nearly 100 state tracking indicators. Data trends and maps throughout the state can easily be accessed. In addition, each county has its own dashboard including visualizations of county data. During the first year, there were more than 90,000 views of the dashboard. The estimated savings for development is $4.5 million and maintenance and updates save $800,000 annually.”

The New York City Department of Education was honored with the award for Best IT Collaboration Among Organizations for its program for universal pre-kindergarten adoption. SAS data management software was used to identify eligible kids all over the city so that parents could be informed that they could enroll their children in the program.

From the award page, “Set in motion in May 2014, the Universal Pre-Kindergarten Initiative provided pre-kindergarten services for more than 53,000 children through Department of Education public schools and community-based early childhood centers. Through close coordination with multiple stakeholders including Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, various department development teams and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, the program was able to offer services by September 2014, the start of the new school year. The project team developed a customer relationship management (CRM) system for student registration, the ability to log parental information requests, a new Elementary School Directory Update system and enhanced the search and modification capabilities for pre-kindergarten registration. The program's successes have made it a national model for other pre-kindergarten programs.”

Developments like the Internet of Things, social media and the move to online services are rapidly changing how local governments generate and analyze data. Check out 10 ways analytics can make your city smarter, and today’s press release about our Envision America membership, to learn more about how SAS supports smart city initiatives. You can also read about how SAS and the International City and County Management Association partner to bring performance management and analytics to local governments.