SIDNEY — The city of Sidney Information Technology Department had a very successful year in 2023. “Some of the highlights include a financial management system upgrade, court software solution upgrade, electronic citation implementation with the courts, enhanced cybersecurity protection services, upgrading the city’s automatic water meter collection system, and the implementation of a next generation in-car and body camera solution to name a few,” said Director Joel Glass.

His report continues:

With the upgraded automatic water meter collection system, the Information Technology department is able to provide more accurate and efficient data collection with the latest radio technology, online bill pay services, and enhanced data communications.

The Information Technology team also completed the implementation of a highly advanced body camera solution to support some of the most advanced technological solutions in the industry. The new design also provides for efficient and reliable storage management solution for public safety video as well as performance to generate the highly efficient workflow for the City of Sidney operations.

Additionally, in early 2023, the Information Technology department completed the upgrade to a new court software solution. The current court software solution is a highly impressive and cost effective solution. Shelby County and the city of Sidney have a very unique combined technology implementation consisting of Sidney Municipal Court, Shelby County Common Pleas Court, Shelby County Juvenile Court and Shelby County Clerk of Courts. This design and implementation is one of very few in the state of Ohio and has saved well over $1,000,000 over the course of this original implementation in 2016 by leveraging shared services among the different divisions of court.

In the later months of 2023, the Information Technology team continued migration of the city’s permitting and licensing solution to one of the latest and most advanced solutions in the industry. This implementation will provide a more efficient workflow with enhanced operations for the permitting process for the public and contractors.

To round out the year, the Information Technology department started the migration to a new GIS software solution. The city of Sidney and Shelby County again have partnered to provide a central GIS solution with a Regional Small Government License Agreement (SGLA), which is one of very few in the country. Together with these partnerships between the city of Sidney and Shelby County, the advanced Information Technology team is able to provide efficient, cost effective, enterprise class solutions to the public.

In 2024, the Information Technology department is looking to have a very busy year with the completion of the enterprise permitting and licensing solution as well as the migration to the next generation enterprise GIS solution. Further, the team is looking to complete several core network infrastructure implementations.

Additional projects for the Information Technology department’s 2024 budget cycle include the migration to a new online tax payment solution, revenue collection customer relationship management (CRM) solution and a next generation audio and video online collaboration suite for the Municipal Court to name a few.

The Information Technology Department will also be leading the process to a next generation enterprise class 911 implementation to provide the public the most advanced 911 and emergency services in the region during 2024. The city of Sidney is a partner in a regional 911 solution with the city of Bellefontine, Logan County and Shelby County. With the collaborative approach, the city of Sidney will be able to provide the public with the most cost effective and advanced emergency call processing solution in the industry.