Oakland County earns national recognition as Best of the Web

Oakland County has the best county government website in the United States, Government Technology magazine said this week. Oakland County placed ahead of other counties such as Sacramento County, Calif.; King County, Wash.; Wake County, N.C.; and Chesterfield County, Va. The recognition for www.OakGov.com is part of the 2014 Best of the Web awards from Government Technology and the Center for Digital Government. Oakland County is the Best of the Web because of its "unique approach to mobility, attractive and simple interface, and the black-and-white cost savings it enables," Government Technology said. Technology helps Oakland County serve the public better, County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. "Oakland County is a leader in using technology to improve services while reducing costs. Our IT Department has taken that a step further by making it easy to access county services from mobile devices," Patterson said. Deputy County Executive/CIO Phil Bertolini said the county wants to ensure it can accommodate the trend that more and more individuals rely on mobile devices. "About 30 percent of our traffic now comes from mobile devices and we expect that number to grow," Bertolini said. "That is why we have made our 23,000 pages of our website content accessible to mobile devices." The website also is easy to use for desktop users. Users can access the information or services they need within three clicks. "Our homepage provides enough information for users to get where they need to go without overwhelming them with too many choices," Bertolini said. Online transactions conducted through www.OakGov.com generated $17.8 million in revenue for the county while saving taxpayers $2.8 million in fiscal year 2014. The county also saved $1.3 million on transactions. In the past year, almost 4 million users visited the website viewing more than 11 million pages. Plus, they downloaded over 860,000 documents. To view the Best of the Web winners, visit http://ow.ly/Cnm97. Published: Thu, Oct 09, 2014