Press Release

Oakland County CIO, Deputy County Executive Phil Bertolini to Give Keynote Speech on Trends in eGovernment at Illinois Government Conference

Pontiac, Michigan, March 12, 2009 Phil Bertolini, Oakland County CIO and Deputy County Executive, will deliver the keynote presentation at a workshop for government managers and policy makers in Chicago on March 13.

Bertolini will speak on Trends in eGovernment, focusing on how Oakland County is transforming the way that the public sector does business with citizens, businesses, employees and other governments.

Bertolini will present a new, Web-enabled government model developed and implemented by Oakland County, in which information and services are multimedia-enriched and citizen-centric. Web 2.0 tools such as social networking, blogs and instant email notifications are wrapped around business objectives that are tied to results-driven action steps. In this new collaborative model, the old top-down structure is turned on its side and information flow is two-way rather than one-way.

The focus on technology has dramatically altered the way county government operates, said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. The business model changed from one of standing in line to one where our customers now go online to conduct much of their business. On both sides of the counter, time and money are being saved.

Bertolini is currently a member of the Harvard Policy Group and a Steering Committee Member of the eGovernment Compass Project of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Bertolini was named as one of the Top 25, Doers, Dreamers and Drivers by Government Technology Magazine along with L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive. Under Bertolinis leadership, the Oakland County Department of Information Technology was twice named among the Top 100 Agile Enterprises by CIO Magazine. The Center for Digital Government named Oakland County 2nd in the nation in the 2008 Digital Counties Survey, and 1st in the 2008 Best of the Web County Portal Category.

Beyond the Web Page: An e-Government Workshop is presented by the University of Illinois at Chicagos Master of Public Administration program, in partnership with the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, the Illinois City/County Management Association, the Wisconsin City/County Management Association, the Wisconsin Association of Counties, Metro Counties of Illinois and the Illinois Municipal League.

Find out more about Oakland Countys award-winning eGovernment services at www.oakgov.com.   For media inquiries, please contact Bob Dustman, Media and Communications Officer at (248) 858-1048.
 
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