Dan Lewis

Director, Service Modernization, City of Seattle - Seattle IT Department

Supernova Award Category: 

Tech Optimization and Modernization

The Organization: 

The Seattle Information Technology Department aims to be a best-in-class digital service delivery team for the City of Seattle departments and the residents we serve. We equip our client departments with innovative and equitable technology solutions to better serve Seattle residents.

 

The Problem: 

Seattle is one of the nation's fastest growing tech hubs. With the offices of Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, and Google in the area, the city is no stranger to progress and innovation. A few years ago, like many other local governments, the City of Seattle was struggling to keep pace with the private sector’s digital transformation.  

When the COVID-19 pandemic landed in the United States, the City of Seattle was one of the first city governments to navigate the crisis. The timeline of events took everyone by surprise.

In just a few weeks, Seattle residents went from being considered low-risk—to learning that the first confirmed COVID-19 death in the U.S. was reported in their county—to the Mayor of Seattle’s announcement that an official stay-at-home mandate could be implemented soon.

With each passing day, it became evident that people would need to start working remotely. That day came quickly—and the City of Seattle had to pivot immediately to a telework environment.

Most of the city’s departments were still heavily reliant on manual, paper-based processes. Employees were concerned about their ability to track communications and serve their constituents from a work-from-home environment.

 

The Solution: 

The City of Seattle's IT department took a number of strategic actions. For example, they facilitated the deployment of more than 1000 laptops and procured more than 2000 headsets to support employees. Over the course of three months, the team quickly licensed thousands of Adobe Sign users, which provided licenses to all 14000 employees in the city. 

The Finance and Accounting departments, with their very detailed invoicing and purchase order processes were a priority. Those deparments no longer had access to their paper, so they started running invoices through Adobe Sign and saved time, money, and effort. So many departments were digitized overnight. 

Across those departments, City of Seattle employees have shown remarkable resolve to keep the government functioning, while adapting to remote tools, technologies, and at-home distractions. There's no going back to the top-heavy paper processes of before. 

The Results: 

To accelerate remote work, the City of Seattle deployed more than 1000 laptops and procured more than 2000 headsets to support employees. 

Within the first three months of 2020, the team licensed over 3000 Adobe Sign users, which provided licenses to all 14,000 employees in the city. 

Within the first three months of 2020, the City of Seattle had increased their Adobe Sign-led transactions by 300%. 

Metrics: 

Time and money saved: E-signature approval processes went from days to minutes. 

Increase in digitization over paper processes: Adobe Sign-led transactions increased by 300% 

The Technology: 

Adobe Sign, the cloud-based e-signature solution in Adobe Document Cloud. More than 8 billion electronic and digital signature transactions were processed through Adobe Document Cloud in the past year. The majority of Fortune 100 companies rely on Adobe Sign for fast, secure e-signatures. 

Disruptive Factor: 

Seattle is one of the nation's fastest growing tech hubs. With the offices of Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, and Google in the area, the city is no stranger to progress and innovation. However, it wasn only a few years ago when, like many other local governments, the City of Seattle was struggling to keep pace with the private sector’s digital transformation.  The government decided to modernize its operations and began gradually shifting to the cloud to improve productivity. Previous events like scheduled traffic disruptions helped them evolve their capabilities, enabling them to continue serving citizens and businesses effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It all started with Dan's 'aha' moment when he noticed employees walking around a building for 15 minutes just to deliver a piece of paper that needed a signature. He saw how the city could drive efficiency simply by empowering employees with technologies simliar to what they using outisde of work. 

Per Dan: Why walk that paper form you printed, in an interoffice envelope, 44 floors from your desk and wait an indefinite amount of days for a signature, when it can be done in 2 minutes digitally on your phone while you pick up your contactless mobile order at Starbucks. Work, in the digital world we live. 

Shining Moment: 

The City of Seattle's story is an example of the hard work government agencies are doing in the face of this devastating crisis, which will transform the way agencies work in the future. City of Seattle employees have shown resolve to keep the government going—while adapting to remote tools, technologies, and at-home responsibilitie. As more and more people experience the ease and power of digital tools, there's no going back to top-heavy paper processes. 

About City of Seattle - Seattle IT Department

The Seattle Information Technology Department aims to be a best-in-class digital service delivery team for the City of Seattle departments and the residents we serve. We equip our client departments with innovative and equitable technology solutions to better serve Seattle residents.