The winner of this year's Datacom Award for Digital Local Government is Christchurch City Council for its 'Christchurch City Information Network (CCIN) - Early Fire Detection Sensor Network' project.
Presented by Andrew Leusink, Customer Success Manager at Datacom, this award is for programmes or projects that result in an exceptional service experience through new delivery models or the redesign of business processes or practices. The programme or project can relate to any area of council activity which is about delivering improved value for money to ratepayers. The approach must be capable of transfer to other local authorities.
This is a highly successful pilot project of a sensor network as a means for detecting fires in the Waitākiri/Bottle Lake Forest Park. The network sends warnings to authorities in real-time and protects wildlife, facilities and people.
The judges said "this was the stand-out entry in the Digital Category, as a smart application of sensor and internet of things technology. A highly transferable solution to manage a risk that will only grow as climate change sees significant parts of New Zealand grows hotter and drier."
This award's sponsor Datacom is the country’s largest and longest serving technology company. It delivers an ever-green service called Datascape to local councils which contains a wealth of intellectual property built from our multi-year success within local government.
This is the third year that Datacom has sponsored a category in the Excellence Awards (having previously sponsored the now discontinued Transforming Service Delivery category).