October - 20218GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKHow do government agencies perform system upgrades while working remote?BackgroundIn March of 2020 the San Francisco Assessor Recorder, like every else was hit with the task of transforming to a completely remote work force. We had over 200 staff and only a few dozen who had ever worked remote before. We also faced another challenge; we had projects in motion to upgrade our two main systems (Assessor and Recorder) as they were both over 20 years old and we had to stay on track. We thought this was a recipe for disaster.The property tax assessment system is responsible for tracking the assessed value for all property in San Francisco (total transfer tax revenue in 2020 was $335M). The recorder system supports official record keeping (managing over 150,000 official records annually including deeds, marriage certificates etc.). Because we were: (1) losing revenue in other City agencies; and (2) money was being redirected to relief efforts it became imperative that our projects were a success. While all new IT projects were Sean Finley, IT Director - Office of the Assessor-Recorder, City & County of San FranciscoByIn MyOpinion
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