COVID-19 Chatbot
Web Services, E-Government and Mobile Apps
Over 250,000
COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, CA
As with many organizations the world over, Alameda County is doing its best to take care of its constituents and employees during this pandemic. From new services to new procedures, every step has been to help the citizens of the County to get through this with as much help and safety as possible. We’ve found that one of the most helpful things we can do for people is to simply be able to answer questions. Our citizens come to us through every channel available – social media, email, phones – and it takes up a large amount of staff’s time help them with their questions, even common ones that almost everyone asks. The answers may be routine for those, but the time it takes to help isn’t any less. The County decided to create a chatbot that could help our community with some of these routine questions, and with that CACHe was born. CACHe stands for County of Alameda Community Helper. By allowing people to access self help via the chatbot, our staff can focus their efforts on the more complicated questions and issues we are presented with.
Virtual Marriage Ceremony Project
Web Services, E-Government and Mobile Apps
Over 250,000
COUNTY OF ALAMEDA, CA
The State of California is under shelter-in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to restricted public access to the County Clerk Recorder’s building, marriage licenses could not be obtained by the public through typical methods, and the County ceased performing any marriage ceremonies. On April 30, 2020, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-58-20 permitting County Clerks to issue marriage licenses and perform marriage ceremonies using
electronic signatures and video conferencing technology. Alameda County Clerk-Recorder partnered with Alameda County Information Technology Department to set up the process and all the necessary infrastructure to be able to conduct marriage ceremonies by Monday, May 4. The joint Clerk-Recorder/ITD team worked through the weekend and implemented a fully paperless process, allowing the parties to submit an application, participate in the ceremony via videoconference and receive and sign a marriage license, all completely online without entering the county office. On May 5, 2020, the County successfully issued its first marriage license online and performed its first virtual marriage ceremony.