Dearborn Partners With Google To Modernize City Services

DEARBORN, MI — City officials are partnering with Google Cloud to modernize Dearborn and help position the city as a workforce and talent hub in the region.

The partnership was approved unanimously (7-0) by the Dearborn City Council on Jan. 24, and is part of Mayor Abdullah Hammoud’s "Dearborn Advantage" program, which is a sweeping civic improvement that focuses on highlighting the advantages of being a Dearborn resident.

Hammoud was joined Wednesday by Google Public Sector CEO Karen Dahut at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. The two previewed many community benefits that will emerge from the partnership, such as modernizing the city’s website to make it an around the clock online service provider, doing away with physical trips and paper.

The partnership will also enhance the city’s translation capabilities with multilingual virtual agents available around the clock, as well as translation of city documents and website content.

"Dearborn residents are some of the most driven, innovative, and creative anywhere in the U.S., and I believe this collaboration gives them a government that accelerates their potential rather than slowing them down," Hammoud said. "This collaboration is also about opening doors of possibilities and putting Dearborn at the cutting edge of public service."

Dahut, who is based in Washington, D.C., spent the day touring Dearborn and speaking with members of the community.

"Products and services often dominate our discussions about technology, but the real story is how it helps improve people’s lives," Dahut said. "I was thrilled to see Dearborn and meet face-to-face with a few of the people who will get to experience first-hand how the cloud can transform the delivery of government services."

Along with the digital transformation, Google Cloud and Dearborn are working with ACCESS, a leading non-profit social services provider, on a workforce initiative to help Dearborn residents obtain Google IT certifications.

Hammoud believes having access to useful data is often the first step to solving some of the challenges the city faces.

"Often we run for office promising to solve a set of problems that residents care about," Hammoud said. "But it’s rare to also have the data to say, ‘this is what the problem actually looks like and here is the progress we’ve made.’ This collaboration is as much about accountability and transparency as it is about modernization."