The Maricopa County Assessor’s Office has replaced decades-old techniques used to evaluate land.

The new cloud-based system took about ten years to develop and cost about $20 million.

The Valuation Office employs hundreds of people to value 1.8 million properties throughout Maricopa County each year.

Until recently, they relied on a 1992 system that was last updated before the first iPhone came out.

Judge Eddie Cook said the new platform can do things that previously required multiple applications.

Cook, who has served as an assessor for Maricopa County since early 2020, said, “Property owners can rest assured that the data will be more accurate and of better quality.

He replaced Paul Petersen, who was involved in an international adoption scam, and allowed the technology exchange project to be delayed.

Officials worried that the old system would be hacked. But the new system runs through a secure cloud.

“So customer data is already protected from personal information that anyone else has access to,” said Cook.

The outdated system caused Cook to have sleepless nights. Cook worried about crashes and hiccups that could shut down the assessor’s office.