FAQ What is a Smart City
In this FAQ I write about common questions about smart cities. What is it and how to get started is summarized in this FAQ.
WHAT IS A SMART CITY?
Digital Transformation of public processes
A Smart city is an urban area that uses electronic Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to collect data and then use insights gained from that data to manage assets, resources, and services efficiently.
Smart cities support cities in socio-economic and environmental challenges. Data is used to leverage citizens new insights as to how a city works and monitor the performance of the city of different socio-economic and environmental challenges.
WHEN IS A SMART CITY EFFECTIVE?
Positive Impact on Society
Smart cities have the highest impact on our societies when they develop a framework that meets the following requirements:
Have a clear strategy
Good leadership to design and implement new smart initiatives
Have solid business cases with clear objectives and KPIs to measure the before-after situation.
Focus on smart concepts that can be easily adapted for different challenges.
Engage all stakeholders involved and they speak and understand the same common language.
Map all necessary resources and skills needed to implement the new concepts at hand.
WHICH SMART CITY FRAMEWORKS CAN YOU USE?
Select a Smart City Framework
When actors start with new smart city initiatives, they need to select the best framework for their city. The most important variables are:
City context: what is the reason to develop smart initiatives?
Governance: Which stakeholders should be involved and with who would you like to partnership
Implementation: Which approach is best suited for your initiative? Examples are the Beta City, Platform, or Anchor.
Infrastructure: What infrastructure is in place/ needed and how can data be accessed open Source, Closed, Project defined ICT- Infrastructure.
WHAT ARE COMMON SMART CITY POLICY MODELS?
Common policy models
Once a framework has been selected, a policy model needs to be picked. Based on the selection criteria discussed in the topics above, the framework can be designed on two main streams:
Explorative: Smart City Reference Model. Where your focus lies on road mapping technological innovations and the objectives you and the main stakeholders would like to achieve.
Practical: Strategic Smart City Perspective. Start new initiatives based on shared technologies that are already fit for the market.
HOW TO STIMULATE INNOVATIVE SMART CITIES?
Decide on an innovation methodology
Once the policy model has been chosen, you can create the right environment to allow innovation to happen. To create the best environment for the development of a Smart city you can use one of the following environments:
Open innovation model.
Living Labs.
Project-defined.
HOW TO MANAGE YOUR SMART CITY PROJECT?
Monitor the effectiveness smart city initiatives projects
The success of new smart city initiatives needs to be assessed continuously during the smart city program. This helps reduce risks and manage the available resources for your program. The assessment should be in line with the following verticals:
Business case
Problem complexity
Effect/ impact on the quality/ efficiency of client users.
Data sourcing
Maturity of the solution
Alignment/modularity - can we duplicate the concept to other sectors/ departments?
WHICH BUSINESS MODELS WORK FOR SMART CITIES?
Common business models for smart cities
There are some 55 general business models that are used by 90% of the most successful companies (Gassmann et al 2015). For Smart cities, some of these models can be useful too when looking to explore good working business models. Some of the variables to look at when choosing your model are:
Who are your end-users & stakeholders and what are their needs
What is the value proposition and are there any similar solutions already on the market?
How can we organize the necessary resources to deliver the smart city concept?
Why is this concept important to the end-users and what is the benefit to society?
What risks are you willing to take in getting the concept on the market?
The outcome of the variables for your smart concept idea will help determine which business models work best for your smart city concept. Some interesting models that you could explore for smart cities are open source, auction, subscription (as-a-service), and design-build.
WHAT IS A GOOD SMART CITY STRATEGY?
Strategy designs for smart city concepts
When designing a smart city framework, it is important to set up a clear and common strategy that all stakeholders support. To make sure that your strategy is good, consider the following points:
All stakeholders have the same vision/ goals in mind
All stakeholders speak the same common language when discussing incentive-based smart city concepts.
All stakeholders support the choice of the business models used.
For more information about aligning stakeholders in your strategy sessions, see the following blog [here]
HOW TO SELECT A IoT SUPPLIER?
Select transparent suppliers with a comparable business 'fit"
Selecting a technology start-up or IoT supplier is dependent on (1) the complexity of the challenge you are trying to resolve and (2) the procurement policies that are in place by law or your company.
The general rule of thumb is, simple projects are traditionally selected, the more complex projects require a different procurement approach. This means procurement should make use of the smart city procurement principles: Open and incentive-based.
AVOIDING SMART WASHING
Avoiding problems when developing smart city concepts
When designing a smart city framework, it is important to set up a clear and common strategy that all stakeholders support. To make sure that your strategy is good, consider the following points:
All stakeholders have the same vision/ goals in mind
All stakeholders speak the same common language when discussing smart city concepts.
All stakeholders support the choice of the business models used.
CRISES MANAGEMENT
When all the above didn't work
When all the above steps did not work as planned the most likely reasons why your concept is not working are:
Stakeholders don't speak a common language
The smart concept is going to market too quickly. End-users have no confidence in what the concept can support them and find that the data outcomes are not reliable enough.
Conflict in policy outcomes between end-users.
Get in touch
If you still have any questions after reading my FAQ, get in touch.