Sharing best practices for smart city success

Over the past decade, smart city projects have been launched around the globe as governments realize the potential of leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) technology to offer their citizens, business owners, and tourists a real-time view of what’s happening in their city.

With so many different approaches and strategies to take to become a smart city, the question becomes: Where do you begin?

As smart city projects become more commonplace, government leaders are refining how they plan and execute their smart city initiatives based on the lessons they’re learning along the way. At the same time, technological advances continue to expand the possibilities of innovation.

Cities embracing a smart city journey can learn from those who have successfully implemented their own smart city initiatives. Below are three best practices to consider in order to create smart cities that are sustainable, equitable and responsive to citizens’ needs.

Engage the right people

Collaboration is key to successfully launching a smart city project. By pulling in the right stakeholders, city leaders can create a connected community that fosters innovation and accelerates growth. Partnerships are a big piece of the collaboration puzzle, especially partnerships between the private and public sector.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) bring an intersection of private sector technology and innovation to help distribute the technical, financial and operational risks between both the public and private sector.

Prioritize city needs

Becoming a smart city requires more than one technology solution. Therefore, it’s important for city leaders to define their needs first and then think through how technology can help get them there, instead of the other way around. The same approach can be applied to partnerships as well. Cities shouldn’t feel the need to fit into a vendor’s description of a smart city, but rather define for their vendor partners the vision for their smart city.

By prioritizing city needs, leaders can focus on implementing one project first and continue to build upon those projects or add additional projects over time. Remember, the road to becoming a smart city isn’t a one stop solution, but a journey that grows over time, Once you can prove success on one project, not only will it be easier to secure funding for the next project on the journey, but the teams will have the confidence to propel them forward.

Provide the necessary network and security

In order for these IoT devices to be efficient, they must be connected to a reliable, secure, and high-speed network, which is the critical underlying infrastructure Spectrum Enterprise provides. With a dedicated fiber network from Spectrum Enterprise, the data captured is sent to those who need it, in real-time, for analysis.

The proliferation of IoT devices also means city leaders need to make cybersecurity a primary component for any smart city initiative. Leaders should consider taking a multi- layered approach that defends the end points, network connectivity, data, and applications through overall end-to-end threat management. Acknowledging the need for a cybersecurity strategy, as part of an overall smart city initiative, can help leaders budget and plan appropriately and avoid add-on expenses once a system is already in place.

A road to take together

The road to becoming a smart city is one to take together, learning and sharing best practices along the way.

To get more information on how to become a smarter city, contact us here.