Digital Transformation - Q4 2022

Digital Transformation

“To bridge the telecoms skills gap, the industry must act as a collective.”

Robert Franks, MD of WM5G and Director of Regions, Entrepreneurship and Skills at UKTIN

“Digital brains are getting better, but human brains are not.”

Michael Litterick, Innovation and

Insight lead consultant, Socitm

Advisory

Bridging the telecoms skills gap

Transitioning from a few vendors to an open networking ecosystem, the global telecoms sector is facing a period of significant change, which poses notable opportunities for the UK’s security and economic interests.

Amid an ageing workforce — 60% of the engineers in the UK are over the age of 50 — and gaps in telecoms training, increasing demand for fibre and 5G has exposed significant skills gaps across the country.

Growing network

According to a recent report by Eightfold AI, 33% of those in the leading network engineering and operation positions are not currently equipped to adapt to emerging telecoms trends, particularly 5G and Open RAN. The UK Telecoms Innovation Network (UKTIN) intends to address this, acting as an impartial coordinator and facilitator of telecoms’ capabilities and interests. Funded by the UK Government, the network — which launched in October this year — is committed to building a growing, resilient sector that identifies future skills and attracts talented people into the industry to deliver a long-lasting societal impact across the UK.

Telecoms training

Our ambition is to act as a convener of industry, academic research and development communities — supporting the definition of a UK telecoms strategy, clearer access to funding and the evolution of new mobile and broadband technology. Centring on social value, UKTIN — delivered by a consortium of four partners: Digital Catapult, CW (Cambridge Wireless), University of Bristol and WM5G — will facilitate entrepreneurship, employment, vocational training and educational attainment challenges through a National Telecoms Entrepreneurship, Employment and Training Programme on track to launch in the second half of 2023.

According to a recent report by Eightfold AI, 33% of those in the leading network engineering and operation positions are not currently equipped to adapt to emerging telecoms trends.

Maximising talent

Regional strengths will be leveraged, with diversification and decentralisation at the heart of our plans. Understanding and communicating the capabilities and assets that already exist will be crucial, in addition to recruitment and retention strategies. To bridge the telecoms skills gap, the industry must act as a collective.

Ultimately, the demand for digital skills will only be resolved through a large-scale commitment to training, movement of workers and competition. We believe the first step is to help telecom businesses across the country understand the challenges they are facing — only then can we orchestrate an effective industry response. Like any gap in the market, a shortage of skills presents an opportunity for innovation and new talent to enter the market ahead of the curve. We look forward to being a part of this much-needed transformation.

Riccardo

Accelerating digital agility sensing as a response to infinite customer experiences

Companies are urged to think differently about their marketing and sales operating models and undergo a digital transformation to keep pace with how their consumers engage with brands.

Sector observers believe some organisations are slow to align themselves with the way customers use digital media channels to browse, shop and buy. Unless these organisations undertake meaningful transformation in how their sales, marketing and IT teams collaborate to deliver what customers expect, they will struggle to compete for sales and growth.

The interconnected ecosystem

Kathryn Arbour, who is a Partner at Deloitte Digital specialising in digital marketing and sales transformation, says traditional marketing organisations tend to focus on a linear shopper journey, encouraging people down a funnel to ultimately drive conversion at a point of sale owned by a third party or separate sales team.

“This isn’t how people explore, interact with, or purchase brands anymore.” She points to an increasingly complex ecosystem of content where people seek information and inspiration in places where the content is rich and the opportunity to buy is immediate, such as shoppable ads, discovery commerce, influencer/creator content and the metaverse. Such points of interaction, which “blur the lines between sales, marketing and technology,” are increasingly seized upon by nimble startups, while larger organisations struggle to engage.

Organisations should rethink their marketing and sales operating models to be more agile, customer experience outcomes-based and integrated if they hope to keep up with their more nimble competitors.

Internal siloes

She indicates that many blue-chip organisations are still operating in siloes — with separate budgets for marketing, sales, IT and media — resulting in a lack of ownership, competing priorities and, ultimately, a disconnect with consumers.

“Organisations should rethink their marketing and sales operating models to be more agile, customer experience outcomes-based and integrated if they hope to keep up with their more nimble competitors,” she adds. Larger organisations that have changed their way of working have seen results. She points to one global CPG’s prestige beauty division as an example.

“They have observed higher growth percentages with fewer people because they work in this more agile, more connected, consumer-focused way, creating a place where people want to get inspiration and ideas — and buy while they are there,” says Arbour.

Digital transformation

Lisa Smith, a Partner in the Deloitte Digital practice and a Digital Anthropologist Creative researching the impact of digital technologies on humans and social culture, is currently working with one of the largest global consumer brand’s sales and marketing teams.

“We believe the fastest way to respond to customer experience is to have product stewards own market sentiment of audience groups that is embedded in a digital product,” she says but warns that content, sales and brand marketing are suboptimised if not organised and integrated within cross-domain, multi-disciplinary teams from Operations and Technology, HR and Finance.

“The response to experience has to be completely reimagined within organisations, and we know that connectivity to the market is through the route of digital,” says Smith. She also underlines the importance of real-time feedback loops to know when to refine a digital product or introduce something new as consumer experiences infinitely evolve.

“Digital transformation is not just about cool technology but is a radical intervention that allows for an organisation to intuitively understand when the experiential market personas want a new way to engage with their brands.”

Fundamental shift

Deloitte has conducted research in this area with digital native brands and identified common themes that can help inform new organisational models. This found that digital startups were less likely to use external agencies; conducted creative aspects in-house, with the founder often the face and spokesperson of the brand; and formed pods of people working together on Instagram or TikTok, adopting a channel-focused approach or capturing customers at specific points along a transformation journey.

“The lesson we try to bring to our clients is that they need to think differently about how their multi-faceted teams are working, empowering them to keep the customer’s needs front of mind. It is a fundamental shift from departmental KPIs and objectives,” explains Arbour.

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

INTERVIEW WITH

Kathryn Stokes Arbour Partner, Deloitte Digital

INTERVIEW WITH

Lisa Smith

Partner, Deloitte Digital

Digital dystopia: is it fiction — or the future?

Digital transformation is changing the nature of our organisations. As technology increasingly takes on more human tasks, how can we create sustainable environments where people can continue to find purpose, meaning and productivity?

It is natural for organisations to focus on using the best, most effective and most efficient tools for any job. Digital brains (computers) are getting better, but human brains are not. For organisations with a primary focus on external customers and shareholder return, they transition to increasingly reliable, predictable and scalable digital technologies.

Unintended consequences

Digital transformation is the transition of transferring cognitive tasks from human brains to digital ‘brains.’ This results in organisations transforming into more digital entities, reducing the space within them that human thinking occupies. This is similar to what happened to farming in the industrial revolution. And why not?

Two key challenges

Humans face two existential challenges: one to our physical world — the climate crisis, and one to our mental world — the digital mind. In the charge towards digital transformation, organisations can opt for approaches similar to fossil fuels; trading the people and environment of tomorrow for the energy and economy of today. They can also opt to take a more sustainable approach: trading the energy and economy of today for the wellbeing of the people tomorrow.

How we deal with the climate crisis will shape where we can physically live. How we deal with the digital mind will shape where we can work. Organisations must consider how their activities not only contribute to the climate challenge but also the challenge of the digital mind and human space within our workplaces.

Ethical digital transformation

While there remains a fiscal necessity to focus on efficiency, we should also consider how to create sustainable, purposeful and empowering workspaces for our human population — one where technology and economics serve people, rather than technology replacing people for the benefit of the economy.

Digital capabilities can enable great things but when delivered without careful planning, the consequences can harm progress and undermine the overall health of the communities we serve and live in. After all, if we truly digitised everything, what would people do? How do we guard against the realisation of such a digital dystopia?

Work is already underway, especially across the public sector, with data ethics boards and ethicist roles now cropping up across governments. We recognise the value of human capabilities in the design of services, including the element that technology can’t bring: empathy.

Humans face two existential challenges: one to our physical world — the climate crisis and one to our mental world — the digital mind.

WRITTEN BY Michael Litterick Innovation and Insight Lead Consultant, Socitm Advisory

New business programme is helping to support the growth of smaller firms

have access to student talent pools to work on projects or as part-time or placement employees.

Practical course

At the end of the course, each business will have a growth action plan with a mentor assigned to each participant.

“The courses are a practical and applied perspective on academic theory. We find that being delivered by practitioners adds real value to business leaders and helps make this programme as meaningful and useful as possible,” explains Lyn.

“The course gives small businesses access to resources but helps them to step back from their business, network with other business leaders, and share experiences.”

Business growth

Olusola’s Tune-Up Seafoods Ltd was established in 2011 in Essex and has 11 staff with a split of 80% retail and 20% wholesale. With a scientific background, Olusola recognised she had no formal business training and joined Help to Grow to push the growth and productivity of her business. “It has had so many benefits,” she adds. “It has given me the confidence to work in business properly, and the digitisation part of the course has helped; we are now selling online and offering more products.” Olusola also points to the value of the programme’s mentorship opportunities.

Executive leaders from small and medium-sized companies have seen their organisations flourish after support from an innovative business programme.

For a number of participating entrepreneurs, their companies were established, but they retained a feeling they were still under-achieving, often because as individuals, they had never received formal business training or had never received the benefit of guidance from expert practitioners and mentors. In other instances, they simply needed a digital boost to help unlock new markets.

Help to grow

The Help to Grow programme has offered the opportunity to plug this knowledge gap and unlock a new lease of life for their organisation.

For seafood business owner Olusola Oke, that digital element enabled her to offer products online as well as from two established stores, while language specialist Katerina Burgess is applying new marketing skills to give

her business a greater global reach. Linzi Sortain is already seeing the programme’s value in advancing her enterprise to take sports sponsorship onto a self-managed platform. All three entrepreneurs have undertaken the Help to Grow programme at London South Bank University (LSBU).

Business performance

Lyn Hamblin, Programme Director for the Help to Grow Scheme at LSBU, explains that the initiative is 90% funded by the Government, with participants paying £750, which is 10% of the cost of the 12-week course run through universities with Small Business Charter accreditation.

Since launching at LSBU in September 2021, she says about 200 businesses had benefitted from the programme that looks across all areas of business performance from strategy, innovation, finance, high performance, marketing and digital adoption. covers strategy, engaging customers through targeted marketing and building sustainable and agile businesses.

In addition, at LSBU, participants

Katerina’s legal translation and interpreting services firm EurasianLinguistics.com was also set up in 2011 and is based in Wokingham, Berkshire. “I felt I needed to learn about innovation in marketing, to enable us to take the business to the next level faster,” she says.

Deeper understanding

Katerina says Help to Grow gave her the courage to experiment and since the course, she has conducted proactive online networking and marketing, and hired professionals as well as students. “It has given me a deeper understanding of modern business requirements,” she adds.

“We are also giving opportunities for young people to work alongside very experienced digital marketing experts and helping them to grow as well as growing ourselves.”

Linzi had previously helped other organisations with digital transformation but post-pandemic has been focusing on her ‘A New Icon’ sports sponsorship platform. With no formal qualification, she often felt “on the back foot” but turned to Help to Grow to drive this new venture forward with confidence.

INTERVIEW

Small and medium companies are being given a new lease of life via an innovative programme designed to help businesses grow.

Paid for by London South Bank University (LSBU)

INTERVIEW WITH Lyn Hamblin Programme Director, Help to Grow Scheme, London South Bank University (LSBU)

INTERVIEW WITH Katerina Burgess Founder, EurasianLinguistics

INTERVIEW WITH Linzi Sortain Founder, A New Icon

WITH Olusola Oke Founder, Tune-Up Seafoods Ltd

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

Smart cities have the potential to transform urban life for disabled people

From train stations that lack step-free access to uneven pavements, city places and spaces are strewn with barriers that can stop disabled people from participating fully in society.

The lack of accessibility can make it difficult to do things non-disabled people might take for granted — such as meeting with friends; using healthcare, education and other key services; and finding a job.

How technology can help From artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to the Internet of Things, new technologies promise to make cities more accessible. Traffic lights can be fitted with Bluetooth technology so that people with reduced mobility can activate them via a smartphone app. Digital apps connected to city infrastructure can update users in real time about broken-down elevators and other obstacles they may encounter on their journey and then suggest alternative routes. Extended reality (XR) smart glasses can help visual-impaired people find their groceries on shop shelves unaided. Technology companies are leading the way in many of these groundbreaking innovations. Google has developed digital tools to help residents navigate city streets by crowdsourcing information about accessibility. The Dutch company Cyclomedia uses 3D mapping technology and AI to provide city administrators with data to repair damaged pavements and create a long-term strategy for accessible streets.

Current limitations

However, smart cities also pose a significant challenge for disabled people. Like many technologies currently on our city streets, smart city interfaces often rely on devices such as touchscreens and key fobs that are inaccessible to many disabled people. In 2016, New York City was successfully taken to court for installing new information terminals throughout the city which were inaccessible for blind and visually impaired people.

Making sure smart cities work for

everyone will require leadership from policymakers. Governments need to ensure smart cities are accountable. They need to establish laws and regulations so that disabled people’s data is used securely.

Ensuring technology works for everyone National governments and local authorities must be proactive in assuring smart city technologies are aligned with the priorities of inclusive urban living. Transport for London has demonstrated how this can be achieved by requiring developers who

wish to benefit from their open data policy to get accessibility training so they can ensure that the new technologies they create can be used by everyone.

Finally, policymakers must make sure locals are actively involved in decision-making as their cities change around them. Disabled residents should be given a voice to help shape the future of their neighbourhoods.

WRITTEN BY Clive Gilbert Senior Policy and Research Manager, Policy Connect

WRITTEN BY

Baroness Tanni

Grey-Thompson

DBE

Making sure smart cities work for everyone will require leadership from policymakers.

Better and faster parcel delivery coming our way in the UK

Consumers will see changes in the way they receive post and parcels as the sector embraces a digital transformation in the next few years.

The parcel and courier services sector is undergoing a digital transformation to improve efficiencies and dramatically change the consumer experience. Industry observers point to a future where technology will play a central role with 5G networks and AI-based automation, driverless vehicles — both inside and outside warehouses — and digitally managed and optimised workforce delivering to consumers and connected parcel locker infrastructure.

Parcel lockers

Consumers will see greater real-time tracking of items, coordinated by software which integrates users and companies. Ian Streule points to using more parcel shops and the advent of parcel lockers as the default, low-cost

delivery point for parcels and high-value letters such as passports.

“They are transforming the delivery of items from being a physical, traditional knock-on-the-door type approach to one controlled by software and interfaces between consumer and suppliers,” he says. “We will see parcel lockers as central hubs.” Telecoms, media and technology (TMT) specialists Analysys Mason predict investment in 50,000 parcel lockers in the UK by the end of the decade.

Cost reductions

Technology will lead to benefits including optimisation and efficiency of supply chains, cost reductions and contribution to smart towns and city infrastructures. Consumers will see changes as local authorities place emphasis on emissions and

move towards developing smart cities, with the parcel sector having to respond. However, governments and policymakers must recognise that the sector needs investment.

Streule, Partner and Head of Postal and Courier Practice at Analysys Mason, says: “There are a lot of digital transformation activities in the sector. It’s a competitive market with big players using digital developments to help their business become more competitive, efficient — and reduce costs.”

Workforce optimisation

Meanwhile, digitally managed workforce optimisation is transforming the way parcel delivery companies organise employees. “We see the need for route optimisation and driving in the most efficient way around towns to deliver. We must also optimise the workforce to respond to very short-term demand changes like same-hour delivery, with some done by autonomous vehicles or non-human devices,” adds Streule.

However, he remains concerned about traditional postal services and believes Royal Mail has been slow to adapt to digital technologies and risks being left behind. He says Analysys Mason can help in laying the foundations for the wider introduction of technology in the postal, parcel and courier sector but underlines the importance of long-term planning of policies and business impacts.

INTERVIEW WITH

Ian Streule Partner, Analysys Mason

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

While there remains a fiscal necessity to focus on efficiency, we should also consider how to create sustainable, purposeful and empowering workspaces for our human population.

Michael Litterick, Innovation and Insight Lead Consultant, Socitm Advisory

A special feature on Smart Cities

BY

Director, Forests, Land and Housing Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

city diplomacy can better connect global and local

City smartness cannot be measured only by the level of digitalisation of services.

Electrification

An e-mobility revolution can’t come soon enough for growing cities around the world, where health complications from poor air quality contribute to nearly 8 million years of life lost annually.

Long-term investment Electric vehicles are an obvious way to reduce emissions from transport. But they can also bring other benefits, like providing first or last-mile connectivity in remote places, providing alternatives to fossil fuels in transport and even democratising the manufacturing of vehicles. Although, the cost is a major hurdle to adoption.

Electric vehicles are expensive — sometimes 70% more than their conventional counterparts. As a result, their sales have remained concentrated in major markets such as China, Europe and the US.

But the math behind electric vehicles is changing, making them more relevant to developing countries. A new World Bank report makes a strong economic case for accelerated e-mobility adoption in many developing countries. The analysis shows that the savings in fuel and maintenance over the life of EVs often offset the higher purchase price. When the environmental and health benefits resulting from a switch to EVs are monetised, the scales tip even further in favor of e-mobility adoption in many places.

Mobility options

For many countries, the first step toward advancing electric mobility will be introducing electric buses and electric two or three-wheeled vehicles. Electric buses carry many people over long distances, so their cost savings accumulate over time. Two and three-wheeled vehicles have a relatively low cost and are already popular in countries such as Cambodia, India, Nepal and Vietnam, accounting for as much as 60 to 80% of all passenger-kilometers. This makes their electrification particularly promising.

Once a country decides that advancing the adoption of electric mobility makes sense, there are several ways governments can be proactive. Nonmonetary incentives such as promoting leasing and consumer financing are promising and cost-effective.

Most importantly, governments need to invest in robust charging infrastructure, which can be up to six times more effective at encouraging EV purchases than subsidies.

Accelerating progress toward sustainable mobility in developing countries is crucial, and electric vehicles will be an important part of this equation.

As defined by UNECE, ‘people-smart’ cities are those providing the “necessary conditions and infrastructure to enhance the capabilities of their citizens to contribute to, and enjoy the benefits of, a more liveable, resilient and sustainable urban development.” In short, digital transformation is one of the means to help citizens, but clever solutions need to go well beyond IT.

Developing policies

UNECE is working with cities to reach this goal first with diagnostics. Our ‘Smart City Profiles’ use 92 Key Performance Indicators across the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability.

Based on these assessments and other monitoring tools and research, we develop tailored policies and guidance for cities.

Evidence-based policy development is crucial for cities’ sustainable development, but of equal importance is the opportunity for cities to exchange views, share challenges and learn from others’ experiences.

City diplomacy

It is from the realisation that many of the causes as well as the solutions to key challenges — from climate change to economic and social crises — are based in cities that UNECE convened the Forum of Mayors. The Forum is a unique platform for city diplomacy where mayors meet to exchange their experiences and make

recommendations that feed into our intergovernmental cooperation. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the first Forum adopted the Geneva Declaration of Mayors, translating their ambitions to build resilience into a common joint manifesto.

As Architect Norman Foster put in his keynote, “Globalisation has lifted billions out of poverty but created local rust belt communities of despair. So, a better balance of local and global is on the way, and each city could play a part.” City diplomacy can pave the way for sustainable solutions, and the Forum of Mayors is the first crucial step towards having national and local actors at the same table. Today, we continue to put this vision into action as we prepare for the third Forum in 2023.

Local efforts Being truly ‘smart’ also comes down to the built environment, which is why we are aiming to bolster the role of city practitioners through the Principles for Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Design and Architecture enshrined in the San Marino Declaration. Working with mayors and diverse city actors ensures that city smartness does not translate only into the digitalisation of the urban infrastructure but benefits from a larger spectrum of solutions.

For many countries, the first step toward advancing electric mobility will be

City diplomacy can pave the way for sustainable solutions, and the Forum of Mayors is the first crucial step towards having national and local actors at the same table.

How developing countries can benefit from an e-mobility revolution

‘Smart’

WRITTEN BY Riccardo Puliti Vice President for Infrastructure, World Bank

WRITTEN

Paola Deda

Why video tech is a smart way to improve city living

Implementing smart video technology infrastructure into cities can boost safety, mobility and sustainability.

ImageprovidedbyMilestone

WRITTEN BY Neil Killick Director of Sales, Developed Markets, Milestone Systems

The more we see, the safer our cities can become, says Neil Killick, Director of Sales, Developed Markets at Milestone Systems. Today, 55% of the world’s population live in urban areas. This will increase to a jaw-dropping 70% by 2050. This explosive growth in populations will continue to challenge city living – with immense pressure on infrastructures, increased risk of crime and more pollution. Ultimately, quality of life will suffer.

Benefits of a connected city

It doesn’t have to be this way if governments, policymakers, urban planners and security operators tap into the opportunities offered by connected, data-driven video

technology, which can make cities smarter. When data generated by cameras and sensors is channelled into a central, connected video management system, operators can monitor, analyse and examine footage on a single interface — and, as result, make a real, positive difference in people’s lives.

For example, with this type of shared tech, cities can be made safer. It can help first responders deploy their resources more effectively and offer them advanced post-event evidence and analytics. Crowds can be managed more safely; entry points to buildings can be monitored to prevent unauthorised access; and cameras, sensors and analytics can be employed to quickly investigate

and resolve crimes. City authorities, law enforcement and governmental agencies can communicate and collaborate more effectively if they are all using the same information.

Tackling congestion, crime and environmental challenges

Video technology can be a boom for city mobility, honing in on roads, intersections and transport hubs to detect incidents and queues, avoid congestion and improve people’s transport experiences. Sensors, video or radar can inform drivers of unoccupied parking spaces. Roads, public transport systems and thoroughfares are key to a city’s prosperity and liveability, so solutions ensuring free movement and safety are critical.

Plus, video tech is a win for sustainability, with closer monitoring ensuring better air quality, water levels and waste and water supply management. When cameras, sensors and analytics monitor noise, chemical and waste pollution, city environments are improved, and resident wellbeing rises. The data doesn’t just allow citywide operators, authorities and decision-makers to react speedily to incidents as they are happening — it can also help anticipate and prevent them.

With data-driven video, we can overcome seemingly impossible challenges — and a better urban life can be created for all.

The smart city narrative has flipped. In the face of the climate emergency, the focus is now on ‘sustainable and inclusive’ cities — and how these can be enabled with smart tech.

The narrative around ‘smart cities’ has changed. Previously, the focus was on how new technology — such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other data-gathering innovations — could digitalise urban areas. It was missing a compelling explanation of why it was necessary and the environmental and efficiency benefits it could have.

Technology as a sustainable route

Now, the climate crisis emergency has forced governments and city planners to think in a completely different way. “Talk has moved away from ‘smart cities,’” says Maria Tsavachidis, CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) initiative working to encourage positive changes in the way people move around cities. “It’s now about ‘sustainable and inclusive’ cities — and how smart technology can be used as an enabler for net zero cities and a sustainable mobility transition. There’s been a recognition that it’s the purpose of this technology that matters most.”

Take the transition to sustainable urban mobility. Digital technologies have a key role to play in this area that could include smart tolling/parking, geofencing for low-emission zones and micromobility parking. To be successful, however, Tsavachidis notes that policies must be specifically tailored to local needs.

Using intelligent tech in a beneficial and impactful way

Better transport infrastructure — including cycle lanes and e-charging locations — can be created with the use of smart planning tools such as digital twins and data analytics. “Even sustainability measures that seem lowtech, such as urban design and safe cycling infrastructure, need intelligence behind them if they are to be beneficial,” explains Tsavachidis.

Once any sustainability initiative is in place, it’s vital to measure its impact (such as monitoring pollution in low-emission zones). “You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” says Tsavachidis.

Digital tools that include every person

The recent Smart City Expo World Congress, and its spin-off ‘Tomorrow.Mobility,’ defined a smart city as ‘not only forward-thinking and sustainable but fully inclusive, leaving no one behind.’ That last point is important, stresses Tsavachidis because, in the rush to make cities more sustainable, inclusivity must not fall by the wayside.

“For instance, intelligent transport information is great for people who have smartphones,” she says. “But what about older people who may not have them? We should provide them with a solution, too. In the move to making cities more sustainable, we must ensure that we consider everything — and everyone.”

How smart technology can be used as an enabler for net zero cities

INTERVIEW WITH

Maria Tsavachidis

CEO, EIT Urban Mobility

WRITTEN BY Tony Greenway

Smart cities: how to avoid ‘death by dashboard’

The ability for information to be exchanged between different elements of a city’s infrastructure and service provision can create tremendous benefits for residents, businesses and the environment.

We know that data is a defining feature of any smart city. When we think about what is driving positive changes, we need to appreciate that it’s not just the data but, rather, what the data is telling us. Data-driven insights are what translate to changes in the way we plan services, build our cities and serve the needs of people. In techUK’s ‘Demystifying the Smart City’ report published this year, we argue that when this doesn’t happen, it’s a drain on resources and undermines trust.

Overwhelming data generation

When we see data being gathered from us but do not see any benefit, we can feel suspicious of the intention behind it. Data without insight also means we run the risk of ‘death by dashboard’ with local authorities or other public bodies overwhelmed by the level of information generated — but with little idea of what to do with it. That’s in addition to the cybersecurity risks that holding high volumes of data can expose us to.

Fortunately, these issues can be overcome. When we reframe our thinking away from data and towards insight, it gives us reason to invest and empower workforces to become both data analysts and changemakers.

How insight improves communities

We must ensure local authorities have the resources they need to invest in people and that those people are equipped with the skills to draw insight from the data collected. It is through these insights that core services will be enabled to work smarter, more efficiently and better support the needs of the community they serve.

TechSkills, techUK’s digital skills arm, has been focusing on this for several years. Through working with schools, colleges and universities, we’re helping to ensure that core digital and analytical skills are taught as part of curriculums. It’s a case we also make to our stakeholders in the Government regularly.

Better services and capabilities

The smart city movement is continuing to gather pace. We’re always excited to hear how techUK members are working with local authorities to help build out their capabilities. Rather than a costly array of spreadsheets and dashboards, they’re dedicated to showing their customers the power of insight to completely transform services. Through our engagement with our members, we are working towards ensuring the rest of the industry can follow suit.

WRITTEN BY Julian David CEO, techUK

Councils and the cloud: streamlining services and saving costs

Local authorities are switching to cloud-based digital solutions to improve efficiency and better serve their citizens.

In a post-pandemic era where citizens expect more online interaction with local governments, new approaches can help councils provide services more quickly and cost-effectively. Against a backdrop of budgetary constraints and the cost of living crisis, industry observer Kris Burtwistle explains how the cloud can be instrumental in helping councils meet citizen demands while keeping costs in check.

Transforming services

Across the UK, local authorities are moving to the cloud as their main route to digital transformation, realising its cost-saving and sustainability benefits, as well as improving their agility and security posture.

“Councils are identifying a particular challenge they have and are using the cloud to alleviate that issue,” says Burtwistle, who is Head of UK Local Government at Amazon Web Services. “With cloud comes a degree of scale that was hard to achieve before.

Organisations of all shapes and sizes can now tackle big, complex datasets and drive tangible outcomes from it.” Advantages with cloud adoption can be seen in transforming services around the citizen; cyber security and reducing threats; automating processes and innovating at speed; and repeatability.

While local authorities have different services, geographical challenges and demographics, they have similar statutory obligations to their citizens, which provides the opportunity for repeatability. “One of the things we have been working hard to do is take best practices and share that across other local authorities,” he adds.

Highly repeatable

In one example, Swindon Borough Council used Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to address fly-tipping. A solution that saved over 2,000 staff hours on the ground, £3,000 a year on fuel costs and reduced average clean-up time from ten days down to four — it has been done in a way that makes it highly repeatable and easy to redeploy. Swindon has seen over £41k in savings over the past 2.5 years, which has also led to CO2 savings of 1,591,200g p/yr.

Burtwistle explains: “Cloud makes that kind of initiative far easier because you don’t need to go on-site and configure and install hardware to rebuild another solution. You can have that preconfigured in the cloud and redeployed at the next local authority quickly and easily.”

Boosting cybersecurity

Cloud-based solutions can help councils defend against cyberattacks and be proactive in identifying where potentially malicious behaviour may arise. Over the last five years, Hackney Council has adopted a ‘cloud unless’ strategy and has been working to move their digital services to the cloud. The Council suffered a major cyberattack in October 2020 which affected their legacy on-premises services, with serious impacts on the Council and its residents. The progress that the Council had already made by moving their services to the cloud helped to protect several critical systems from the attack, and their partnership with AWS enabled the authority to mobilise quickly to recover services.

Automated processing

Moving away from on-premises infrastructure and towards AWS in the cloud allows councils to operate at scale, maximising efficiencies and driving greater savings. Councils can scale services up or down according to usage — such as lower weekend demand — and replace manual tasks with AI-powered automation.

The 60,000 documents Maidstone Borough Council receives from citizens, for example, previously had to be manually scanned. Now, an AI-powered document processing solution with cloud-based storage assesses and extracts text and photos from documents, identifies where the relevant information should be rooted and sends that to the processing team. Councils can also help meet their own sustainability goals by moving to the cloud — and reduce energy use by nearly 80% when they run their applications on the AWS Cloud instead of operating their own data centres.

With easily redeployed technologies such as these, local authorities can smoothly and more efficiently address relevant concerns that arise, with the new solutions benefitting both the councils and their citizens in the long term.

Any councils wanting to discuss how the cloud could help transform their day-to-day operations should contact aws-uk-local-sales @amazon.com

INTERVIEW WITH Kris Burtwistle Head of UK Local Government, Amazon Web Services

WRITTEN BY Mark Nicholls

Organisations of all shapes and sizes can now tackle big, complex datasets and drive tangible outcomes from it.

Proving why sustainable cities are smart cities

The world’s cities find themselves on the front line in the fight against issues surrounding the climate crisis.

This year has shown the devastating impact the climate crisis wreaks on people and our planet — from the deadliest floods in Pakistan’s history to the worst drought across Europe in five centuries.

City threats

Despite taking up just 3% of the earth’s land surface, cities are home to more than half the world’s population (55%) and responsible for the majority (70%) of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Moreover, four in five cities tell us they are already facing climate hazards — from droughts to floods — and for almost one in three cities, these hazards threaten at least 70% of their population. It is clear, therefore, that cities are the central piece of the puzzle in any effort to meaningfully tackle the earth’s rising temperature and the myriad issues that come with it.

Inclusive benefits

For cities to take tangible and effective climate action, people need to be placed at the heart of it. For example, cities could have an adaptation goal or target that addresses key issues such as energy, poverty, water and food or consult civil society in climate action planning and develop plans with a collaborative approach.

Our latest analysis shows that cities that put people, especially vulnerable groups, at the centre of decisions on climate action — from assessment to implementation — not only make

progress on the road to keeping the world’s temperature below 1.5°C but they unlock a host of other benefits, from better public health and more jobs to deeper social inclusion. These benefits make cities healthier, happier and more inclusive places to live, work and invest in.

However, change cannot happen in silos, and cities need to identify who to work closely with — such as their national governments and the private sector — to drive support for and investment in next-level climate action.

Boosting African digital infrastructure can build more resilient societies

Digital infrastructure, including broadband internet and mobile telecom services, is at the heart of a strong economy. However, about 900 million people are not connected to the internet in Africa.

To make it worse, prices for internet connections are high and bandwidth is limited in many areas. Only 0.4% of Africans have a fixed broadband subscription, and most people rely on phones for internet access. To help recover after the pandemic, the continent needs to speed up digital offerings.

Secure and inclusive

The Global Gateway, the EU plan to support global infrastructure development, will mobilise €300 billion from 2021 to 2027 to improve digital services. Investing in Africa’s digital future will build a secure and inclusive economy. Getting everyone online is a big challenge. Companies’ profit falls in remote areas that have low populations. Public banks can improve voice and internet connections in remote cities. The European Investment Bank is offering many solutions in underserved areas. We blend our loans with EU grants to lower the risk of investment in digital projects, attracting more private investors. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we helped build a fibre optic network to bring high-speed internet to nine towns.

For cities to take tangible and effective climate action, people need to be placed at the heart of it.

Holistic approach

At CDP, our data shows us the value of collaboration and the benefits that come from working with actors across cities, states, regions, governments and businesses. Three-quarters (75%) of cities tell us they are working with the private sector, and technology is a key area of that partnership.

By working together — from implementing renewable energy technologies to decarbonise cities to driving innovation in new, smart, digital and sustainable technologies — cities and the private sector can develop solutions to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

Infrastructure sharing

One alternative that offers more internet connections in small towns is infrastructure sharing, which reduces costs and makes it easier to expand networks. The sharing can be passive or active. Passive sharing allows several towns to use the same towers and fibre cables. Active sharing lets towns use the same radio network.

Global connections

Around 99% of international data runs through undersea cables. The major cable routes connect North America with Europe and Asia. Africa is underserved, but some projects have started recently, especially on the eastern coast. Our €25 million loan for an undersea cable will improve Mauritania’s digital connections with the rest of the world. The 600-km cable will make the economy stronger, reduce the risks of lost connections and provide connections to more people.

Digital technologies offer rapid economic growth, innovation, jobs and more possibilities that were unimaginable in Africa a decade ago.

WRITTEN BY Maia Kutner

Global Director, Cities, States and Regions, CDP

WRITTEN BY Thomas Östros Vice President, European Investment Bank