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The key to a successful smart cities programme is to really understand how technology and data can helpĀ create better places for your residents. We spent quite a lot of time working to articulate and think about that the role that technology should play and how best to begin to pilot and trial emerging technologies with the aim that at some point they should be mainstreamed into operational services.Ā
The key challenges we faced have been:
Governance – Giving local members from both the city authority and county authority oversight and representing their communities. Getting the governance right also helped to unlock funding from the Greater Cambridge Partnership
Data – as an organisation we are data rich but most is trapped in legacy systems or of poor quality and we have faced quite a challenge to begin to sort ou the internal data plumbing
Siloed systems and polices – One of the key benefits of a ‘smart’ approach is to beginĀ to work across siloes and take a more ‘system of systems’ approach – there are a number of organisational barriers that we have come up against that make this difficult
Business cases – the business cases for the deployment of ‘smart’ technology are not well developed and we tend to be competing for funding against infrastructure projects that have a well worked through assessment process that gives a BCRĀ
WhatĀ has been important is collaboration with academia, business other public sector bodies and most importantly communities. If your starting a programme today build your network, work with local partners and know what problem your solving.