Chief Technology Officer of Hexagon’s Safety & Infrastructure division, focused on innovative new technologies for smart and safe cities.
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As urban populations swell, the need for holistic smart city technologies is becoming abundantly clear in metros around the world. However, initiating citywide transformation is no easy feat.
To become champions of change and usher in the creation of smarter, more sustainable cities, today’s leaders must be prepared to take on extracurricular activities in addition to their usual duties. Topping the list is training and developing their teams, breaking down organizational silos and embracing public transparency.
Having the proper teams in place and on board with their vision is vital to a leader’s campaign for citywide transformation. Training, retraining and upskilling departmental leaders and employees to have a holistic view on embracing change is imperative. This includes creating a culture that fosters risk and empowers teams to develop innovative solutions to a wide range of challenges.
This new culture can empower department heads to create collaborative channels within their own teams to ensure common goals are met and operational workflows are unhindered by miscommunication.
These managers can also foster collaboration with a wide range of external departments and agencies that are responsible for servicing their communities, such as fire and rescue, law enforcement, public transit, public works and others.
Breaking down the traditional silos between organizations and sharing key operational data can have a tremendously positive impact on the ability to meet citizen needs. For example, incident response can be improved by disparate organizations across a city coming together and collaborating from the onset to avoid missed opportunities and conflicting actions. Bridging the gap for more coordinated response allows city departments to operate more like a single entity with shared situational awareness when needed.
Of course, this requires the ability to securely share data from a variety of systems, including everything from city hall and public safety agencies to transportation departments and utilities. On one hand, the sharing of data enables departments to extend the return on investment (ROI) of their current IT systems by supplying new integrations and use cases. But it also underscores the need for data protection and ownership policies.
Full public transparency should always be embraced as city leaders look to roll out holistic smart city technologies. Community engagement must happen early and often to share why certain technologies are being procured, as well as implementing open data transparency practices. This will help to foster ongoing public trust and allow for more creative uses of data.
Today, city leaders have the unique opportunity to enhance the efficiency of all urban operations and services, while also meeting the needs of future generations. By embracing holistic smart city technologies, leaders can advocate for their communities by fostering collaboration to inspire true resiliency. This will help departments effectively optimize day-to-day operations as well as prepare for the unpredictability of not knowing what major disruptive event is just around the corner.
By being the champions for smart city technologies and empowering all participants to be part of the change process, leaders can truly inspire a citywide transformation that leads to stronger, more resilient communities.
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