Fulfilling the Promise of Smarter Cities

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Amazing things are happening in Madrid, Spain. Government leaders in this city of 3 million people are transforming the way they manage and pay for city services provided by outside firms: services covering everything from street maintenance and irrigation of trees to garbage pickup.

Instead of paying for effort, they’re paying for results.

This big shift in service management is enabled by technology supplied by IBM that helps the city to manage its services based on detailed and timely information. As a result, the quality of services has increased and Madrid estimates it will shave 6% off its services costs and that its IT costs will decline between 10% and 20%.

What’s going on in Madrid confirms IBM’s view that the combination of sensors, networks and data analytics makes it possible for cities to operate more successfully than ever before. (We call these factors the three I’s–for instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.) Since we laid out our Smarter Cities vision seven years ago, we have engaged with thousands of city and regional governments, helping them fulfill the Smarter Cities promise.

I believe that today we’re at a turning point. City leaders understand the potential of these new technologies. They realize that they’re competing with other cities around the world to attract companies, talent and capital investment; so, it’s essential to provide infrastructure and services that support their goals.

Already, some of our Smarter Cities clients are taking advantage of advanced analytics.

In Bangalore, India, for instance, the water supply and sewage board is using big data and predictive analytics technology to monitor and manager increasingly complex water distribution systems at a time of rapid population growth and economic development. The technology enables managers to anticipate upcoming shifts in demand for water and the impact of weather on the storm sewers, so they can take action ahead of time to mitigate problems.

Also, IBM is now leading the tech industry, businesses and governments into a new epoch of computing which IBM is calling the Cognitive Era. Cognitive technologies are capable of ingesting vast quantities of information from unstructured data (currently in excess of 80% of all data produced), understanding what’s going on in the world, learning from their interactions with humans and data, and, as a result, helping us manage things better and make better decisions. I expect that in the years ahead, cities will tap into cognitive technologies to improve their competitive standing in the world.

In addition, I see tremendous opportunities to take cities to the next level through a combination of citizen involvement and the mobile app revolution.

For example, in many of our smart water engagements, citizens are able to monitor directly their own water use–which promotes conservation. In addition, in Madrid, using mobile devices and social media, citizens are able to instantly communicate with the city and alert them to issues (such as a fire hydrant leaking, or a large hole in the street) and then track the city’s response to their complaints online.

The more citizens understand what it takes to make a city work, the more invested they are in their city’s future. That helps municipal leaders secure their support for improvements. It also increases resident’s willingness to pay taxes and fees to cover the costs of physical infrastructure and services.

Cities are complicated places with complicated problems. Recently, I visited Newark, New Jersey, which faces substantial economic and social challenges. I was incredibly impressed by the willingness of government and community leaders to take on the big issues and to do what it takes to make Newark a better place. And I was gratified that IBM, with our technology and our expertise, has the ability to help them fulfill their dreams. To me, the Smarter Cities vision still burns as brightly as ever.