Delivering 21st century solutions to new-age citizens

Vineet Kshirsagar

Information technology is becoming a strong enabler for cities to turn into intelligent cities, cities of the 21st century that appreciate the power of the communities while also respecting their legal and political responsibilities. Cities that understand this potential will create a Citywide Nervous System that establishes the foundation for intense collaboration between all constituents in a city.

Technology that supports the deep specialization of city operations is now also at the core of the swing back towards balanced sharing of responsibilities. Changes are seen both internally in cities and in the broader domain of the communities. Already many cities are optimizing their operations to become more citizen centric, processes are simplified and shortened using advanced technology, facilities are shared to reduce costs.

Citizens exploit the improved access to technology to create new solutions addressing their needs immediately without the intervention of city services. Experiments and pilots initiated by citizens collaborating in communities are paving the way. Innovative technology is – again – the enabler for a major change. Citizens and cities are provided with the instruments that allow them to regain capacity to take responsibility, creating a livable city from both ends of the equation.

One such example of an implementation would be the migration of the Dongcheng District, Beijing to an Electronic City Management Platform. The Dongcheng district is in the heart of Beijing, covering an area of around 26 square kilometers inclusive of Tiananmen Square. The Beijing Dongcheng District Government is responsible for overseeing the city of a million people.

Using Oracle Solutions, the Dongcheng government built their City Grid Management System featuring a wireless information service system, a geographical code enquiry system, data management capabilities, and safety management features. The system enables data to be transmitted without relying on extensive cabling by using wireless functions in the underlying Oracle technology and supports the development of a high-end geographic information system with Oracle Spatial, enabling the district government to undertake accurate city planning. The success of the City Grid Management System implemented by the district government has led to other cities adopting the system.

As a new government in India comes into power riding on the wave of development, smarter cities and technology enablement will be amongst the key focus areas. They will strive to find a way to balance between personal face-to-face or voice-to-voice services and the incurred cost with the need to respond immediately and serve a rapidly increasing population. Even local governments in India will need to build service delivery environments that respect the digital divide as well as the budget realities cities face. For example, with Assembly elections pending in Delhi, each interaction has a price and the potential to impress or infuriate potential voters, investors, and tax payers. Innovative governments will leverage IT in an appropriate integrated fashion, looking to use the least expensive, fastest means of servicing its citizens and businesses with a fully integrated means of providing a fall back to the next level of support – typically incurring greater cost but a smaller number of instances.

Governments today need to build an integrated, efficient and transparent service delivery platform across all programs covering all services delivered to business, citizens, and municipal employees. A platform with the intelligence embedded in it to provide transparency and accountability, a mapping of the existing and required connection points between operational processes and programs that can support transformation of day-to-day information and transactions into the priorities of tomorrow’s focused and integrated programs.

The author is senior director and group head (Government Business), Oracle India

(The article was published in PCQuest June 2014 issue)