Smart City Webinar

How Cities and Local Municipalities Are Leveraging Smart Technology For Improved Citizen Engagement, Intelligence and Security

December 19, 2024

Cities and municipalities are increasingly adopting smart technology to help improve operations for its employees and residents. Cities can use these solutions to help achieve their strategic goals, whether it be to improve traffic, effectively monitor public spaces, or extend public WiFi for its residents. But there is no one-size-fits-all approach or roadmap to follow. Smart technology allows for so much customization, both in terms of types of technology and in design and implementation, which means there are countless ways for cities to use it.

Watch as Comcast’s Director of Smart Solutions, Jake Purcell, is joined by Akshay Malik, Director of Smart Cities for the city of Philadelphia, and Michael Hicks, Chief Information Officer of College Park, Georgia, to discuss how cities are adopting smart technology to unlock insights around traffic patterns and using data to impact design in public spaces within their communities.

As with any new technology, cities face challenges when attempting to implement smart technology. For one, cities and municipalities have unique needs, and there is not one simple blueprint for a city to follow. A town’s design, existing strengths, and budget are all variables that influence what type of implementation would work best. Additionally, cities can be risk averse and may not want to take the leap into investing in new technologies. Finally, municipalities face real logistical challenges when it comes to installing smart technology. For example, a city street may need to be shut down or temporarily re-routed in order to install smart cameras that measure vehicle speeds or count pedestrians.

Establishing an implementation process

With proper planning, cities can create a process that maps out how to design the best smart technology solution:

1. Discovery phase

Each project should go through a comprehensive audit to understand what exactly should be measured and what a baseline for success looks like. For example, is a city looking to better manage vehicle speeds on a main road or better monitor a public park?

2. Identifying trusted partners

Navigating the world of smart technology can be daunting for municipalities looking to enter the smart city space for the first time. It’s important to select a provider that has experience in creating a custom solution and can walk you through the process. Fortunately, Comcast Smart Solutions provides an ecosystem of best-in-class technologies that designs, implements, and offers support for smart technology.

3. Test and learn

Once your smart technology is implemented it’s time to compare your metrics to the baseline you previously established. Through this process, you can determine how to optimize your output and better impact your city’s residents or employees through your software’s AI-powered analytics.

4. Scale

Not only is smart technology completely customizable, it’s also scalable. Does your city’s parking garage need more smart cameras to cover the entire structure? Or would your park’s newest playground benefit from smart lighting? Additional hardware can be integrated into existing software, giving cities an easy path to scale. Plus, smart technologies help complement each other, providing a more holistic view of your city.

Adding smart technology to your city or municipality can be a time-consuming process. Understanding your needs, selecting the right provider, and then successfully installing the hardware or software can require multiple teams and buy-in from numerous stakeholders. However, the sooner the right smart technology is implemented the sooner you should have actionable insights.

The main benefits of smart technology for cities include:

Optimization opportunities

Smart technology provides your employees with resources to help organize data to improve their output. Different departments can access dashboards in real time for immediate insights or observe trends over time to make data-backed decisions to help them operate more efficiently.

Impacting your city

Smart technology is key in understanding how residents use your cities. It could help you unlock insights around traffic and pedestrian patterns or identify a need for more green space. By using data from smart technology, cities can help address residents’ problems while impacting their relationship with their community.

As cities explore smart technology, the most important consideration is the end user. By installing smart technology solutions, city and municipal governments can use data to make informed decisions that impact their residents' lives.

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Curious to learn how smart technology can improve your city?

Schedule an introductory meeting with an experienced member of the Comcast Smart Solutions team today.

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