Page 27 - Enabling digital transformation in smart sustainable cities – Master plan

Enabling digital transformation in smart sustainable cities – Master plan

2 Conclusions and key considerations

For an SSC initiative to be adopted and succeed, it is important to understand the need for
such vision and ambition. Accordingly, the following must be considered:

• The SSC initiative must have a strong political leadership from the local government.
Such leadership must be shown through the administration of the project, the constant
coordination between the relevant actors, the decision-making, the change management,
customize training, by overcoming challenges and any other action necessary to guarantee
the development of the project. The designation of responsibilities is key to ensuring the
success of digital transformation strategies.
• The set of objectives must be clear and must allow for the quantifiable evaluation of results
obtained.
• The continued evaluation of results is fundamental to show the value of the initiatives
developed and the role of KPIs is essential and must be significant.
• Develop models of public–private collaboration, as they are powerful alliances, leading the
ecosystem of innovative actors to drive digital transformation. The planning must facilitate
a scenario of mutual benefits between all agents, while the role of the administrator will
be to facilitate the relationship between all agents.
• On the other hand, if SSCs are about efficiency and support initiating digital transformation
and a better quality of life, they must support important economic savings or the
implementation of new services. A serious study of the financial aspects of the initiative
and also the future administration of financial resources must be conducted. Here, the
public-private collaboration plays a key role.
• Inhabitants should be recognized as the cornerstone of any SSC transition and digital
transformation process. They are the main beneficiaries of the SSC model that can provide
the city with valuable data, ideas and feedback. Consequently, the city has to actively
promote and enable inhabitant participation.

In any event, understanding the city as an open ecosystem, to promote open areas of collaboration,
through co-working, accelerators programmes and urban labs, makes mechanisms available to
naturally incorporate collective intelligence and areas of co-creation.

The collaboration between the ecosystem's actors in the city, as well as the collaboration
between cities, can be made available and improved through the use of ICTs and digital
technologies that allow collaboration tools and integration initiatives to be more realistic and
efficient; for this reason, public-private initiatives are key. It is especially important to learn from
past initiatives and experiences, especially in the context of digital transformation, which can
have a cross-sectoral impact in smart cities.

It is very important to adopt, at different levels of the decision-making process, common and
shared policies of ICT tools and solutions, combined with organizational changes and the
acquisition of new skills in order to generate savings and greater productivity of the city's
administration that can have a positive effect in meeting increasingly tight budgets. Investing
in ICT also produces great benefits for the city's economy, boosting productivity through
incentives and the creation of new jobs.

As experiences and technologies continue to emerge in the digital age, it is crucial to recognize
that the effectiveness of SSC strategies requires a holistic, articulated approach oriented towards
digital transformation that is not solely based on technological and infrastructural aspects, but
primarily on improving the inhabitant's well-being.

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