Page 52 - Reference framework for integrated management of an SSC - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

On the other hand, the municipal organization has historically developed based on defined areas
of activity. In most cases, it corresponds to municipal organizational structures such as water supply,
waste collection, environmental management, and public lighting. There are also external systems
of a heterogeneous nature that are managed by third parties such as transport services, tourism
and social networks.

It is common for municipalities to have many self-contained vertical solutions, known as “silos”,
which solve specific problems. Although they are usually simpler to implement, they cannot solve
the demand for more complex services that, in many cases, require the sharing of information in
real time among different internal departments and external actors.

This legacy model has become too complex to manage and is not suitable for processing the
enormous amount of information generated by the connected elements. It also hinders proper
decision making, which, in many cases, may not be aligned with other areas or departments of
the city.

Consequently, a horizontal solution that supports different business applications enables the rapid
creation of new services and the sharing of information between areas and external actors. It also
eliminates duplication in communications and hardware and software, is flexible, reduces the costs
of operations, administration and maintenance, and is an excellent approach to solving the present
and future needs of the city in an orderly way.

Designing a scalable, consistent, and secure technological ecosystem that enables the flexible
incorporation of new functionalities implies:

• The definition of a reference architecture based on services.

• An integrated and standardized model of information.
• Unified operation and metrics.

• Performance indicators that allow the profitability of the necessary investments to be evaluated.

This architecture, with minimal changes, must be able to adapt to present and future needs. Aspects
such as the introduction of converged networks like 5G, IoT, Cloud Services, Big Data, Artificial
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Intelligence and blockchain represent new opportunities to use technology to improve efficiency
and create more and better public services.

However, there is no single architecture or reference platform to respond to these requirements.
The task of choosing a technological solution is not without difficulties since it depends, among
other factors, on the available budget, the necessary functionalities in the short and medium term,
the ease of migration of existing systems to the new architecture, standards (open or proprietary),
and finally, on the ability to generate interdepartmental synergies that reduce costs and justify the
investment.

38 Reference framework for integrated management of an SSC | June 2023