The CRITICAL First Step for an Indonesian City to move to a Smart City: A Digital Roadmap

Today, cities around the world including Indonesia face the digital explosion coming from all directions! From the transition to a digital economy, moving to e-government services for its citizens and the explosion of internet-connected devices, there is an urgent need to understand how all these digital solutions fit the vision of the City Planners and Management.  This can be quite overwhelming and if the city is unprepared, it can lead to a disastrous consequence of having wrong technology, wasted budgets with minimal impact, and most importantly very unhappy citizens!

At least 8 of the largest cities in Indonesia have already started down the smart city highway!  We have Jakarta, Semarang, Denpasar, Makassar, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Banyuwangi and Bandung which have implemented some technology associated with the smart city concept such as Smart Economy, Smart Live, Smart Living, Smart People, Smart Mobility, and Smart Governance.  As more cities look to become smart it is very important for the city planners and management to establish a “Digital Road Map” which aligns with the cities vision.

What should a Digital Roadmap Include?

1. Where do I want to be?  The starting point for any digital roadmap is what is the vision and expectation of Smart Technology for the city, its residents, and businesses.  It must describe the scope and nature of initiatives proposed across the plans, including primary and secondary common elements.

Examples of Primary elements include:

• • E-government
  • Promote IT industry
  • Citizen engagement
  • Open data
  • IT Infrastructure
  • Internet access
  • IT skills
  • Urban infrastructure

Engagement of key stakeholders including residents, businesses, partners during this phase is important.

One of the dangers is that cities look at some components only for example smart mobility initiatives and do not regard the impact it may have on other operations.  Therefore, it is important to begin with a holistic view of the vision for the city

2. How do I get there?  Once the vision is clear – then you must focus on the journey!  A green-field project (brand new city) is easier as we are working with a clean sheet of paper.  For an existing city with legacy technology this is the extremely challenging part.  Some of the key questions to be addressed during this phase include:

• • Services: What are the key digital services to be implemented aligned with the vision.
  • Architecture: Details the key principles and application, infrastructure, integration, and data architecture needed to implement and support the Digital Services. Also how do we ensure the new architecture is optimally secure.
  • Sourcing Model: Defines what should be implemented and managed externally vs in-house? What are the main categories of technology products & services that need to be sourced? What is the landscape of possible providers for each category? What are the responsibilities between providers and customer? The sourcing model provides a strategy for who does what during planning, implementation and ongoing support.
  • Business Case: Based on the Digital Services and Sourcing Model, what will it cost? What are the potential sources of revenue / monetisation? How does the cost model change between build and operate?

A well-developed Digital Master Plan is key for ensuring the success of a city going “smart.”  PT DOT’s partner – Alkira Consulting brings to Indonesia the same methodology which has been used in other locations.

We will be glad to work with cities in Indonesia to ensure the vision you had for going smart are translated to effective plans and generate the results you want!

Contact PT DOTS for more information