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So what’s the next big dream in urban planning and development? Urban development interconnected via Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) in a way that simplifies the lives of city officials and residents.
With over 50% of the population residing in urban areas, and that number only expected to go up with time, it makes sense that cities and governments are shifting their resources in order to focus on improving and digitizing the very urban regions in which most of mankind lives.
In the 1970’s the concept of a ‘smart city’ was brought to life in Los Angeles out of a desire to better understand the intricacies of the population; fast forward to 2016 and cities want more than an understanding of their residents and the ability to use technology to aggregate date – today cities want to understand, control and impact the daily lives of residents through the use of technology.
According to the Smart City research team at Frost & Sullivan, there are “eight key aspects that define a Smart City: smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizen.” – this same research team estimated that smart cities have a market potential of $1.5 trillion, making it an appealing vertical for enterprises and startups alike.
Since there are no truly smart cities in existence yet, the market is ripe for picking – we are all just waiting for the innovation.
Why Enterprises Care about Smart Cities
Governments want smart cities. They might even want to fund them. But the fact of the matter is that they cannot – not without the help of the private sector.
The costs associated with re-planning cities, rebuilding health care, restructuring infrastructure and digitizing governments are just too large for a single government to take on individually. As a result, governments are turning to enterprises that have the capacity, resources and experience to digitally cater to millions of consumers in the hopes of obtaining a big smart city breakthrough from the enterprise site.
With the rise of IoT, enterprises have simplified the way in which smart devices communicate with one another, improving the overall capability to aggregate data for smart cities. Today smart traffic lights are able to assess vehicle trends and adjust themselves accordingly, and smart monitors are able to monitor pollution, parking and noise in real time, however that is not enough.
The need to create a truly comprehensive solution that will integrate technology, education, energy, mobility and more still exists, making the race for the next big breakthrough all the more cut-throat.
Why Startups Care about Smart Cities
While the enterprises compete for the ability to connect government offices with healthcare services, educational networks with public facilities, startups have been doing what they do best – thinking outside the box; or in this case, the existing city grid.
With the market potential of smart cities being so high, it is no wonder that many startups have begun working on solutions that will simplify integrations and communication technologies for smart cities. The magnitude of needs smart cities require means that almost any vertical can be applied towards the simplification of a smart city.
Working on autonomous cars? Smart cities strive to integrate technology in their infrastructure, making them a natural solution.
Have an idea that will integrate multiple healthcare vendors in a single system? Smart cities need that too!
Able to reduce pollution and improve monitoring of vehicle emissions? You guessed it – smart cities will need that too! Smart City planners will need a variety of solutions to improve the lives of residents through technology.
The problems startups encounter often have to do with their ability to scale more than their ability to come up with a great idea and working prototype.
How Smart City PoC’s can be a Win-Win for all
If startups have the solutions, and enterprises have the resources, it only makes sense that enterprises and startups would find new ways to collaborate in order to test the viability and scalability of their solutions.
The answer; prooV.
prooV is the revolutionary marketplace that simplifies PoC creation and management while instantly connect enterprises with startups in a way that bypasses the need for middlemen and focuses on the benefits and use cases of the technology.
By enabling single integration to a secure system, prooV helps enterprises instantly connect to startups and facilitates the process by which a PoC is executed, often letting enterprises run multiple PoC’s in a variety of industries with dozens of startups all at once.
For startups with game-changing ideas and no way to take over the world all at once, the prooV platform provides the optimal solution, easily connecting them to enterprises that have the power to exponentially scale their solution once proven viable.
Simply put, the solution to simplifying smart cities lies in the ability of enterprises and startups to work together to conceive groundbreaking solutions that will improve and digitize the lives of city residents – prooV just makes it easier for them to connect.
