IBM expands the Smarter Cities Challenge program

Smarter Cities (engl. The reasonable cities) - the direction of IBM proposing solutions for the organization of a management system for the city.

Management

The vice president of IBM for the Smarter Cities direction is Gerald Mooney.

Provision in hierarchy of IBM

The IBM Smarter Cities direction enters the global direction of initiatives and the IBM Smart Planet projects.

History

Official start of the Smarter Cities program 2008, however two years before, since 2006 is considered, the company already began to implement the software which entered then packets of Smarter Cities and, respectively, helped to do the cities "more smart".

Functional structure

Work on the Smarter Cities program conditionally is divided into three global directions:

• Management of the city,
• "Infrastructure",
• Social services.

Within these directions programs in the following areas are implemented:

• municipal management,
• public security,
• smart homes,
• health care,
• education,
• social services,
• solutions for optimization of expenditure of energy, water supply, traffic flows.

For work on programs IBM offers the city administrations different software, ensuring of them joint work for achievement of assigned tasks. Together with software IBM delivers, if necessary, both hardware solutions, and computing powers. However, solutions can be provided also from "cloud".

The perfect Smarter Cities model, according to IBM, is the "system of systems" when activity of all departments is coordinated, all information is flown down in one center, and the work with information available to all departments allows to optimize their functioning. "Smarter Cities is a process, but not the project", - the vice president of IBM for the Smarter Cities direction Gerald Mooney says TAdviser, saying that implementation of any program from offered within Smarter Cities is not ready result, but only the tool in achievement of an effective objective.

Key product

Till summer of 2011 of IBM all customers of the solutions Smarter Cities were offered by "designer" from the software products when the customer could select the solutions interesting him and implement them at itself. Now such opportunity is available too, but after the analysis of the most part of requirements imposed by customers, in the direction of Smarter Cities the product Intelligence Operations Center was developed. IOC is available to the order since June, 2011.

Intelligence Operations Center interface

Closest to the description of the IOC functions – the name "situational center", however, if "the situational center" can work only when "situation" already arose, then IOC works always and its purpose – to prevent development of these "situations".

Scheme of work of IOC is as follows: the center obtains information from different sources, generalizes and analyzes it then adequate solutions are proposed, statistical data, etc. are collected.

It is separately noted that IOC is not a "boxed" product. It is the platform with a certain functionality based on which it is possible to implement these or those solutions.

Owing to the universality IOC can be set not only in city scale, but also on any geographically distributed object, whether it be plant, airport, area, city, region or even country.

Geography and examples of implementations

Representative offices in the Smarter Cities direction are in the different countries, but not everywhere.

As of February, 2012 IBM implemented different projects within Smarter Cities in several cities among which:

• New York,
• Richmond,
• Stockholm,
• Amsterdam,
• Rio de Janeiro and also
• on Malta and
• in Taiwan.

In all cases of implementations of ROI (investment payback) was expressed in hundreds of percent, and return of means happened less than in a year, speak in IBM.

Smarter Cities Challenge

Smarter Cities Challenge — the global program of grants started in 2010 within which provides to the local authorities of IBM selected a competitive basis the free consulting aid in questions of providing the vital services to the population.

The project in Rio de Janeiro

Experience of the implementing solutions Smarter Cities in Rio de Janeiro is indicative. The decision on need of the organization for the city of Rio Operations Center arose after the next descent of a mudflow from the hill on which a part of urban areas were located. Due to the heavy rains mudflows descended quite often, but one of them was especially destructive, many people died, houses were destroyed. By agreement with IBM the city administration made the decision to organize the center in which information on weather, a status of soils would be flown down situations on roads, etc. – all in the center data more than 30 departments were delivered and, respectively, there was an opportunity to provide a feedback, having connected among themselves all these departments.

Now when obtaining information on the coming heavy rain city services precisely know to what section it is necessary to send the maximum number of rescuers where it is necessary to organize quickly evacuation of people what ways it is better to use, etc.

In November, 2011 a system was still improved: the warning system of the city authorities and abnormal services about change of weather conditions was automated (to this notification were sent manually). Besides, information from Rio Operations Center is daily published in social networks and sent on mobile devices of users. Besides, on Facebook and Twitter constantly updated weather reports, a status on roads also other useful information is published.

Smarter Cities in Russia

Management

The head IBM Smarter Cities in Russia and the CIS countries for February, 2012 is Andrey Galitsky. Galitsky does not disclose data on the number of employees and details of an organization structure, referring to corporate rules.

Projects in Russia

For February, 2012 there are no implemented Smarter Cities projects in Russia.

As Tikhonov, the deputy CEO of IBM of Russia and CIS reported TAdviser of Andreq, negotiations with the different companies and administrations of the cities, in parallel products delivered within the project are now conducted, undergoes certification in Russia. Specific names and names were not sounded, however, Mr. Tikhonov at the press conference devoted to the Smarter Cities program promised that "in the coming months we hope to call journalists on the presentation of pilot projects".

Besides, on an action information that IBM "is related" to the project of the Intelligent transport system implemented now in Moscow was heard. However, what the relation and in what it is expressed is, representatives of the company did not begin to specify, referring to "trade secret".

See Also

• Smart cities (Smart cities, Smart cities)