Download PDF
The City of Edinburgh Council develops customer-centric digital services to ensure better outcomes for citizens and communities
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Cities & Municipalities
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Public Transportation Management
- Smart City Operations
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The City of Edinburgh Council aimed to put citizens at the centre of its processes, and enable a 'channel shift' to help people interact efficiently and consistently with the Council’s services – whether in person, by phone or email, or online via new digital services. The Council wanted to create a hub-and-spoke architecture, where systems would interact via a single central integration bus. This would provide a single point of control, allowing the Council to easily add, remove or replace different systems within the architecture, and orchestrate them into complex processes with a minimum of effort.
About The Customer
The City of Edinburgh Council is based in Scotland’s capital city. The Council provides a range of public services to over 444,000 citizens, and promotes the city worldwide. The Council is working to build a more cooperative and prosperous Edinburgh that benefits every individual and community. The Council's transformation started with a simple ambition: to put citizens at the centre of its processes, and enable a 'channel shift' to help people interact efficiently and consistently with the Council’s services – whether in person, by phone or email, or online via new digital services.
The Solution
The Council’s digital vision is underpinned by a sophisticated integration platform from IBM and CSI, orchestrating people and systems into seamless business processes. The Council is using the Integration Bus as a 'universal translator' to exchange messages and transactions between a host of business-critical systems, including its website, customer relationship management, online payments, council tax management, environmental asset management, identity management, master data management and analytics systems. The Council has launched more than 30 digital processes that are orchestrated by the Integration Bus. Some of the most popular services allow citizens to report pot-holes, uncollected garbage and defective street lights, or request new recycling bins, and view council tax, rent and benefits statements.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Turning A Stadium Into A Smart Building
Honeywell created what it called the “intelligent system” for the National Stadium in Beijing, China, turning the venue for the opening and closing events at the 2008 Summer Olympics into a “smart building.” Designed by highly controversial artist Ai Weiwei, the “Bird’s Nest” remains one of the most impressive feats of stadium architecture in the world. The 250,000 square meter structure housed more than 100,000 athletes and spectators at a time. To accommodate such capacity, China turned to Honeywell’s EBI Integrated Building Management System to create an integrated “intelligent system” for improved building security, safety and energy efficiency.
.png)
Case Study
Smart Street Light Network (Copenhagen)
Key stakeholders are taking a comprehensive approach to rethinking smart city innovation. City leaders have collaborated through partnerships involving government, research institutions and solution providers. The Copenhagen Solutions Lab is one of the leading organizations at the forefront of this movement. By bringing together manufacturers with municipal buyers, the Copenhagen Solutions Lab has catalyzed the development and deployment of next-generation smart city innovations. Copenhagen is leveraging this unique approach to accelerate the implementation of smart city solutions. One of the primary focus areas is LED street lighting.
Case Study
Buoy Status Monitoring with LoRa
The Netherlands are well-known for their inland waterways, canals, sluices and of course port activities. The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure indicates that there are thousands of buoys and fixed items in and near water environments that would profit from IoT monitoring. One of the problems with buoys for example, is that they get hit by ships and the anchor cable breaks. Without connectivity, it takes quite some time to find out that something has happened with that buoy. Not to mention the costs of renting a boat to go to the buoy to fix it. Another important issue, is that there is no real-time monitoring of the buoys at this moment. Only by physically visiting the object on the water, one gains insight in its status.
Case Study
China Mobile Smart Parking
Smart Parking, powered by NB-IoT technology, is making it easier for drivers to find free parking spots. Cities can better manage their parking assets and maximize the revenue available to them as a result. Drivers searching for parking create congestion and pollution by circling and hunting for available parking. Smart Parking services are able to significantly ease these problems by guiding a driver directly to a parking space.
Case Study
Barcelona Case Study
Barcelona’s heavy traffic and its associated high levels of pollution were the primary factors that motivated some companies and universities to work on strategies for improving traffic in the city centre. Bitcarrier is one of the technologies involved in the In4Mo Project, whose main objective is to develop the applications that form the core of smart mobility, one of the fundamental pillars of the smart city concept.
