PHOTO
At smartcon 2015, Booz Allen Hamilton Calls for Creation, and Standardization of a Framework to Evaluate Smart City Infrastructure
Dubai-Ramez Shehadi, Executive Vice President & Managing Director,Booz Allen Hamilton (Booz Allen), highlighted the need for a framework to define degrees of smartness of public services in cities today, during a keynote speech at the smartcon 2015 conference in Dubai. Referring to a report published by Booz Allen entitled 'Smart Cities: A Gateway to Digital Life', Shehadi called for the standardization of a 'smartness' barometer against which services and initiatives launched by the government and private sector can be measured and evaluated.
The report recommends organizing the smart evaluation criteria as 'connected', 'integrated', 'personalized' and 'predictive', plotting a service's level of excellence. The framework will inform service transformation strategies and cultivate a recognized measure of what it means to be truly smart.
Enhancing the quality of life in smart cities is contingent upon a detailed understanding of constituent behavior, says the report, which cites big data analytics as a critical tool to recognizing and understanding that behavior.
"By taking a holistic, citizen-centric approach to smart service development, city officials can realize the promiseof healthier living, greater productivity and enhanced business innovation, thereby improving the overall quality of life," said Shehadi.
"The most desirable form is a predictive smart service, which enables agencies to turn hard field intelligence into predictive insights--and anticipatory action. This is often supported by an analytics program that evaluates current road and transit patterns to predict futureusage, guiding informed decisions," he continued. "The higher a city's services move on the smartness barometer, the smarter the citybecomes. Smarter schools, utilities, commerce,healthcare, transport, and security are just thebeginning of what's possible."
The report also calls on global governments and ICT service providers to modernize and retrofit existing infrastructure, a move that will help facilitate volume growth of digital infrastructure that in turn supports smart services. The deployment of 21st century technology will also empower policymakers to address economic, social, and environmentalchallenges of urbanization.
The report adds that the smartness of a service will need to cover other imperatives such as the maintenance of intuitive personalized interfaces, smarter back-end applications with open data - crucial for predictive analytics and technology infrastructure that enables convergence, all backed by high levels of security. Other key fundamentals that can support the efficient adoption of smart services include quantifying return on investments ahead of time, a comprehensive implementation roadmap, a robust governance model, symbiotic partnerships, pilot test programs and periodic performance reviews.
Co-authored by Booz Allen's Ramez Shehadi, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Dr. Raymond Khoury, Executive Vice President, Danny Karam, Vice President and Jad Rahbani, Senior Associate, the report was released during the two-day smartcon 2015 event in Dubai, taking place during the United Arab Emirates' Innovation Week.
The entire report is available to download at mena.boozallen.com/en/knowledge-center/smart-cities
AboutBooz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton has been at the forefront of strategy and technology for more than 100 years. Today, the firm provides management and technology consulting and engineering services to leading Fortune 500 corporations, governments, and not-for-profits across the globe. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Booz Allen builds on six decades of experience partnering with public and private sector clients to solve their most difficult challenges through a combination of business strategy, digital innovation, data analytics, cybersecurity and resilience, operations, supply chain, organization and culture, engineering and life-cycle project management expertise.
With regional MENA offices in Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Cairo, Doha, Dubai and Riyadh, and international headquarters in McLean, Virginia, the firm employs more than 22,500 people globally, and had revenue of $5.27 billion for the 12 months ended March 31, 2015. To learn more, visit mena.boozallen.com. (NYSE: BAH)
Media Contacts
Damian Brandy, Associate Director, Fleishman Hillard MENA Region
damian.brandy@fleishman.com O +971-44502612, M +971-50-8049036
© Press Release 2015
