Smart Cities: Boston Talks No Nonsense and Tells Vendors to Get Real

In the rising wave of optimistic, but pie-in-the sky, smart city initiatives, Boston’s "Smart Cities Playbook" takes a pause for a refreshing examination of what cities actually need to move their projects and initiatives forward. It’s an honest and practical description of where the city is today.

Although the city has ample ambition to be smarter, the playbook unveils the real challenges, concerns and issues that smart city efforts face. Many cities are at the same point; they want to take the leap to invest time and resources into new strategies and innovative projects, but still need to develop trust that the city is well understood by smart-tech vendors and that it and its vendors have a shared vision of serving the best interests of the city's citizens.  This tension, documented by the playbook, is the primary unsaid concern on the minds of city staffers.

In this much needed missive, Boston addresses the uncertainty within the smart cities marketplace between city buyers and private sector sellers. Cities and their staff are in the business of serving their residents. Companies in this market need to understand that the city’s end game is to provide effective products and solutions. If a new technology or data set can help to solve a specific problem for a segment of the population, then city staff are open to learning more. However, if a technology is deployed just for demonstration sake, cities like Boston are not very interested due to the time commitment and resources needed to implement with unclear returns.

The City of Boston challenges many aspects of how they are being sold to, who is doing the selling, and even the assumptions that vendors bring to their interactions with the city.  Currently, the private sector has a growing, though still somewhat limited, understanding of cities.  City-centric language has been adopted by smart cities sales teams, developing their ability to speak to climate change, sustainability, equity and inclusion, and other key issue areas.  However, there is still a skepticism from city staff on whether the private sector actually believes in these outcomes or truly knows what success in these areas would mean.

Companies employing former city practitioners have been successful at conveying this understanding and developing trust with cities, but this still remains a central challenge to smart city strategic development across the nation. Overall, Boston’s "Smart Cities Playbook" is a grounding framework for cities and vendors looking understand and address the real challenges and needed next steps for advancing truly transformative smart city initiatives.