Business Strategy: IDC Government

Insights' Smart City Maturity Model —

Assessment and Action on the Path
to Maturity
IDC Government Insights: Smart Cities Strategies

BUSINESS STRATEGY #GI240620

P.571.296.8060 F.508.988.7881

Ruthbea Yesner Clarke

IDC GOVERNMENT INSIGHTS OPINION

Cities are facing a perfect storm of economic, environmental, and
demographic challenges today in which rising urban populations are
exacerbating existing urban problems and straining resources in the
context of uncertain economic times. Citizens' high expectations for
Worldwide Headquarters: 211 North Union Street, Suite 105, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA

services delivery and the need for sustained tourism and business
development are pressing cities to consider the opportunities afforded
by emerging technologies. Navigating transformative change, as is
required by Smart Cities, is a long-term and complex process. Cities
need to be able to assess their current situation and determine the
critical capabilities needed to enable a Smart City. To help cities
address these issues, IDC Government Insights has created a Smart
Cities Maturity Model defining the key technology- and non-
technology-related areas for assessment. IDC Government Insights'
Smart City Maturity Model is a framework of stages, critical measures,
outcomes, and actions required for organizations to effectively
advance along the successive stages of competency toward data- and
event-driven decision making. This Smart City Maturity Model will
enable your city to:

● Begin to assess its Smart City current competency and maturity

● Define short- and long-term goals and plan for improvements

● Prioritize technology, partnership, staffing, and other related

www.idc-gi.com

investment decisions

● Uncover maturity gaps among departments, business units, or

between functional and IT groups

April 2013, IDC Government Insights #GI240620

IDC Government Insights: Smart Cities Strategies: Business Strategy
TABLE OF CONTENTS

In This Study 1
Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 1
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................. 1

S i t u a t i o n O ve r vi ew 3

T h e Ap p r o a c h 4
Stages in IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model............................................................... 4

Future Outlook 10
Short-Term Smart City Trends.................................................................................................................. 11
Long-Term Smart City Trends .................................................................................................................. 13

Essential Guidance 14
Actions to Consider................................................................................................................................... 15

Learn More 19
Related Research ..................................................................................................................................... 19

#GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights

LIST OF TABLES

P
1 IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Overview .................................................. 2
2 IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Framework ............................................... 7
3 IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Impact/Guidance ...................................... 17

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620

LIST OF FIGURES

P
1 Where Are Cities Today? ............................................................................................................. 10
2 Smart Cities in the Next 24 Months.............................................................................................. 12
3 Unequal Time and Effort Required to Move Through the Stages of Smart City Maturity ............. 13
4 IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Gap Analysis Against Industry
Benchmark ................................................................................................................................... 16
5 IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Gap Analysis by Function, Line of
Business, or Department.............................................................................................................. 17

#GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights

IN THIS STUDY

Methodology

In this report, IDC Government Insights identifies its Smart City

Maturity Model, which identifies the stages, key measures, results, and
actions that are required for cities to effectively move through the
stages and progress toward the long-term goal of becoming a Smart
City. This framework is for cities — defined loosely as local
governments including towns, cities, municipalities, and provinces —
that want to realize the benefits smart solutions can have on lines of
business and cities as a whole.

By identifying the high-level critical measures, attributes, necessary

actions, and resulting impact in each stage, city leaders can begin to set
a road map for their Smart City progress, benchmark themselves
against peers, and understand the investment and other factors that
enable and inhibit progress on a path to maturity.

The goals of Smart City leaders are to develop and/or revitalize their
city in sustainable ways while differentiating their city from nearby
and global competitors — other cities that are also seeking to attract
business investment and a talented pool of residents. This model is a
guide that will enable cities to provide better services and improved
outcomes to citizens and businesses.

Executive Summary

The growing focus on Smart City solutions as a basis for sustainable

economic development is both an opportunity and a challenge for most
local governments. The promise of transformational business
processes that position cities to provide improved citizen services and
meet rising citizen expectations has pushed technology innovation to
the top of the CIO agenda. In this environment, emerging technologies
like Big Data and analytics, cloud, social business, machine-to-
machine automation, visualization tools, and mobility unlock citizen
and employee access to information that forms the basis of the Smart
City.

Cities are complex ecosystems. Navigating transformative change,

such as required by Smart Cities, is a long-term and complex process.
Cities need to be able to assess their current situation and determine
critical capabilities needed to enable a Smart City. However, many
cities are unsure of how to begin addressing the decisions that need to
be made in technology, staffing, and process to deploy Smart City
capabilities pervasively across the city. The plethora of technology
choices and range of technologies and management skills required
make it difficult to prioritize project resource allocations.

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 1

To help cities address these issues, IDC Government Insights has
created a Smart Cities Maturity Model defining the key technology-
and non-technology-related areas for assessment. By identifying the
high-level critical measures, attributes, necessary actions, and resulting
impact in each stage, city leaders can begin to set a road map for their
Smart City progress, benchmark themselves against peers, and
understand the investment and factors that enable progress on a path to
maturity. Additionally, city leaders will be able to use the Smart City
Maturity Model as a tool to develop a common language, improve
intra- and intergroup collaboration in defining and executing a Smart
City strategy, and promote and encourage the use of Smart City
solutions.

Table 1 provides an overview of the five stages of the Smart City

Maturity Model, the key characteristics of each stage, and the goals
and benefits of each stage.

TABLE 1

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Overview

Ad Hoc Opportunistic Repeatable Managed Optimized

Key  Siloed  Intentional  Integrated  Operationalized  Sustainable

characteristic
 Ad hoc  Proactive  Recurring  Formal systems  A sustainable,
project, collaboration projects, for work/data citywide
department- within and events, and flows, platform
based between processes leveraging providing agile
planning, and departments identified for technology strategy, IT,
discrete integration assets, in place and
smart and standards governance for
projects emerging an integrated
system of
systems

Goal  Tactical  Stakeholder  Improved  Prediction and  Competitive

services buy-in outcomes prevention differentiation
delivery

Outcome  Technology-  Foundational  Culture shift,  Adaptive sense-  Agility,

enabled governance rationalized and-respond innovation, and
project and strategic and leveraged systems continuous
successes planning assets improvement

Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

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SITUATION OVERVIEW
Cities traditionally operate in a highly fragmented state with budgets,
governance, decision making, IT platforms, and information handled
by individual departments. The result is that IT strategy, investment,
and the processes that support services delivery are inefficient when
viewed in a systemic citywide operational context: multiple data sets
and applications exist in different departments, relevant information is
not shared, and operations are not coordinated beyond emergency
protocols or when required for special events. And despite the desire
by many city workers to improve and change, it is difficult for cities to
overcome risk-averse cultures and procurement processes that make
experimentation and innovation a challenge.

Demographic and technology trends are now creating a pressing need

for cities to rethink how they use and leverage IT and existing
infrastructure as well as resources like government workers, citizens,
and community and business groups. With UN projections of a 72%
increase in urban populations through 2050 and rising concerns over
sustainability (with cities consuming 50–60% of resources and
contributing 60–80% of greenhouse gases), cities must rethink their
current operations. City infrastructure is already strained, and services
delivery cannot keep pace with need. The financial woes of many
central governments are also affecting cities as funding for local
projects is reduced. To make matters worse, the expectations of
businesses and citizens are rising to include anywhere, anytime mobile
access to information and services and the ability to interact directly
with government via apps and social media. These factors, coupled
with the opportunities that emerging technologies like Big Data,
analytics, machine-to-machine communications, GIS, and social media
afford, are pushing cities to adopt Smart City models of transformation
and IT investment.

The questions many cities are asking are, "Where do I begin in a Smart
City transformation? What is the process for change? And how do we
assess ourselves and plan our future strategy for IT investment?" IDC
Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model provides a method
for assessing progress and a planning tool for adopting Smart City The definition of a
Smart City, in our
technologies and practices. view, is a finite unit
or entity with its
IDC Government Insights takes a broad view of what a city is — it can own governing
authority that
be a district, town, city, county, metropolitan area, city-state (such as is more local than
Singapore), or even a port, military base, or university campus. Our the federal or
definition of a Smart City is a finite entity with its own local governing national level and
that uses a specific
authority that uses emerging ICT and instrumentation technologies to set of technologies
achieve the explicit goals of improving the quality of life of its citizens to achieve the
and sustainable economic development. These goals are achieved via explicit goal of
improving the lives
improved service delivery, more efficient use of resources (human, of its citizens
infrastructure, and natural), and financially and environmentally through
sustainable practices that support economic development. sustainable
development.

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 3

Smart City solutions integrate information and operations within and
between city systems and domains. Smart Cities are those cities that
leverage these technologies and adopt a new platform for growth, and
IDC Government Insights believes that Smart Cities will leverage
technology to create a new platform for service delivery and ultimately
offer a better quality of life for residents and a better environment for
businesses.

For a full description of the attributes of Smart City solutions, see

Business Strategy: Smart City Strategies — IDC Government Insights'
Smart City Framework (IDC Government Insights #GI234160, April
2012).

THE APPROACH

Stages in IDC Government Insights'

Smart City Maturity Model

Cities progress through common phases as they create a Smart City

system. IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model
identifies and describes the five stages and the key attributes of each
phase.

It is typically the case that different departments or agencies within a

city will be at different levels of maturity in terms of their own
processes and operations. This model can be used to assess
coordination and integration across departments and agencies or for
the city system as a whole in addition to assessing a single department.

The five stages of the Smart City Maturity Model are:

● Ad Hoc: This stage is the traditional government modus operandi

with ad hoc projects, department-based planning, and discrete
smart projects.

○ The goal of the Ad Hoc stage is to begin to prove the value of

the Smart City concept and develop the business case via
demonstrated ROI from pilot projects. Projects typically focus
on key areas of need in focused city functions such as Smart
Water or Smart Parking.

● Opportunistic: Opportunistic project deployments result in

proactive collaboration within and between departments. Key
stakeholders start to align around developing strategy, common
language is developed, and barriers to adoption are identified.

○ The goal at the Opportunistic stage is to engage key

stakeholders and get their buy-in as the strategy and road map
for Smart City initiatives are developed.

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● Repeatable: In this stage, recurring projects, events, and processes
are identified for integration. Formal committees document defined
strategies, processes, and technology investment needs with
stakeholder buy-in. Sustainable funding models and governance
issues become a focus.

○ The goal of the Repeatable stage of maturity is improved

outcomes and service delivery as a result of repeatable standard
processes for Smart City projects and their coordination
beyond the department level. More formalized processes
develop measures of both outputs and outcomes to determine
success of the initiatives. Specific initiatives begin to be scaled
and integration begins. Better use of information and the
processes in place to respond to events drives improved
outcomes and service delivery.

● Managed: Formal systems for work/data flows and leveraging

technology assets are in place and standards emerge. Performance
management based on outcomes shift culture, budgets, IT
investment, and governance structure to a broader city context.

○ The goal of the Managed stage of maturity is for cities to be

able to predict the needs of their residents and businesses and
provide preventative services before problems arise.

● Optimized: A sustainable citywide platform is in place. Agile

strategy, IT, and governance allow for autonomy within an
integrated system of systems and continuous improvements.
Superior outcomes deliver differentiation.

○ The ultimate goal of the Optimized Smart City is competitive

differentiation that drives sustainable economic development or
revitalization by creating jobs and attracting investment.
Mature Smart Cities will attract business investments, visitors,
tourists, and citizens because they provide high-quality citizen
services, are easy to do business with, and offer a higher
quality of life.

Within a Smart City, there are key dimensions, or measures, that need
to be addressed in order to make the Smart City concept fully
operational. Many of these are not technology-related measures since
the largest challenges that cities face are related to people and process.
Entrenched culture, siloed budgeting processes, local bylaws and
governance structures, and outdated ways of measuring success all
must change to fulfill a Smart City vision; however, each city defines
itself. We have defined the following measures and their
corresponding attributes as key for the Smart City Maturity Model:

● Strategy: The Smart City strategy defines the Smart City's intent;
the Smart City's vision for the city, including sustainability and

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 5

 economic development goals; and how each city plans to capitalize
on its strengths and unique qualities while addressing its
weaknesses. Part of any Smart City strategy should include a
systemic and coordinated future vision for city operations. Also
included in strategy is the development of the business case for
Smart City initiatives as promoted by lead sponsors of Smart City
projects that move Smart City strategy forward along the stages.
These leaders typically include mayors, CIOs, and/or community
and business leaders.

● Culture: Culture refers to the culture of innovation and citizen

engagement within a city. Cities tend to be risk averse not only
because typically their resources are very scarce but also because
failure can have big career implications and impact citizens in very
real ways. This measure assesses how cities can become more
experimental and innovative and use emerging technologies and
new ideas to solve long-standing problems.

Citizens (including community and business leaders) offer an

untapped source of talent and ideas. Citizen sourcing for mobile
app development, crowdsourced operational information, and new
ideas is now possible using social networks and mobile devices.
This measure considers how your city is going to capitalize on the
resources of your citizens.

● Process: Process measures two key enablers of successful change

— governance and partnerships. Governance measures the
structure for implementing change at the city level — from
organizational structures to budgeting processes to how
performance is measured and success is defined. Partnerships are
very important to Smart City development because collaborations
with ICT vendors, academia, private industry, and citizen groups
are necessary to not only deploy smart solutions but also create
innovation ecosystems for using emerging technologies.

● Technology: Technology measures the adoption and penetration

of ICT infrastructure and related technologies as well as the
development of the Smart City enterprise architecture. Smart Cities
function on an IP-enabled backbone, and a robust telecom
infrastructure is required. Additionally, advanced and intelligent
sensors, cameras, and other devices are needed as data collection
points, leading ultimately to more efficiencies via M2M and
automation as well as providing the data for advanced analytics.
The performance and function of these technologies in the context
of legacy systems and legacy enterprise architectures are important
as technology assets need to be shared and integrated across the
city for better government service delivery.

● Data: Data measures how data is used and accessed. Open data is
a big component of the Smart City movement, and citizens are
expecting more and more government transparency. Open data is
also a strategy for crowdsourcing skills, particularly in areas like

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 app development. Smart Cities also rest on using Big Data and
analytics to mine data for predictive and preventative resource
allocations and processes. These solutions rely on clean and
accurate data. Cities have a wealth of data in their current systems
as well as a flood of new data coming into systems every day; it is
imperative that this data is cleansed, processed, integrated, and
analyzed so it can be used optimally. Real-time data must be
displayed using dashboards, GIS, and other visualization tools for
improved decision making.

Table 3 illustrates the IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity

Model framework.

TABLE 2

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Framework

Ad Hoc Opportunistic Repeatable Managed Optimized

Strategic intent  No strategy or  Strategy is at  Strategy spans  Strategy is  Strategy is

(vision, vision exists the and involves accepted optimized and
business case, department multiple citywide evolves based
leadership)  Business case level organizations on continuous
undefined  Business case feedback
 Business case  Business case applied citywide
 Leadership developed via applied across with widely  Continuous
targets discrete demonstrated multiple projects accepted tools progress on
areas for ROI from pilot or initiatives and processes KPIs against
investment projects for investment, mission-based
 Formal ROI, and performance
 Desired documentation outcomes
outcomes and defines Smart measurement  Leadership is
goals defined City goals and vested in
outcomes  Leadership holistic and
 Leadership provides broad-scale
engages  Leadership and budgeted and transformation
stakeholders key stakeholders ad hoc funding of processes,
invest in projects culture, and
with vision of operations
long-term
scalability

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 7

 TABLE 2

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Framework

Ad Hoc Opportunistic Repeatable Managed Optimized

Culture  Government has  Government  Government  Government  Government

(innovation, no formal process experiments proactively uses multiple has cultivated
citizen to engage those with citizen engages citizens channels to engagement
engagement) with new ideas participation though partially engage citizens models that are
inside or outside via social personalized based on their inclusive,
of government networks and direct needs personalized,
mobile apps communications and multi-
 Pockets of as a new  Innovation is directional
innovation exist channel  Innovation systematic to ongoing
within risk-averse culture leverage ideas collaborations
culture  Opportunistic supported by from citizens,
innovation processes that government  Innovation is
where there is allow risk workers, and institutionalized
department- groups outside and managed
level support  New projects of government within the whole
that capitalize on city paradigm
3rd platform
technologies are
funded

Process  Traditional client-  Government  Partnerships  Partnerships  Partner

(partnerships, provider-supplier begins to test models evolve to aligned with ecosystem
governance) relationships new models of include gain long-term vision evolves to
managed by engagement sharing, and multiple shared
separate with partners codevelopment stakeholders outcomes
departments coordinated
 Some multi-  There are stable  New
 Governance is department joint committees  Annual combinations of
characterized budgets and that bring multiyear programs are
siloed budgeting decision together high- planning and created based
and decentralized making based level officials to budgeting for on optimal
decision making on projects address Smart common services
City needs programs, provisioning
services, and
 Sustainable infrastructures  Budgets
funding for allocated based
initiatives is a on impact on
focus area the whole city

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 TABLE 2

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Framework

Ad Hoc Opportunistic Repeatable Managed Optimized

Technology Architecture is  Service-  SOA is used  SOA principles  Open platforms,

(architecture, decentralized and oriented pervasively as are SOA, leverages
adoption) transaction based architecture an open platform complemented technology
with duplication (SOA) is in development by event-driven investments
achieved via architectures across entire
Inconsistent consolidation  Focus is on that are enterprise
broadband/wireless of systems decrease interoperable
infrastructure service and agile  Intuitive
adoption  Adoption and time/maintenanc infrastructure
buildout of e costs with  Ubiquitous predicts and
Basic levels of wireless investment tied broadband adapts for
instrumentation in broadband, clearly to coverage and improved
strategic-localized sensors, missions instrumentation outcomes and
areas cameras, and of physical city services
advanced  Broadband assets leads to delivery
devices to coverage and real-time
meet specific instrumentation dynamic data
project goals is leveraged for outputs
multiple projects
and goals
across
organizations

Data (use,  Data is  Data integrity  Data use is  Data is used to  Data is used for
access) underutilized and is more fully focused on provide predictive
housed in addressed as maintaining actionable models for
disparate data is used in quality for Big information to improved
systems Big Data and Data and further Smart services; real-
advanced analytics use City goals time data
 Access is limited analytics cases collection allows
to single projects  Advanced data faster response
organizations  Progress is analysis done for non-
because of  Some data made in for multiple predictable
issues with data sets are accuracy and purposes events
integrity, opened to semantic
privacy/security, public consistency  Data is all  Information is
and integration inclusive with ubiquitous,
 Data becomes  Open data fully operational open,
more widely becomes data sharing personalized,
shared across strategic to among and proactively
departments leverage skills organizations delivered as
and ideas from and individuals desired
many inside and
organizations outside of
and citizen/ government
community
groups

Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 9

FUTURE OUTLOOK
The path to the Optimized Smart City Maturity Model is a long-term
effort that will take years rather than months to achieve. Today there is
sporadic adoption of Smart City solutions across cities, with only a
handful of cities worldwide actively in the Opportunistic or Repeatable
implementation stage. Most cities are focused on researching and
evaluating use cases and vendor capabilities along with defining their
vision of a Smart City and identifying barriers to adoption. Figure 1
shows where cities are today with more maturity in strategy and data
measures and the least maturity in process and culture.

Examples of thought leadership exist now in many cities (e.g., in

Barcelona with its creation of the City Protocol and development of a
city anatomy, in China with many cities announcing plans to become
Smart Cities, and with international bodies like the European Union
funding Smart City initiatives). Even more cities, particularly in the
Western hemisphere, like New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago,
and Boston, have adopted open data strategies where data is shared
with citizens and groups outside of government. However, change in
culture and process is much slower, sometimes even requiring changes
in bylaws or procurement processes. Technology adoption is growing
rapidly, especially in Big Data, analytics, social business, and mobility,
as the platform for Smart City growth, which is reflected in Figure 1.

FIGURE 1

Where Are Cities Today?

Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

Page 10 #GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights

Short-Term Smart City Trends

In the next one to two years, there will be much more development in
strategy, data, and technology, with culture and process still inhibitors
to implementations at the Repeatable and higher stages of maturity:

● Strategy: As we see now, more city leaders like CIOs and mayors
will openly state their plan to become a Smart City, though the
specifics of the vision may not be fully developed. Departments
will run focused Smart City projects, and the business cases will be
heavily marketed by vendors, leading to more cities becoming
aware of project benefits. However, despite bold vision statements
and successful one-off projects, Smart City innovators will be
frustrated by the slowness of progress for a variety of reasons,
mainly around internal risk-averse cultures, governance issues, and
the rigidity of engagement models with external partners.

● Culture: There will continue to be a small set of cities that are

really pushing innovation and are early adopters. Other cities will
look to these cities to learn key success factors. Civic innovation
models will spread as cities like Boston make it a priority to share
their experiences, and vendors, partners, and analyst firms also
market their success. Citizen engagement will continue in terms of
bringing ideas in from the community or using citizen-developed
apps, but there will be major differences in its adoption by region
and country. However, cities in all regions will begin to adopt
mobile applications that let them source information from citizens.

● Process: In the optimistic view, progress will be made in

partnership models. City leaders and the private sector will develop
together to determine use cases and issues around sustainable
business models. The key to moving Smart City projects forward
will be developing business models to sustain programs and to find
monies for reinvestment in new projects or project expansions.
Smart vendors will realize they have to help cities find these
models. Consulting companies will offer services to this end.
Governance will be a limiting factor as changes to existing bylaws
or structures take much longer.

● Technology: We will see continued rapid buildout of

communications infrastructure and data-capture devices like
cameras and sensors, especially in emerging economies. Cities
with higher adoption and penetration of these technologies will
start to take inventory of assets and think of how they can be
leveraged across multiple projects and/or departments. The digital
divide will continue to be a focus of concern, especially around
citizen engagement. Architecture discussions will be in the
theoretical stage, and progress will stall if standards don't emerge.
Measures to assess performance will begin to change to outcomes

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 11

 as opposed to transactions, but these changes will prove
challenging for softer goals.

● Data: Models around open data and transparency of data will be

tied very much to culture (see the previous "culture" bullet point)
around innovation and citizen engagement. Whether they are
technically solid or not, many data and analytics IT-led projects
will lack a connection to business goals, and a continued lack of
sufficient IT and business collaboration will lead to slow adoption
of solutions and difficulty in securing additional rounds of project
funding. Most of the Big Data and analytic solutions deployed will
incorporate multistructured data from multiple sources.
Information management, governance, security, and privacy needs
will command an increasing portion of the data management
budget.

Figure 2 shows the Smart City Maturity Model of cities around the
world in the next 24 months.

FIGURE 2

Smart Cities in the Next 24 Months

Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

It is worth pointing out, as shown in Figure 3, that it is not a steady and

consistent march from one stage to the next. The move from Ad Hoc
to Opportunistic takes less time and effort than the progression from
Opportunistic to Repeatable, which requires significant effort to
address how to scale and fund projects. Similarly, moving from
Repeatable to Managed is a longer process, with process issues at the

Page 12 #GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights

forefront, but going from Managed to Optimized may take less time
because all of the foundational strategic, process, and cultural issues
will have been largely resolved.

FIGURE 3

Unequal Time and Effort Required to Move Through the Stages

of Smart City Maturity

Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

Long-Term Smart City Trends

● Strategy: Cities will develop their own particular brand of Smart

City that highlights their unique strengths. We will see city
branding much like that for commercial companies, and themes
will develop within the overarching label of Smart City. We see
this now with Resilient Cities, Eco-Cities, and Safe Cities, and
they gave a taste of what is to come, with subcategories of Smart
Cities developing.

● Culture: There will be more creation of innovation offices or

egovernment offices at the enterprise level of government, and
their role and the amount of influence they have should slowly
increase. Citizen engagement will have a steep growth curve and
may run the risk of backsliding if cities don't strive to keep
engagement up with fresh apps, challenges, and open data sets.
Emerging cities will struggle with how much to engage citizens,
given the high cost of educating the public on the use of some

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 13

 services as well as the high cost of engagement (i.e., call center
calls increasing as engagement increases).

● Process: Cities will begin to reorganize around outcomes and

Smart City values. Areas that may have previously been handled
distinctly, like parking and transportation or parks and
transportation, will begin to be coordinated, especially where
business groups are engaged with government leaders and in areas
key for tourism. Successful vendors will have figured out a
strategy to serve the tier 2 or midmarket cities and how to provide
detailed account management for city clients.

● Technology: Governments will begin to better harness the rapidly

growing information emitted or created from physical objects. Big
Data applications will ensure that analytic functionality is made
available to the largest possible number of customer-facing and
operational employees as well as managers. Open and consensus-
set standards will evolve and emerge to ease technology risks and
improve interoperability across the stack and across vendor
solutions. Vendors will provide platforms for add-on development
by partners and cities themselves. Increased strategic value of data
as an asset will add additional pressure and scrutiny of a
technology's country of origin as the risk of data loss or
contamination increases.

● Data: A growing percentage of the population will opt to share

behavioral, demographic, purchasing, financial, and other personal
data, though there will be backlash in some cities over the non-
voluntary data collection of information, especially if there are data
leaks or misuse. The use of data will progress in line with Big Data
and analytic maturity and rests on policy makers, case law, and
business pressures harmonizing data privacy and security
provisions across regional jurisdictions, opening up opportunities
for sharing and collaborations across government levels as well as
functions. Big Data security, privacy, and analytic governance
standards will be accepted internationally, and data will become a
formally recognized asset class by accounting standards.

ESSENTIAL GUIDANCE
At this very early stage in Smart City development, it is important to
use the model to develop clarity of vision, common language, and a
strategic road map with key leaders and innovators in the city
ecosystem. As many of the issues with cities are related to people,
process, and culture, it is important to work toward a balance in
maturity across measures since, as noted in the Future Outlook section,
the inhibitors toward fully optimized benefits are related to slower
maturity in process and culture.

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To progress along the stages of the Smart City Maturity Model, we
recommend:

● Using this model to socialize the idea of Smart City

transformations to those leaders that are open to innovation and are
change agents within the city
● Focusing on each of the five measures of the model and ensuring
that there is a coordinated progression along all of the five
measures as opposed to becoming much more mature in one area,
which ultimately inhibits overall progress
● Using a set of KPIs or performance measures to define the success
of each stage (IDC Government Insights is working to develop this
Smart City Index.)

Actions to Consider

The following guidelines set to specific timelines maximize the

benefits of the Smart City Maturity Model:

● Now: Assess the business and IT Smart City "as is" situation.
Identify opportunities to use existing data, technology, workers,
and citizens in new ways. Explore opportunities to use new low-
cost public cloud and open source options as they emerge,
including citizen sourcing of app development. Identify relevant
innovation, leadership, technology, and analytics skills among
existing staff and vendors. Experiment with proof-of-concept and
prototype projects.
● In the next one– to two years (the next budget cycle): Use early
quantifiable wins to demonstrate potential and justify budget
allocations. Evaluate the existing technology and its shortcomings.
Assess skills gaps and plan to hire and/or externally source
professional services. Identify business sponsors and champions
that will support and promote Smart City projects. Expand projects
and begin to define architectural standards. Begin governance and
performance management discussions.
Visualization is a helpful tool for assessing the Smart City Maturity
Model and will yield the following benefits:

● Baseline identification of competency in each of the five measures

of the model (see Figure 4)
● Comparison against the industry benchmark to identify gaps and
the desired status within a given time frame (Note that IDC is
working on collecting such industry benchmarks [see Figure 4].)

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 15

● Comparison of maturity assessments and identification of maturity
gaps among business groups and between business and IT within a
single organization (see Figure 5)
Table 3 provides guidance related to IDC Government Insights' Smart
City Maturity Model.

FIGURE 4

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Gap

Analysis Against Industry Benchmark

Note: The data depicted is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent results from any
one organization. Industry benchmark data is being collected by IDC and will be available in
future Smart City Maturity Model documents.
Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

Page 16 #GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights

FIGURE 5

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Gap

Analysis by Function, Line of Business, or Department

Note: The data depicted is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent results from any
one organization.
Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

TABLE 3

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Impact/Guidance

Stage Guidance

Ad Hoc  Invest in pilot/experimentation projects in a specific domain that will provide a

Outcome: Proof of Smart City
concept and business case
development via demonstrated
ROI from pilot projects
monetary ROI.
 Engage LOBs and city leaders for executive support for initial projects and to begin
strategy discussions across organizations.
 Identify change agents and innovators within government and the community for
future innovation and engagement activities.

 Identify barriers to adoption, such as inconsistent broadband infrastructure or a lack

of available skills sets.

 Use social media and mobile apps to engage with citizens and community groups.

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 17

 TABLE 3
IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Impact/Guidance
Stage
Opportunistic
Outcome: Cross-organizational
deployments and development
of foundational strategy and
governance
Repeatable
Outcome: Repeatable success
in project process and
outcomes across multiple
organizations
Managed
Outcome: Enterprisewide
strategy, process, data, and
technology bring improved
service delivery via adaptive
and sense-and-respond
systems
Page 18
Guidance
 Look to invest in buildout of pilot projects across departments or organizations.
Identify high-priority areas that will continue to bring measurable and public results.
Use data scientists to uncover new insights from pilots.
 Start to document long-term desired outcomes and goals with multiple stakeholders.
Utilize specialized technology partner-supplied resources until staff requirements
mature.
 Open data sets to the public and foster data use by holding hackathons and contests
for new ideas and mobile app development.
 Redefine the purpose of IT to include innovation and establish an innovation
team/organization (from previously identified change agents) to coordinate efforts.
 Take an inventory of existing infrastructure across organizations to develop a plan for
leveraging these assets and sharing information.
 Begin to research and evaluate enterprise architectures that will support mission.
 Formalize collaboration by creating cross-departmental work groups for services
delivery beyond emergencies, events, and disaster management.
 Document processes and define specific outcomes. Define how successful outcomes
will be measured.
 Move beyond one-off contests to engage citizens on a continuous basis via
personalized apps, direct communication via social media, and using gamification
models. Hold in-person and online meetings to discuss new project ideas and ways
to leverage existing data and systems.
 Data integrity must be a priority as information sharing across organizations becomes
a reality. Continue to expand the availability of and to integrate internal
multistructured data sources. Be aware that data governance policies and
procedures will be difficult to implement at single-business-unit level.
 Budget for scaling out of projects. Perform costs-benefit analysis for Smart City
projects to determine resource allocation. Begin serious discussions with partners on
business models. Define what return partners will get by putting "skin in the game."
 Develop a skills pipeline. Work with academic institutions to use students to intern on
projects to augment staff but also to mentor potential new hires.
 Assign an executive-level leader to coordinate the development of a cross-business-
unit Smart City strategy and to work regularly with partners and other stakeholders,
like educational institutions.
 Create a centralized Smart City team that provides support for decentralized staff
within business groups and that works consistently on citizen engagement.
 Monitor outcomes-focused metrics by which processes, staff, and outcomes are
measured to ensure goals are being met.
 Deploy fit-for-purpose and workload-optimized technology. Incorporate predictive
analytics into technology performance monitoring and management processes.
 Enable broad technology adoption by ensuring that an appropriate technology pricing
structure is negotiated with IT vendors.
#GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights
 TABLE 3

IDC Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model Impact/Guidance

Stage Guidance

Optimized
Outcome: Agility, innovation,
and continuous improvement in
service delivery bring
competitive advantage
 Make available information about all the data sources for users with business units.
The centralized team should take charge of continuous improvements in process and
to refine and improve on methodology for governance and measurements. Employ
decision management techniques to enable continuous process improvement and
integration of innovation and citizen engagement into business processes.
 Reorganize departments and agencies in accordance with outcomes and service
delivery goals and match budgeting process to fund new organizations.

 Regularly provide training to all the technology, analytics, and business staff to
ensure everyone continues to work toward a common vision and outcomes, even as
they are adjusted and refined.

 Ensure that open data continues to be used to support the growth of new business
and services by a continuous refresh of available data as well as tools that have
been successful in fostering their use.

 Continue R&D initiatives with academic and private partners.

Source: IDC Government Insights, 2013

LEARN MORE

Related Research

● The Social City: Emerging Models of Innovation and Citizen

Participation (IDC #DR2013_BS1_RC, March 2013)

● Pivot Table: IDC Government Insights' U.S. Government Solutions

Market Share Guide, Methodology, and Taxonomy, 2013 (IDC
Government Insights, #GI239610, February 2013)

● Perspective: The Reality of Smart Cities in Western Europe —

How to Move Your City Agenda Forward (IDC Government
Insights #GI238668, December 2012)

● China ICT 2013 Top 10 Predictions: Explore and Capture the

Third Platform Opportunities in a Transforming Environment
(IDC #CN8037332U, December 2012)

● U.S. Government 2013 Top 10 Predictions (IDC Government

Insights #GI238535, December 2012)

● Japan Smart City Solutions 2012–2016 Forecast (IDC

#J13481001, November 2012) (Note: This document is in
Japanese.)

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 19

● Methods and Practices: The Relationship Between Smart
Government and Smart Cities (IDC Government Insights
#GI237028, September 2012)

● 2012 U.S. Local Government Survey: Investment Priorities in

Smart Technologies and the Four Pillars (IDC Government
Insights #GI237407, October 2012)

● Smart Cities and Smarter Public Safety: The Case for Innovation
in US Local Law Enforcement (IDC Government Insights
#GI235481, June 2012)

● Business Strategy: Smart City Strategies — IDC Government

Insights' Smart City Framework (IDC Government Insights
#GI234160, April 2012)

Synopsis

This IDC Government Insights report identifies IDC Government

Insights' Smart City Maturity Model, which identifies the stages, key
measures, results, and actions that are required for cities to effectively
move through the stages and progress toward the long-term goal of
becoming a Smart City.

"Cities are facing a perfect storm of economic, environmental, and

demographic challenges today in which rising urban populations are
exacerbating existing urban problems and straining resources in the
context of uncertain economic times. Citizens' high expectations for
services delivery and the need for sustained tourism and business
development are pressing cities to consider the opportunities afforded
by emerging technologies. Navigating transformative change, such as
that required by Smart Cities, is a long-term and complex process. IDC
Government Insights' Smart City Maturity Model is a framework of
stages, critical measures, outcomes, and actions required for
organizations to effectively advance from Ad Hoc to Optimized along
the successive stages of competency toward data- and event-driven
decision making." — Ruthbea Yesner Clarke, research director, Smart
Cities Strategies

Page 20 #GI240620 ©2013 IDC Government Insights

Copyright Notice

Copyright 2013 IDC Government Insights. Reproduction without

written permission is completely forbidden. External Publication of
IDC Government Insights Information and Data: Any IDC
Government Insights information that is to be used in advertising,
press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval
from the appropriate IDC Government Insights Vice President. A draft
of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC
Government Insights reserves the right to deny approval of external
usage for any reason.

©2013 IDC Government Insights #GI240620 Page 21