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Smart City Marketplace

Creating smart ecosystems

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Smart City Marketplace

An online platform where municipalities can search for Smart City solutions and collaboration with other municipalities.

Type project Flemish project within the ‘City of Things’
Project partners Antwerp Management School, Vlaamse ICT Organisatie, CIPAL DV, Keerbergen, Mechelen, Sint-Niklaas, Borsbeek, Burgemeestersoverleg Midwest, Sint-Martens-Latem, Antwerpen Digipolis, Aartselaar, Edegem, IC leiedal, IC interleuven, Oostende, Bonheiden, Lokeren, Hoeilaart, Zwevegem, Bornem, Willebroek, Harelbeke, Brasschaat.
Duration November 01, 2018 - October 31, 2019

The challenges

Flemish companies as well as companies abroad are increasingly interested in ‘Smart Cities’. This presents several challenges:

  • Difficult search for the right Smart City solutions;
  • Building the necessary knowledge and the tender procedures are both very labor-intensive. Civil servants often do not have (enough) time for this;
  • There is a lack of interaction and knowledge transfer between municipalities with regards to contract documents and framework contracts;
  • Unclear evaluations of existing solutions. What works/does not work;
  • Suppliers increasingly come around (unexpectedly), which leads to extra pressure;
  • Many Smart City concepts remain unknown to municipalities due to lack of manpower.

An online marketplace can strongly support municipalities and optimizes/digitalizes the sales process.

Online marketplace

Together with 17 municipalities and 3 intermunicipal companies (64 municipalities) we create an online marketplace where municipalities and suppliers of Smart City solutions can find each other. Through a clever filter system, municipalities are guided to the right solutions in a user-friendly way. In addition, we will elaborate an extra module that allows to easily locate existing and new framework contracts.

The project

  • Development of a theoretical concept into a prototype for and by municipalities, completed with businesses, academic institutions, network organizations, etc. In short: the quadruple helix innovation approach;
  • Optimization of municipal processes, reduction of excess overhead cost;
  • Functional analysis;
  • Development of UX/UI-friendly designs;
  • Draw up contract documents;
  • Proof of concept;
  • Adding first user evaluations and evaluation studies of smart city solutions and projects;
  • Test phase ‘proof of concept’;
  • Development of a self-sufficient business plan;
  • Concession for operation, launch and maintenance.

Advantages for the municipalities

This online platform presents the following advantages for the municipalities:

  • Speeds up their search for the appropriate smart solutions;
  • Reduces the investment in time needed for knowledge building;
  • Implementations of existing solutions and their evaluations are easier to retrieve;
  • The platform relieves pressure caused by suppliers who now often pay (undesired) visits to municipalities;
  • Reinforcement of interaction and knowledge transfer between municipalities with regards to contract documents and framework contracts.

Self-sufficient

This research project aims to create a self-sufficient online marketplace for Smart City solutions for municipalities and businesses. Businesses with Smart City solutions are handed a convenient prospection tool.