short servicestories 3_fluegge_the future of the city - services for the future city

© SAP AG, Barbara Flügge of 9

Short Service Stories: «The Future of the City»

- Services for the Future City -

by Barbara Flügge


Abstract

The paper reflects the script we prepared and presented at the contribution to the GSMA Panel «Smarter Cities» at the Mobile World Congress 20131. The

script resulted from co-contributions of my colleagues. All of us, being subject matter experts in our very own topic, share a common interest in urban matters.

The structure of the script sets the stage by outlining the characteristics about urban growth. The offering concerning urban needs and services are being

detailed by value proposition, business network characteristics and value drivers. Hereby we introduced examples from our projects and initiatives such as

Smart Logistics for Ports and Cities. Reflecting upon SAP’s Internet of Things (IoS) and Internet of Services (IoS) strategy, the presentation covered questions

around scalability within large and mega-sized business networks and the applicability within and among industry sectors. We reflected upon SAP’s offering and

the value drivers for any stakeholder involved in an urban community being a small city or a metropolitan region. The speech concluded with a service mantra

for co-creating the future city and helping to shape urban matters from our, individual contributor’s perspective.

Keywords: Business Networks, Future City, Services, Servitization, Smarter Cities, Urban Matters

1 See GSMA MWC2013 Panel program – Future of the City – Smarter Cities, Smarter Living


Table of Content Page

1. Introduction … 4

2. Future of the City – Smarter Cities, Smarter Living … 5

About the Author … 10


1. Introduction

Making a city smart, efficient and sustainable is a formidable task, but one that many public- and private-sector bodies the world over agree will be a crucial

evolution in the way we live. By 2030, the UN forecasts there will be over 5 billion people living in the world’s cities. This will include not only mega cities well

beyond what currently exists, but also many more smaller urban centers that will have to grow quickly to keep up with demand. Mobile networks will be key to

delivering some of the digital services that will help citizens live healthier, safer and more sustainable lives in these future cities. A ubiquitous communications

structure capable of real-time analytics and response will help with everything from mass transit efficiency to saving money on household bills. Mobile can

help not only with environmental and financial concerns, but also with social issues, such as political engagement and social mobility.


2. Future of the City – Smarter Cities, Smarter Living

Mobile World Congress (MWC) - Panel on Future of the City Barcelona, February 26th 2013 by Barbara Flügge _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Thank you, Mark, for the introduction. My talk today is about the challenges we encounter in city logistics operations and what an ideal approach would look

like to overcome these challenges.

We are all made very familiar with the statistics concerning urban growth, the rise of megacities, the outlook concerning higher density of people, goods and

facilities – as for example the top 120 cities generate in 2012 nearly a third of the world’s Gross Domestic Product. By which a significant growth area for goods

supply, distribution and adjacent services resides in these cities’ operations. It can be expected even more to come from these cities in the future.

Nevertheless we should not neglect communities that grew overtime and face their very own challenges by geographical boundaries, de-centralization of goods

supply and being not competitive enough anymore to cope with regional business trends. Communities will face the risk of diminished population by appearing

and acting old fashioned towards their citizens. Communities that are too fashionable for example will face the risk of neglecting those that ask for a

comprehensive service offering including transportation, household related, remote and onsite health care and further services for elderly people that seek to

live still independently.

So what does it take to make a city smart and best run? I counted more than 7 different rankings and methods that define “smart” – when preparing for this

panel. Rather than getting into detail concerning the distinct definitions and methods, I like to emphasize from our point of view the following five aspects to

make a city smart or how we say “best run”:

. Good government: supporting the fundamentals of good government

. Empowerment: empowering to be more productive and release administrative burden from us being a public official, a business representative, a citizen


. Stimulate community engagement and openness: hereby we mean easing the way of interacting in the neighborhood, next door and contributing to

community activities

. Driving innovation to deliver government and business services that are directly accessible and consumable in an easy, mobile way

. Urban resilience – improving urban resilience will help to ensure public safety, security, and growth

Reflecting on these aspects, it is our very own user profile that drives the expectation of how we like being served and what we need. It is our very own position

in the community that determines which processes, action items and data is being kept open and which should be held privately. We watch out for business

and consumer related operations that are brought to us in the most simple, easy to capture and hopefully best run manner.

Let me give you some examples for how we envision a best run city – and you will tell me afterwards if that is accountable for Barcelona as well. With respect

to innovation and an addressable business community of more than 900 enterprises, we are conducting an intensive field trial with more than 6 distinct

stakeholder groups and more than 40 individuals. In that trial we like to answer 3 mission critical questions:

. Firstly, how to increase preciseness

. Secondly, how to manage space

. Thirdly, this is about business collaboration or how I like to describe it: how to capture the assets of an existing physical business network and lift it into the

digital age

Preciseness - being on time is a key asset for any group and individual involved in city logistics. In our field trial in Hamburg and projects we leverage our service

on demand framework concept. That consists of mobile and desktop business services. Those allow individuals such as dispatchers, truck drivers and

technicians to receive delivery and order related pre-notifications. Drivers that had to wait for about 40-50% of their time encountered a significant reduction

in waiting. Road managers were able to manage delays being caused by road constructions and bridge closures ahead of time rather than running after.

Space – in a disconnected world and with a tiny time window to react, truck drivers would simply have tested if space for cargo delivery and pick-up, at the rest

areas at the freeways is really available or not. In some cases their dispatcher would have called them and informed them about a change in the pick-up


location or that he had to circle around. In other cases the onboard unit system would have given them the isolated figure of available space for all drives

nearby. Would the space be still made available for that specific driver? Most probably no. Would the driver still know about further services he or she could

book in advance? Would the driver be able to reserve a required spare part for the truck and get the expert in the local garage made available for the repair –

prior to his arrival? No.

Business Collaboration online, mobile and onDemand – Capturing the assets of an existing, physical business networks means building sophisticated business

networks of cities, ports, and airports - sophisticated in the sense of acting online and physically in a coherent way. In a sophisticated business network, the

construction company works directly with its stakeholders: the utility companies, the craftsmen, the carriers and freight forwarders, the technicians in a many-

to-many relationship. The position of being the third or fourth participant in a distribution chain does not isolate an involved organization from supply chain

activities. It allows to keep my line of business activities up and running about what had happened before and does not leave delivery and planning cycles un-

modified and outdated. And most relevant it does not leave engineers and technicians equipped with their mobile devices and tools un-informed.

The above outlined examples will still work by extending the number of participants regardless their industrial home base. The above outlined services will still

be applicable to any other stakeholders that need to foster preciseness, require space and seek collaboration among known and unknown business partners.

Why is this the case?

Firstly, we know about how business networks function. We analyze business networks. We identify the involved stakeholders by their role and their

interaction level with business partners and individuals. We reach out to those that are not connected yet and those that are part of other networks. We

measure the strengths and size of the network. We determine the collaboration density. We then define the order of onboarding to be best positioned for

creating the network effect.

Secondly, the service enablement component of our M2M functional and technical stack facilitates to plug-in newly required or modified services and plug-out

those that are not useful anymore or being outdated. The stack is made of several components: the App Enablement, the Device Enablement and

Management, the Connectivity and Service Enablement as well as a Hardware enablement component – the latter three are provisioned by our partners. And

as equally relevant our Business Suite on HANA facilitates lines of business within and among organizations, devices, and any other hardware.


The services are deployed on demand and operate towards a common purpose among the user groups we address. Built on top of OnPremise solutions we are

hereby addressing industry specific service needs such as energy consumption monitoring, utility efficiency, remote healthcare checks, and inter-modal

transportation. We are hereby addressing cross-industry service needs such as space, on-time-delivery, city intelligence, governed policies, activity and budget

transparency, and many more.

With our offering, SAP’s functional and technical stack is complemented by our own and our partners’ and customers’ business services and apps. We invite our

ecosystems our business network and those that are not in yet to.

We are confident that hereby

. We contribute to accelerate local, regional and international attractiveness and transformation potential for cities, and that

. We contribute to make operational needs manageable across different organizations and user groups

Let me conclude my contribution to this topic with the following service mantra:

Being part of the ecosystem of a mega city or a small community – we are all addressees of distinct service offerings: being a citizen with individual preferences

and expectations towards citizenship, being part of an organization that manages the local and regional distribution of goods and services, being the

representative of the local government, or being a tourist or a business traveler catching the first glance of a better run city upon arrival. And we do judge if

the city is best run or not. It is the service providers’ opportunity being business and governmental service providers that can make the difference for the future

city.

Thank you very much for your attention!”


About the Author

Barbara Flügge is working for SAP since 2002. In her function as Strategy Lead for Public, Transportation and Logistics at the Global CoE for Mobile

Solutions she is heading the global initiative Smart Hub Networks. It concerns next generation’s apps and services for organizations and entire business

networks. One of them she is managing is the so called Smart Logistics program, executing upon the added value of collaboratively designed and deployed

mobile apps and services for contextual ecosystems such as ports, airports, urbanizations and metropolitan areas. Her activities embrace the functional,

operational and economic design of Business Services - being deployable within, beyond and across organizations and industries. Prior to her current role,

Barbara Flügge held management positions within SAP Consulting, Ariba Inc. and Arthur Andersen Strategy Consulting. Her contributions reach out to local and

international ecosystems and can be found in a number of activities around the globe for academia, small, medium and large enterprises in public services,

trade and logistics, telecommunications, automotive, and further industry sectors. She graduated in Information Management and Business Administration at

the Otto Friedrich University Bamberg. She holds a Ph.D. in Management and Economics from the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Contact Details:

Dr. Barbara Flügge, SAP (Schweiz) AG, Blumenbergplatz 9, 9000 St. Gallen / Switzerland, [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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