Public services have traditionally been considered the responsibility of Government. However budget cuts, externalisation / outsourcing of services, citizen demands and expectations will progressively change the model. Here are our thoughts:

• In future, due to demographic changes and resource shortfalls (money and physical things) end users will need to consume less services per head, and contribute more to / get more involved more in public service delivery;
• The need is pressing and acceleration of change is required. But, the current machinery and inertia of government is insufficient to make change happen.
• There are too many silos at all levels, and ‘rot’ exists between these (g2g, g2b, g2c), so a transversal view and model is required – a new focus on efficient and effective delivery and importantly built around a deep understanding of demand

Given the increasing amount of people living in urban areas, cities are perhaps the best units of change. There are however many cities, towns and communities across Europe, thus presenting challenges and opportunities:

• This fragmentation offers agility and scope for rapid innovation;
• However it also risks dis-economies of scope and scale
• Cities have limited effective platforms to share experiences and accelerate innovation – an issue notably for the mid-sized cities and towns where the majority of the population lives

The right model of change will have some clear features:

• Change of mindset behaviours and habits – greater collaboration across all groups, in all forms, and at all levels
• A more common understanding of language and meaning as we increase communications across silos
• Greater levels of commonality; not one-size-fits-all solutions, however certainly more focus on common building blocks
• Swifter better means to engage supply and demand in acquiring services – also with the involvement of academia to support innovation, and users to ensure customer-centric service design. A ‘quadruple helix’ approach

Connectivity Alliance will always strive to:

• Help change mind-sets, behaviours and habits to increase collaboration across all groups, in all forms, and at all levels
• Provide the foundations of a more common understanding of language and meaning in relation to terms used like ‘urban platform’ and ‘city data’, as we increase communications between sectors, across cities in multiple geographies, and across service silos
• Deliver greater levels of alignment and commonality; not ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions, however certainly more focus on open architectures, interoperable solutions and processes, and common building blocks
• Support a far swifter and better means to engage supply and demand in contracting for services
• Support in particular the smaller cities and industry players that lack capacity