Take a Quick Tour of the Smart City Council's Readiness Guide

The Smart Cities Council is an industry coalition that seeks to accelerate the growth of smart cities worldwide. It does this by providing city leaders with access to technology counsel, financial tools, policy frameworks, visibility campaigns, and advocacy. The Council currently includes more than two dozen leading smart city practitioners and an extensive collection of independent advisors. A short video introducing the Smart Cities Council is available here (< 4 min). Invensys joined the Council as an Associate Partner last year, and we recently renewed our partnership, this time as Schneider Electric who acquired Invensys in January 2014.

The first comprehensive, vendor-neutral smart city handbook for city leaders and planners - the Smart Cities Readiness Guide - was developed by the Council. The Guide enables city leaders to assess their current state of technology and its readiness to become a smart city. The 281-page document is available for free download on the Smart City Council's website.

The Council has now released a Readiness Guide "Quick Tour" that highlights in just 13 pages how cities around the world are enhancing operations and improving citizen services with the implementation of smart technologies and how the Readiness Guide helps. The document includes at a high level what a smart city is, the smart city framework, what technology is used and what problems it can solve, the power of smart integration, how smart cities change the game, and how to get started - creating a smart city roadmap. It concludes with answers to a number of frequently asked questions about the Readiness Guide.

To learn more, download the Quick Tour.

Smart Cities Readiness Guide Advances Smart City Development with First-of-its-Kind Tool for City Leaders Around the World

Readiness Guide is the first vendor-neutral comprehensive roadmap for smart city development

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (November 18, 2013) The Smart Cities Council today released version 1.0 of the Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide, the first comprehensive, vendor-neutral smart city handbook for city leaders and planners. Designed with input from leading smart city and urban planning experts as well as top global technology companies, the Guide enables city leaders to assess their current state of technology and its readiness to become a smart city. It is available for free download at www.smartcitiescouncil.com/readinessguide.

The Guide was unveiled in Barcelona, Spain, the day before the Smart City Expo World Congress begins there, at a smart cities workshop and press announcement with the renowned ESADE Business School’s Institute of Public Governance and Management.

The Guide is a collection of guidelines, best practices and case studies. It helps a city create its own customized "wish list" with the confidence that it has not left out anything essential and that all the pieces will work together even if they are built in stages. The Guide outlines proven principles to follow in order to be successful and avoid pitfalls.

The Guide includes vendor-neutral technology recommendations on all eight of a city’s most important responsibilities: the built environment, energy, telecommunications, transportation, water and waste water, health and human services, public safety, and payments.

About the Smart Cities Council - The Smart Cities Council is comprised of the foremost companies in the smart technologies sector. Its goal is to accelerate the growth of smart cities worldwide by providing city leaders and urban planners with tools and resources, such as a Readiness Guide, financial guides, policy frameworks, and "mentoring" sessions. For more information, visit www.smartcitiescouncil.com.

Today's full Smart Cities Council press release is available here.

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Invensys is an Associate Partner in the Smart Cities Council. Invensys is participating again this year at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress in Barcelona, November 19-21, and is present in the Wonderware Spain stand (D421), our Wonderware software distributor, and also in the Microsoft stand (D415) as a Partner supporting their CityNext initiative. For more information about Invensys' Wonderware software solutions for smart cities, visit www.smartcitiessoftware.com.

U.S. Cities Beta-test Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide

Earlier this month, the Smart Cities Council announced that leaders from a number of cities across the U.S. are evaluating a beta version of the Council’s Readiness Guide. The Readiness Guide is a how-to manual for building tomorrow’s cities today by enabling cities to self-assess their readiness to innovate. Mayors and their smart city teams from Hartford, Dallas, Baltimore, Orlando, and Green Bay have been evaluating the Guide’s usefulness to determine the next steps toward transformation. The Readiness Guide, created by the Smart Cities Council Advisory Board and Partners, offers a unique holistic view of a city’s future – including the built environment, energy, transportation, communications, water, health and human services, and public safety.

The Smart Cities Council will continue to work with city leaders across the U.S. to gain feedback, followed by Europe, Asia and Latin America. The Readiness Guide will be officially launched next month to cities worldwide at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

For more information, read the complete news release on www.smartcitiescouncil.com. Invensys is an Associate Partner of the Smart Cities Council.