Why is it important for a municipality to use the Smart City app?
As a municipal leader, one often encounters criticisms of the functioning of the municipality and of the work of its civil servants. Many of these could be easily resolved through better communication and by making the services of the municipality more accessible. The Smart City app is a great tool to help the city administration in both of these regards.
In a rapidly urbanising world, communication and urban life are increasingly intertwined.
Urban populations are continuously growing, presenting an increasing challenge to urban communities and their leaders. In this dynamic environment, effective communication is key to enabling city residents, businesses and governments to share information, solve problems quickly and efficiently, and create a more liveable and sustainable urban environment. The Smart City app makes it much easier and faster for city leaders and residents to communicate with each other, for example when reporting faults or solving issues in public spaces, thereby making the urban landscape more liveable.
The Smart City app also plays an essential role in building the local community. It provides a variety of features, such as promoting city events and sharing news, from dedicated tabs to push messages. It can also be used for sharing local government media content such as local TV and radio programmes, as well as the local newspaper in digital format. But it also supports interactive communication in the opposite direction, channelling the views of residents through local consultations and questionnaires.
The inefficiencies in the operation of municipal offices and the extra workload and overlapping responsibilities can also be addressed by integrating the relevant functions of the Smart City app into the office. We contribute to this by educating and training the administrative staff at the municipal offices.
Local businesses will also benefit from the implementation of the Smart City app. With a smart city card, or digital city card, entrepreneurs can offer residents of the district fixed discounts, free or promotional products, they just need to register with the local municipality to participate in the city card programme.
In the 21st century, an important consideration is to make a municipality as accessible as possible to its residents. The fragmentation of the media landscape, the diversity of lifestyles of residents, and the rise remote work are all driving digitalisation, convenience and personalisation in the way people interact with public authorities. Consequently, a local authority that wants to please its residents and create a modern, contemporary image of itself is investing in a tool such as the Smart City app, which meets all these requirements.