by Shane Henson — April 27, 2012—IDC Energy Insights, a provider of research-based advisory and consulting services focused on market and technology developments in the energy and utility industries, has released its Smart Cities Maturity Model, as well as a report tracing a city’s journey to becoming “smart” based on the dimensions of government, buildings, mobility, energy, environment and services across three major stages of data availability and its level of integration.
The company says its Smart Cities Maturity Model is the next step in the IDC Smart Cities Index, which was created to rank cities’ “smartness.” The model identifies three macro stages of maturity—scattered, integrated, and connected—for each of the five “smartness dimensions.” These three stages of maturity are further defined by two factors: data availability and its respective level of integration. The maturity model suggests that in the transformation process, the level of coordination among all existing and planned initiatives might vary in relation to a city’s maturity. Therefore, a smart city might not only be at different levels of maturity in different timeframes, but might also be simultaneously at different stages for each of the smartness dimensions.
“Becoming a smart city is a journey of continuous improvements in the fields of government, buildings, mobility, energy, environment, and services,” said Roberta Bigliani with IDC Energy Insights. “Data availability and its respective level of integration evolve during the journey, and the IDC Smart Cities Maturity Model traces it from open data existing at the scattered level, to valuable information existing at the integrated level, and finally to ubiquitous information existing at the connected level.”
