Rising Cities. Smart Future 2023 - One-stop-shop for solutions on all levels and on all verticals

The second panel of the “Rising Cities. Smart Future 2023” event, organized by Business Review, brought together specialists in public transportation and in implementing different smart-city apps in the same platform as the concept of digital cities goes beyond technological advancements. With a focus on Bucharest as the most crowded city in the country, the participants showed that we need to make an open data platform where people can find what they need for a better and a more sustainable community.

Razvan Mocanu, Digital City & IoT Manager at Orange Romania Communications: One stop shop solutions for a smart city

Razvan Mocanu talked about the projects Orange Businesss has and how the operator is now a one-stop-shop for smart city solutions with many apps developed by other companies.

”One-stop-shop is a rather broad concept and we can talk about many solutions that we have integrated in this area. We come up with solutions on all levels and on all verticals. That is, smart parking, waste management, transport solutions. Solutions that come through partnerships with suppliers, with which we develop solutions through Orange Fab, where we have suppliers of cutting edge technologies at all levels.

We have developed two important factors, and here I mean the area of connectivity and infrastructure for this platform, core business factors for us. No matter what kind of platform we are talking about, we need connectivity, and this is our core business. We have all kinds of connectivity, 5G, 4G, Iot and many others to cover all kinds of projects, because different cities need different solutions.

Another area of promotion is the part of open platforms, because all of these need management. Many verticals have been implemented, with the respective management platforms, but without being integrated into an “umbrella” solution so that you can correlate information from different applications. That’s why we come up with this open solution that can integrate all the standalone solutions implemented so far. Local administrations have been concerned with the implementation of several beneficial solutions for citizens, but each one is stand alone and the time has come to bring them to the same platform.

We have several projects developed in the smart city area, there are over 30 cities in Romania where we have implemented at least one vertical of the smart city area. We have implemented many lighting solutions, we are implementing waste management solutions somewhere in the north of the country, we have charging station solutions. The telecom operator has now become an integrator of smart city solutions, that’s why we mention that we are a one-stop-shop, but the suppliers are the ones who bring the solutions to the market. Including in the area of public auctions, it is more difficult for a single supplier to apply and win, while for an operator that comes with several integrated solutions, it is easier since it is a question of complex projects, with many works involved.

We developed our portfolio on the two pillars, the area of connectivity and that of open platforms, but we wanted to see this year if this direction is suitable for Romania’s needs. In this sense, IDC made a study from which it emerged that, first of all, there is still a need for promotion for the smart city area. People from all social categories were interviewed and it turned out that there are still 9% of people who have not heard of smart city at all.

Another area was to see if our portfolio of solutions coincides with people’s needs and the citizens most want solutions for health and education. In second place, they want the development of the waste management area, then video surveillance and then transport. But they all come with worries, for example in the video surveillance area they are worried that their personal life will suffer.

We also have green projects, some already implemented, others under implementation. Another aspect of the survey is the process of people dissatisfied with the implementation policy of projects that help achieve a smart city. Here is a percentage of over 50% are not at all satisfied with the implementation. It is explainable because many projects are still under development and are not seen in the daily life of the citizens, but when they are completed, this percentage of dissatisfied people will also decrease.

We also have several green projects implemented and we have created a large portfolio of solutions together with suppliers in order to cover all the needs of a city. Smart lighting solutions, parking solutions, waste management solutions with container filling sensors have been in high demand by public authorities.

All are part of one-stop-shop and end-to-end solutions, so that all levels of project implementation are covered.” Mocanu concluded.

Doru Chirica, CEO & Co-Founder at tranzy.ai: We need to found ways to include all apps that are stand-alone and already in use

Doru Chirică talked about how we can use all apps, developed by different providers, to share and use data from all in order to create a smart city that can turn into a sustainable community with all its citizens.

”They can integrate as many as the public administration and the operator in the respective city want. This is the first step, the awareness of the city as a smart city is a goal that you do not reach very easily and by no means alone. There is a need for many applications that have the ability to talk to each other for the benefit of the city and its citizens. At the same time, these solutions are businesses that follow their own objectives, and in the fulfillment of these objectives, a collaborative platform is needed on which these solutions can sit and reach a strong driver, such as Orange, to push them to the authorities public.

What we propose is, first of all, management tools used by public transport units, because we see mobility as the backbone of a smart city. We offer tools that public carriers can use as stand alone or integrate them with other solutions. The main problem is that what they already use are solutions that do not communicate with other applications. It’s a problem that exists all over the world and most of the time the authorities create a legislative framework to force the providers of integration packages. The most common theme is open data. But because it is a constraint, not an awareness, different procrastinations are sought.

The development of a sustainable community means inclusion, it means the use of all existing solutions and their integration. Sustainable means using what I already have at my disposal and looking for solutions in a balanced way, without spending a lot of energy and money resources. Sustainable, in our view, means three principles: safety, functionality and aesthetics. These are the basic principles that we all actually follow. Through the lens of sustainability, tranzy.ai often plays the role of the consultant, that trusted advisor, that advisor of the public transport operator in the acquisition process. And because we make efforts to generate solutions that we can make available to the authorities and we offer the data to anyone who wants them, we create solutions for the free market. Moreover, we are looking for partners to find these solutions, with their know-how and their expenses. Orange, for example, is one of the partners for a GPS-as-a-service solution and they are not the only ones that make such solutions. There are several suppliers looking for integrable solutions for the same type of application or to solve the same problem.

But it is necessary for all providers to understand that the data collected through an application that has already been delivered to a public authority, it would be good to make that data public, so that it can be used by all environments, including academics, so as to reach solutions in the interest of the citizen, who is, in fact, at the center of all our concerns.

The city is a living, developing organism. What has gone wrong so far is that we have been reactive, that is, where there is social frustration, we have intervened. People do not need to buy a personal car to get to work if they have an alternative. In order to become proactive, we need to make decisions based on trends, trends, which we find out from the data. If we had information about a waste container, a person can decide whether to go a block away to throw garbage into an empty container. But the information must be public, including for people. The same for parking lots and bicycle parking lots. If the bin is full or not, it is public information, not commercial.” Believes Chirica.

Alexandru Vasiliu, Sales and Marketing Manager at E-Mobility Rentals: Our big achievement at the moment is that we are operational in Bucharest, we already have 100 vehicles on the street

Alexandru Vasiliu talked about how public transportation of people and merchandise can be transformed with the use of specific electric vehicles together with the use of swap stations for batteries around the city.

”E-mobility Rentals comes with solutions by which it wants to accelerate this part of the integration of electric vehicles, in the idea that we offer all the necessary infrastructure, a universal inter-changeable battery, i.e. for several vehicles, we come with a swap station with batteries already installed through Bucharest and we come with specific electric vehicles for several types of businesses and activities. The main focus is the activity of transport, couriers, carriers, etc., but we are also open to everything related to the maintenance of a city, sanitation, security. Our big achievement at the moment is that we are operational in Bucharest, we already have 100 vehicles on the street, ten swap stations installed in the parking lots of a supermarket chain and we will have 20 by the end of next month and another 400 vehicles are on the way. And we have a first pilot project with 40 vehicles delivered to a food delivery aggregator and if everything goes well, we will scale up for Europe.

A sustainable community is created through education in the first place, then through responsibility. We need as many partnerships as possible between municipalities and private companies, through which we can generate an awareness through which the world will understand exactly the benefits of a sustainable community in general. If we talk about data, these are the most important for us. If I’m not mistaken, in 2020, Romania emitted over 70 million tons of carbon dioxide, of which transport accounted for 17%. So over 13 million tons of carbon dioxide from the transport area alone. The good part is that we come up with a solution that can be implemented both on the public transport side and on taximetry or transporters, e-mobility and micro-mobility at the same time.

Our system allows customers to see where batteries are available, how many there are and everything they need for efficient transportation. And for waste management we can find solutions of this kind, even now, there is no need for new applications. We also recycle part of the battery cells and even reuse them, so that we are as close as possible to zero waste. But it is necessary to collaborate with the public authorities, with the municipalities, we cannot do these projects alone.” Stated Vasiliu.

Dan Boabes, Owner at Meridian Taxi: Taxis were and will remain an important component of public transport

Dan Boabes talked about the transformation of how we need to make public transportation a better alternative for people that sue their car in the city in order to keep Bucharest from turning into a even more crowded city.

”Taxis were and will remain an important component of public transport. I was playing with Chat GPT and was asking why certain authorities in Europe limited the number of taxi licenses. And he answered in a very interesting way: to control pollution, to keep control over the number of cars in traffic and so on. I’m trying to find out why Bucharest is so congested and I’m trying to get stuck in traffic more and more. And I can say that the human component is very important, that is, each of us here has been involved in different projects to make transport more efficient. The potential is great, especially in bringing something new. If you remember, when Romania introduced fixed communications, we hoped that, by applying modern methods in the taximetry area, we would have a quick leap towards modernity. I am now working with my software development team to have some innovative solutions at the global level by the fall.

Bucharest is one of the most congested cities in the world, on the 7th place, and I’m afraid that if we don’t do anything we will end up in the top 3 and a model of “so no”. And I think that the authorities and not only should ask themselves how we got here. It’s easy to accuse citizens of buying too many cars, but maybe it’s a necessity, maybe they don’t have enough information to convince them to get out of the car and take another form of transport. I also think that the taximetry part is a very important component, because the multiplication of the number of cars on the street for transport, for ride-sharing, congests and complicates the delivery of people or goods to their destination. I think that an involvement in managing the number of cars on the street would be important. Another component is quality; if I, a citizen, feel that I am not getting the quality I need, then I choose to turn to something where I can control the quality, such as my own car. All should be taken into account by everyone and let’s find solutions to solve this problem.” Said Boabes.

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