NICE, France – The concept of a smart city, along with the underlying technology and adoption strategies, were a key topic at TM Forum Live this week. But, as smart cities continue to gain traction, how can the industry gauge maturity and progress?
In an effort to answer that question, TM Forum, which in January spun off the Smart City Forum, created the so-called “Smart City Maturity and Benchmark Model” to examine “the key aspects of a city’s transformation journey to become a smarter city,” according to the organization.
“The model allows a city to quickly assess its strengths and weaknesses in five key dimension areas related to city smartness and to set clear goals as to how it will transform over the next two to five years,” TM Forum explained. “The model also enables the city to benchmark itself against similar cities and identify other cities with whom it can partner to tackle similar challenges.”
TM Forum CEO Peter Sany said this new model will help forge “a broad international alliance to help shape the future of cities around the world. Our role is to connect the right people to collaborate and co-create truly innovative solutions that benefit not only our members, but cities and societies as a whole.”
TM Forum has gotten support for the framework – by way of a signed memorandum of understanding – from the Smart Cities Council, Shanghai Academy and World E-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments.