3a - IoT and Smart Cities (Smart shared and connected spaces)
IoT: Local SIM
Improves your ability to monitor and react to events by letting your smart devices communicate locally.
Accelerating transformation in local authorities
Digital – in all its guises – is an enormous and positive opportunity for Local Government to transform and improve the way it works, the way it engages citizens, and the way it delivers services.
Councils are using cross-departmental digital programmes to establish more streamlined and secure ways of working, provide a more connected and inclusive service experience, and innovate to cut both costs and emissions.
Addressing the critical challenges
The immediate impact of COVID-19 was that a large number of the total 2.2m Local Government employees who would normally work in offices were given the ability to work from home. Arguably the most impactful digital transformation local government has ever seen occurred almost overnight.
Vodafone stands ready to support each and every one of the UK’s 408 local authorities as they seek to establish longer-term solutions to how employees work in the future. What is clear is that flexibility and access to digital services will be at the cornerstone of future plans, whether employees are at home, in the office, or in local communities.
Making change happen – right now
At Vodafone, we recognise that budgets remain a challenge – the key is to truly innovate through technology. Our mission is to connect the UK and build an exciting digital future that works for everyone. Read more about our long-term commitment to delivering change for Local Government.
Download our interactive toolkitHelping people live the lives they want
We’re helping UK councils to realise their ambitious plans through innovative technology and reliable
network connectivity.
Embracing digital working
Supporting remote working, improving service delivery and streamlining back office functions.
The way we work is constantly changing
The recent pandemic has brought this into sharp focus, with digital services being used to support remote working, help improve service delivery and streamline back office functions.
Here's how digital services can help...
Remote access
Improve remote access to information, documents and central databases out in the community, giving Local Government workers the power to take action and make decisions for a better citizen service – all in a secure data environment. For example, social care providers and carers can access real-time information about a service user’s history and situation.
Monitoring
Support teams to be able to monitor their staff and assess the time they spend at a given location. If for example, an appointment overruns, the team could then alert other service users if they should expect a delay.
Efficiency
Repair and maintenance teams to record on-site information directly onto mobile devices to reduce paperwork. They’re gaining remote access to centralised data, while automated dynamic job scheduling allocates the best person for each job. These all help to speed up service delivery and improve workforce efficiency.
Lone worker protection
Safeguard the people providing services in the community. Lone worker protection solutions are a great example of technology being used for good. From housing officers and maintenance repair staff working alone in sensitive areas, to care providers travelling to remote parts of their region, protecting workers is critical.
Improving the citizen experience
Offering multichannel communication, self-service, responsive maintenance and intelligent feedback.
Supporting digital inclusion and security
In its ‘Councils Can’ conference paper, the Local Government Association wrote: “Communities have a right to expect good quality services and councils have the ambition to deliver these in a way that helps people live the lives they want”
At Vodafone, we help Local Government organisations achieve this by providing a better, more connected, and inclusive citizen experience...
More ways to communicate
Councils are engaging with citizens using a multi-channel approach. This includes online, webchat and social media, enabled by our network connectivity.
Self-service
Mobile and web technologies have also made it easier than ever for the public to self-serve and access local services via online portals – cutting the cost to the local authority and enabling a 24-hour access model.
Improving maintenance
Internet of Things (IoT) sensors in properties can help to improve the quality of response to citizens’ housing maintenance requirements, whilst reducing a council’s need to provide unsolicited maintenance on boilers, pipes and damp prevention.
Better insight
Our cloud-ready IT and digital services help local councils to unlock the value of data, with analytics and intelligent feedback providing accurate citizen data, whilst ensuring a secure environment.
Delivering smarter services
Using Internet of Things solutions to create greener, more sustainable communities.
Connected services
Making their towns the best possible place to live and work is a common ambition for many Local government organisations. A greener, more sustainable community, whether in cities, towns or villages, is part of that ambition and the concept of ‘smart cities’ powered by Internet of Things solutions is now very much on the strategic agenda.
Waste management is a big challenge, both environmentally and due to the increased tax burden for landfill. Our IoT capability is helping to make bin collections more efficient and contributing to smarter approaches to energy use.
Smart cities and the green agenda
IoT and 5G offer huge potential to improve energy efficiency and cut carbon emissions in busy urban areas.
Caught on camera
Smart CCTV surveillance technology monitors local communities, day and night, to improve safety and boost citizen confidence.
Clean air
IoT monitors installed in urban centres can sense and report back to central systems on local humidity, dust levels, harmful chemicals, pressure, and other factors – minute by minute.
Greener offices
Smart meters, installed in offices, depots, call centres and more, can collect and report data on electricity, gas, and water use.
Swansea city centre is undergoing one of modern Europe’s most exciting urban regeneration schemes. Our £1bn transformation story can only be written with strong partners and Vodafone is one of those. As our city leads Wales out of the pandemic, Vodafone’s collaborative approach, responsiveness and creativity is helping our city centre become smart, digitally enabled and connected.
Rob Stewart,
Council Leader,
Swansea Council
Services tailored for you
Reduce costs and improve efficiency throughout local government services with solutions right for your organisation.
Supporting the Lancaster district using technology
Lancaster City Council provides services to around 140,000 people living in the Lancaster district. The Vodafone Smart Camera is supporting Lancaster City Council in keeping their beaches, towns and roads safe and clean.
Transforming the workplace
Like all UK local authorities, Bedford Borough Council is being squeezed from all sides. It must look to trim its budget while meeting improvements in customer service, and it must achieve all of this while motivating its employees. Bedford Borough Council is rolling out a programme of workforce mobility to deliver all of the above. Working with Vodafone, it has re-energised staff and transformed service expectations.
Linking citizens up with loved ones
Powered by Vodafone, Wirral Council and Age UK are providing support to care home residents using tablets and our connectivity solutions.
