Municipalities are Getting Ready for their Digital Future
When Sidewalk Labs announced they were no longer pursuing the Quayside Toronto Project, the city’s swelling tech community exhaled a deflating sigh. From their perspective, this public works initiative was a potential breakthrough in urban planning and sustainability, and could possibly reshape one of the most overlooked sections of Canada’s economic center.
After this project was bailed on, there was a general pervasive dejection, one that gave the impression that Toronto was an unworthy hub of over-engineered ingenuity. After the predictable subsequent finger-pointing and public rabble settled into a more calm and sober assessment of the situation, it was clear that few municipalities across North America are in an apt position to adopt this kind of proposed open digital infrastructure. Why? Their internal systems are simply outdated. In a time of totalizing digital immersion, the technological plumbing used by cities of all sizes simply isn’t future-friendly.
Just look at the myriad attempts by organizations of all sectors to adjust to quarantine-amenable digital services. Even Canadian enterprises with hefty financial resources stumbled and struggled to implement modern agility and efficiency to their antiquated systems. Though, it’s not their fault. Bureaucratic checks and balances present a double-edged sword: While they are necessary for cities to protect the public interest, they can also stifle innovation, or at least drag out its process to frustrating lengths. Elected officials sweep in-and-out through turnstile terms and municipal departments shuffle through constant turnover, thus creating an atmosphere of volatility in project planning and delivery. Sometimes it’s tough sledding for innovation.
Over the past five years, technical debt has been a thorny issue for municipal administrations, and many have reached their breaking point. Technical debt accumulates when an organization postpones fundamental changes while continuing to band-aid over inadequacies in their old tech stacks. When technical upgrades inevitably turn from suggestive to critical, the years-long snowballing of scope and scale eventually bury entire departments in feasibility assessments, to-do lists, and prohibitive price tags.
It appears as though now is an ideal time for municipalities to invest in their future. They can start by migrating old stacks of back-end applications, building new integrated services platforms for residents, and switching to cloud-based services that offer efficiency and longevity. In a time when quality local software development and microservices are so readily available, there’s frankly no excuse for municipalities to operate at a technical standstill.
Virtual services such as online booking systems, digital form submissions, appointment scheduling, and educational and financial services are becoming more commonplace in larger municipalities. These changes are easy to implement. It’s only a matter of time before small- and medium-sized districts explore the benefits of digital services as well.
Residents demand convenience and conformity to their increasingly digital lives. Municipalities don’t need to continue stalling to move ahead on game-changing public initiatives. By modernizing their technology, cities and townships can position themselves to serve their populations effectively for decades to come. Furthermore, modern technology can expand the reach and depth of programming, serving marginalized and remote communities previously excluded.
There will be a time when projects as ambitious as sidewalk labs are mainstream — the efficiencies of a smart city can only be eluded for so long. Planning for these technological advances ahead of time will ensure municipalities are able to capitalize on the opportunity when the time comes. And the way things are trending, that will be sooner rather than later.
Finnovate.io is a technology company focused on helping organizations build unique digital experiences on web, mobile and blockchain. Finnovate.io offers development services, training, consulting, as well as a platform that rapidly turn paper based content into interactive experiences.
