One place for two actors who create a modern smart city infrastructure - SaaS IT solutions and local governments
The Smart City Technology Exchange is a modern platform that connects providers of municipal technology with local authorities. Users can find the solutions available on the market and effortlessly compare them with one another.
CUSTOMER
The Polish Development Fund (PFR) brings together financial and advisory institutions supporting sustainable economic and social development of Poland. On a daily basis, it helps local governments and entrepreneurs to introduce innovative solutions and build their strong position on the international market.
CHALLENGE
The customer approached us with a need to create a tool that would help accelerate the pace of local government’s digitalization. The solution was to function as a response to the lack of knowledge about new technologies and insufficient communication between municipalities, cities and IT product providers.
Thus our challenge was to create a modern marketplace platform. It was supposed to aid local government units in satisfying their IT infrastructure needs more quickly and effectively.
The service was to collect ready-made solutions tailored to the requirements of the administration and help test them with a use of a micro-grants system. Now the municipalities were to be able to test their operation in practice and their usefulness to the local community.
SOLUTION
Before we started work, a detailed functional analysis was conducted. We wanted to know exactly what our customer's needs were and to provide the best possible tools. This led to the design of the application with specifications and suggestions for optimal solutions.
With the help of PFR internal marketing team we've created platform mock-ups, both for desktops and mobile devices. We also took care of the design of the platform.
We needed proven and reliable technology. We decided on the one we knew inside out, with years of experience using it behind our belt. Our choice was Drupal. We developed the platform based on the CMS in its latest, 9th version.
The portal is divided into several modules. These include a user registration, a grant application module, quiz, a catalog of IT products and a knowledge base of articles and news.
Some users are not skilled enough to state what they need right away. For them, we came up with a special quiz. Answers are utilized to form the basis of recommendations to help match the right solution.
Users can also take an online course. It can help them to learn more about how to implement innovations in their municipality. The course contains essential information on the digitalization of local government and cooperation with entrepreneurs, legal issues and how to finance digital transformation.
RESULT
The project took 4 months to complete. The customer's team was also actively involved throughout the process. The platform was launched on 10 October 2022.
The new tool saves time and provides an opportunity for the digital development of Polish local governments. It can also be an inspiration for the business, delineating development paths in the smart city area. For companies, the Exchange also provides a direct and free marketing channel and an opportunity to gather practical experience from working with cities.
OUR CHECKLIST
- Drupal 9 as a base for the solution
- Detailed technical specification based on the discovery process&
- Desktop and mobile mock-ups, design
- System implementation, QA, Accesibility WCAG 2.1,
- Training for editors of the system
- Integration with external e-marketing tools (Freshmail)
- Hosting
