Local governments, lacking market intelligence and trust in existing solutions often end up re-inventing the wheel at prohibitive costs that lie 10-20x above the cost of deploying existing solutions as well as delaying availability by 4-8 years.

Calls for Solutions published on Citymart.com have proven to result in delivering an average of 10x more solutions to cities than they were aware of.

Success Story

In 2011 the State of Lagos published a call for a solution to end the endemic DVD piracy that undermined 90% of sales of the Nollywood movie cluster. No solution had been found until then to suit the unique conditions in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

Citymart.com ran a global campaign that combined proactive research and recruitment of submissions with an open call that found 150 solutions and delivered 24 Showcases for evaluation to the expert jury made up of stakeholders representing the film industry, government, and international experts.

EggUP.com, a high-technology start-up from Hawaii was selected as a winning technology and Nollywood Upgrade Project was launched within just 12 months to provide strategy, financing and technology to Lagos’ film producers.

90% of cities develop strategies to solve their problems behind closed doors, which means that providers with alternative approaches are not aware of them and that requests for proposals single out a preferred solution.

At the same time, the vast majority of local governments do not have processes in place to evaluate new approaches – 80% report that they have no process to handle unsolicited proposals.

Citymart.com helps cities publish Calls for Solutions at the earliest stage, when a problem is identified but no preferred approach has been determined. It is at this stage that market intelligence is most needed and most useful to cities and providers alike.

LLGA | Cities Pilot the Future takes this process one step further, by matching cities and the most promising providers to implement real-life pilots within just 12 months to provide a more complete evaluation before investment and regulatory decisions are taken.

Success Story

An LLGA | Cities Pilot the Future Call on Citymart.com yielded 59 entries. PE.AMI was selected as the most promising solution, putting a previously unknown provider in the spotlight. PE.AMI is likely to not only provide a feasible solution within budget (or less), but also incorporate wireless control systems for at least 5 other urban systems saving millions of dollars in further technology investments. The pilot deployment went live just 6 months after selection.

Savings are incurred for San Francisco in the following ways:

-finding an hitherto unknown solution to an unresolved need;
-future cost savings of millions of dollars by not deploying parallel wireless infrastructures for e.g. parking, electric vehicle charging, traffic light controls and smart meter reading;
-saving the significant cost of procuring a wireless control system to the city’s own specifications, likely to cost 10-20x more than deploying PE.AMI, an existing solution;
-saving 30-40 months by deploying a pilot solution to evaluate impact before specification;
-likely continuation of halted LED lighting within months of completing pilot, rather than years, leading to 50% energy savings years earlier.

In a market characterized by highly formal procurement processes, but thousands of local interpretations, trust has become a rare commodity. Typically, trust is referred to as a ‘back door’ rather than an undisputed brand or service advantage.

87% of local governments, in return, are reporting that they do not trust information and project references from providers. Instead, 67% resort to relying on ‘informal contacts by employees into the business community’ to verify the capability of solution providers.

Citymart.com addresses this fundamental issue by leveraging technology to establish three new trust systems based on documented validations through stakeholders, cities and experts:

Project Validation – providers invite stakeholders in each project to certify the facts that are presented to future customers.
City Evaluation – Cities appoint Jurors to evaluate Showcases in the Call for Solutions process. Providers receive the full results and can publish these in their Showcase
Expert Certificate – Larger projects are presented to global experts to certify their viability and calculations on sustainability and impact.

In a world where technology enables us to learn and share solutions at the highest ever rate, we would expect to see solutions that work spread rapidly across society, especially if they are of low technical complexity, save costs and transform lives for the better.

Yet, until today, solutions for cities have rarely spread rapidly. A combination of a lack of knowledge about available solutions and market barriers mean that on a good day a proven solution takes 10-30 years to spread from early adopters to improve lives in larger numbers of communities. This is not just fatal for business, but the majority of citizens also suffer as a result.

Re-invention is a major indication of how inefficient the marketplace can be. Most solutions in cities are in fact locally re-invented at a very high cost in time and money. Typically, a ready solution that can be locally deployed in just 12 months will take 4-8 years to deploy if it is re-invented. And the financial cost will be 10-20x higher.

Citymart.com accelerates markets:

1. Calls for Solutions identify all available approaches early on.
2. Any decision-maker can access our Showcase for immediate results.
3. LLGA | Cities Pilot the Future delivers real-life pilots in dozens of cities.
4. Certified and independent validations are available in real-time.