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Edinburgh pursues aim to be world’s ‘smartest’ city
Edinburgh's vision to become one of the world's smartest capital cities has received a major boost thanks to an agreement between the City of Edinburgh Council and CGI.
Building on the five-year relationship the council has established with the ICT services provider, councillors have agreed that the contract with CGI is to be extended until 2029 (running from 2023). The extension will save a further £12 million and help the council look further ahead to the future.
The move will means CGI will be working with the council on further digital transformation of services and continuing to be the council's primary ICT provider for the next nine years.
The ambitious plans which the contract extension will help push forward will include: responding to the needs of a post-Covid Capital city by driving forward digital transformation; bridging the digital divide between Edinburgh’s most and least affluent areas, providing schools with the most advanced networks and kit; and a smart city operations centre to deliver transformative digital services using the likes of AI, the 'Internet of Things' and Advanced Analytics.
The announcement follows Edinburgh being listed as Smart City of Year in the Digital 100 shortlist following recent work by the council, CGI and other providers to enhance connectivity and embrace new technologies.
Cammy Day, City of Edinburgh Council’s Smart Cities lead, said: “Becoming a smart city will make Edinburgh a more sustainable and fair city so I'm pleased we've secured CGI's long-term support to help us with our vision. We're already well on our way to transforming the way we deliver many Council services, making them much more efficient and easy to use for residents. We want to develop this further and under the contract we're looking at making digital learning services a lot more accessible and inclusive for all our pupils and residents.
"The work we'll do with CGI will also support our plans for lowering carbon emissions and lowering costs by using smart technology. We realised savings of £45 million when our partnership began in 2015, with an additional £11 million in 2018 and this extension will save the council a further £12 million at a time when our finances are under pressure."
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