Comarch Smart City at World Smart Week 2015
The “World Smart Week 2015” Conferences & Innovation shows were held on 15-17th September 2015 in Marseille, France. City officials and innovators were discussing a shift from a technology-driven to a resident-centric approach. The conference was focused on key areas of innovation: M2M/IoT platforms, contactless technology as well as identity protection and security services.
The special presence of Professor Filipiak, founder of Comarch has been noted. He opened the conference by speaking about the development of connected objects and computer systems in a close future.
The conference was intended for Mayors’ Offices, City Councils, Chiefs/Commissioners, Heads of Operations, Heads of Procurement, Heads of IT Systems, Police, Transport Authorities, Urban Planners, Consultancy and Engineering Services, Smart City Services Integrators, IT & Telecommunication industry, Academics and R&D centers. They all shared experiences and discussed the most important issues and hot topics related to the idea of a smart city. As Professor Janusz Filipiak noted in his speech, the IoT revolution is not only about technology but also about people: In the next five years we are not going to see the fully automated IoT systems executing their actions without human participation. Instead, IoT platforms will provide data to IT applications, mainly mobile, which will support people in their decisions. Two IT platforms using IoT services are offered by Comarch: Connected Digital Markets (Smart Cities) and Field Service Management (FSM).
The attendees had a chance to learn about many innovative projects. It’s worth emphasizing an American solution based on wheelchairs equipped with cameras. This enables a detailed analysis of the sidewalk quality: the local authorities are automatically notified when any hole or other obstacle is recorded. It is a simple idea which makes the life easier. On the other hand, the case study of Carrefour shed some light on new trends in ecommerce. The company proudly announced that they have already launched a fully connected store in France, which is integrated with mobile devices, geolocalized products (NFC chips) and uses interactive terminals. Edmund Puckhaber, Co-Founder and COO of Thanks Again gave a speech about beacons deployments at airports. He described new possibilities available thanks to the use of technology. All those changes were summarized by Professor Janusz Filipiak, who is convinced that:
New type of companies will emerge: the connected digital market operators, that deliver proximity marketing services. Connected digital markets will develop around large clusters of shops and such service providers as airports, large metro and train stations, shopping malls.
Comarch stand was located by the main entrance and it aroused great interest. Our representatives were able to talk, among others, with a big European retail chain and a couple of airports from Europe and North America. This is a part of Comarch’s strategy in the field of IoT and Smart Cities.
We need to remember, that cities live best when they combine a mix of uses for inhabitants (city transportation, retail, engagement), but only when the system is user-friendly. Comarch looks for simplicity when developing new products, but simplicity requires lots of environmental tests to assure that eventually the product will be really usable. Even the most complex solutions may be easy-to-use when they are well designed. We focus on location based services which can serve as a base for every single action taken by the user. Thanks to the IoT platform we are able to take our systems to the next level of customer experience – concludes Paweł Wnętkowski, Department Manager at Comarch Pointshub.
