BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM

To deliver better citizen services insight

AUGUST 2017

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BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM TO DELIVER BETTER CITIZEN SERVICES INSIGHT l REPORT2

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Building foundations can be costly but is crucial . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

CityVerve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Don’t forget about the silent partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Diabetes Digital Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Embrace and prepare for the challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Some challenges to consider: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM) . . . . . . . . . . 7

Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Aims and ROI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Intellectual property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Managing risk through pre-mortem sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Digital Catapult resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM TO DELIVER BETTER CITIZEN SERVICES INSIGHT l REPORT

The Internet of Things at scale will need to include

collaboration between public and private enterprise,

as well as academia. There are many ways of

working together; and there can also be significant

challenges on the path to fruitful collaboration.

Digital Catapult has interviewed project leaders

and participants from current UK projects that have

received public funding: two IoT NHS Test Beds and

a smart city demonstrator, CityVerve, that have built

IoT ecosystems which incorporate the public and

private sector, the research community, and the wider

business and local community.

Some of the insights that we have uncovered in

our interviews include highlighting the importance

of the initial foundation. Ensuring that all projects

start off from a strong footing is essential, with a

particular focus on creating an open communication

forum where all participants are given a voice in

proceedings, irrespective of organisation size. These

strong foundations are the most crucial part of

developing long-lasting partnerships. They require a

tremendous amount of time and financial investment,

as well as frequent face to face meetings. The time invested will pay dividends and help ensure the project has many champions, internally and externally.

All public and private sector stakeholders need regular interaction. For example, funders will require a range of information and have monitoring requirements. This needs to be managed as painlessly as possible.

There also needs to be citizen-centric approach at the forefront of all that happens, from proposal, to design, to testing. These ideas are crucial in all aspects of the process, including recruitment, training, and on-going collaboration practices.

With a strong legal and management foundation in-place, a clearly articulated understanding of participant and stakeholders’ interests, an acceptance of challenges and a meeting structure which ensures that people are talking face-to-face about their successes and failures openly, the ongoing collaboration between public and private sector can be a success.

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Summary

THROUGH A DISCUSSION WITH LEADERS WORKING IN COMPLEX IOT ECOSYSTEMS, DIGITAL

CATAPULT IS EXAMINING HOW BEST TO SET UP A SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION TO ENABLE

ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN STAKEHOLDERS.

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Introduction

Some of today’s local projects have early potential to be scaled up or replicated in the future.

Digital Catapult has spoken to three current projects in the IoTUK programme; CityVerve, the smart city demonstrator in Manchester, bringing together disparate companies, academics, big data and collaborating to build a prototype smart city platform, and two NHS Test Beds that are researching the impacts of technology-driven monitoring and intervention in patients with diabetes and dementia. We spoke with them about the processes that they have gone through as they have set up the ongoing projects and what emerging insights they felt should be shared with others looking to replicate or develop their own complex IoT ecosystems.

The success of these projects relies on a number of factors. In the view of Digital Catapult and the people we have interviewed, these include ensuring that there is an assortment of expertise from academia, resources from large corporations, budgets and oversight from city councils, disruptive technology from start-ups and feedback from citizens. To recruit and manage such a team can be a daunting task.

Through a discussion with leaders working in complex IoT ecosystems, Digital Catapult is examining how best to set up a system of communication to enable engagement between stakeholders, individual ROI targets, and an agreed mission for the project and public services.

Building foundations can be costly but is crucial

Good partnerships are crucial even before the project

is funded or begins. Without reliable partners, a project

will significantly reduce it chances of attracting funds,

for example, in Innovate UK competitions. To create

an attractive proposal and win funding, organisations

need to understand the project’s and colleagues’ aims,

perhaps have delivered prior projects in the relevant

space, and have relationships with others involved. A

systematic and realistic proposal with potential for real-

life implementation needs to be backed by partners

that can adhere to clear goals. This could mean, for

BUILDING STRONG FOUNDATIONS CAN BE COSTLY BUT IS CRUCIAL TO GOOD PARTNERSHIPS

CityVerveCityVerve is a smart city demonstrator in the heart of Manchester. It aims to build and deliver a smarter, more connected city which effectively uses technology to meet the complex needs of its people. The project is being delivered by a consortium of 21 organisations - including Manchester City Council, Manchester Science Partnerships, the University of Manchester, Cisco, BT and other tech players including a number of SMEs.

With applications from health, to transport, utilities, water reduction, arts and culture, the CityVerve project is delivering innovative solutions to help make people’s lives better in Manchester.

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example, initial backing from a university which has championed a Test Bed in a specific technology or use case , or an IoT entrepreneur who has a passion and the technology required to move a project forward in an agile and nimble manner.

The time invested in the preliminary process could be a crucial factor in deciding the eventual success and longevity of the project.

“IF YOU DON’T MAKE THIS EFFORT (TIME INVESTED IN INITIAL MEETINGS), YOU WON’T SUCCEED. IT’S A VERY HARD COMPETITION OUT THERE.”

Nick Chrisso, MD, CityVerve

Before partner selection is formalised, for example in a collaboration agreement, basic human interaction and time spent together in person need to be heavily invested in. Although communication can go awry at any point of project implementation, a project of scale requires people who truly want to drive the work forward, have a shared understanding of what success looks like and possess general goodwill and a desire to resolve any unforeseen challenges as they arise.

Through a mix of face to face meetings, video calls and culture workshops, a shared mission needs to be ironed out. To agree the specs of the CityVerve project, Manchester’s Smart City Demonstrator programme; a significant and challenging task with multiple public and private stakeholders involved, Cisco, with Manchester City Council, hosted two face-to-face meetings and over 40 conference calls to put the proposal together. “If you don’t make this effort, you won’t succeed. It’s a very hard competition out there,” stated Nick Chrissos, Managing Director of the CityVerve project and the Head of Innovation and Technology at Cisco.

Shared purpose, good intentions, and mutual understanding of peoples’ expectations and ambitions bring partners together.

A legal framework agreed at the start can then support on-going, positive collaboration by setting expectations, and mapping out an escalation process should issues arise that cannot be resolved at the group level. Contracts need to reflect the legal needs of all involved, from large corporates to start-ups. One of the legal contracts CityVerve set up at the start was the Communication Agreement, specifically addressing governance and respect. This is a 37 page legal document assembled by lawyers who convened for

three long meetings to ensure that contract reflected all partners’ concerns.

Don’t forget about the silent partners

Shiny new technology and economic goals can sway the focus away from the aims of a project and needs of the ultimate beneficiaries: citizens. A key focus on the end users of the implementations within a project, with citizen participation and an iterative feedback loop of testing, needs to be included in the original proposal and supported by all.

Before the Diabetes Digital Coach platform in the West of England is set to go live, some elements are being piloted on 700 people, with specific feedback from 60 people. Citizens need to be involved at every stage of the project. This includes everything from mobile-centric design, data protection, personalisation and ease of use. Get it wrong and be prepared to open up to public and social media criticism.

Diabetes Digital CoachThe NHS loT Test Bed is a project consisting of the West of England AHSN in partnership with Diabetes UK and technology companies including DXC Technology. Bringing together mobile health self-management tools (wearable sensors and supporting software) with the latest developments in connecting monitoring devices (Internet of Things), the Test Bed will enable people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes to ‘do the right thing at the right time’ to self-manage their condition. It will also encourage more timely and appropriate interventions from peers, healthcare professionals, carers and social networks.

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Embrace and prepare for the challenges

“PEOPLE THINK THAT ALL NHS IT SYSTEMS TALK

TO EACH OTHER AND THEY DON’T AS THERE

ARE ISSUES WITH SECURITY. THERE ARE ALSO

A LOT OF ASSUMPTIONS, SPECIFICALLY ABOUT

SMARTPHONES. PEOPLE ASSUME THAT USERS OVER

50 YEARS OLD DON’T USE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY-

WHICH IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE.”

Elizabeth Dymond, Diabetes Digital Coach

Apart from a citizen-centric design, the public sector,

for example, funding government departments

or agencies, local councils, health, and transport

organisations might be closely involved in every part

of the process. For these publicly-funded projects,

financial and progress reporting, audits, reviews,

and engagement will need to become a part of every

partner’s background agenda, without becoming an

administrative block. Ensuring clear communication

of what will be expected and openness from the

partners is crucial to establish, ideally even before the

proposal stage. Some partners, for example charities,

might have experience working with the public sector

whereas the IoT start-up may not. Do not assume

therefore that everyone has the same experiences and

expectations.

IoT, smart city and health projects will often be local,

but the awareness they receive and the teams involved

in them might be much wider, even global. Add in

hospitals, councils, start-ups, charities, and corporates,

each with their own aims and stakeholders; and the

culture clash can be a shock. This adds pressures onto

projects leaders as well as SMEs.

For a corporate giant, the turnaround to bring a

technology project to creation can take around

two years. Start-ups bring in nimble go-to market

technology, crucial in the IoT space: often they are

creating technology that doesn’t currently exist. Their

involvement can be a challenge as well as a benefit.

Some challenges to consider:●● CASH FLOW: publically funded projects can require

upfront cash spending by participants with public

funding claimed in parallel, in arrears. This can

be challenging for small companies, which might

struggle with a large upfront investment or might

simply run dry of funds. A way to efficiently move

resources as needed should be implemented.

●● INITIAL SPECIFICATIONS AND PLANS can be subject

to change: As projects develop and become reality,

BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM TO DELIVER BETTER CITIZEN SERVICES INSIGHT l REPORT

the direction or even overall mission might change. Whilst a large and more experienced organisation can bear the shift, a small start-up might decide that they are no longer likely to achieve the desired benefits and an exit strategy will need to be in place at the start of the project, including clearly defined arrangements for intellectual property (IP).

●● OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY: Companies experienced in regulatory compliance such as data protection can be usefully brought into the process. This is standard for large corporate, yet can come as a surprise for a start-up. Openness and transparency are crucial and this kind of activity, for example audits, should be defined and agreed to by all parties in advance.

●● CULTURAL PRESSURES: Start-ups might feel a pressure to quickly succeed and grow due to their involvement in the project. Their goals will be on a shorter-term scale and revenue might be a higher priority. These targets need to be addressed during the proposal stage.

●● MANAGING EXPECTATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS: Stakeholders and end-users might have preconceived ideas around a project. “People think that all different connecting NHS systems talk to each other and they don’t, as there are issues with security. There are also a lot of assumptions, specifically about smart phones. People assume that users over 50 years old don’t use mobile technology-which is simply not true,” stated Elizabeth Dymond, Deputy Director of Enterprise at the West of England AHSN and Project Lead for Diabetes Digital Coach.

●● IP CONTROL: A detailed Consortium Agreement developed and signed from the start protects SMEs and other partners from infringement as the projects develop with time.

Recruitment

As with the aforementioned challenges, recruitment is a part of pre- and post- proposal stage that requires a mix of management and real human interaction. Dr. Helen Rostill, the head of a Surrey-based NHS IoT Test Bed project tasked with developing a service for dementia patients stated, “There is lots of communication. We have done a lot of workshops and

events, each with a theme, where people from different industries come together. We enable academics and innovators to brainstorm ideas together.” Collaboration like this enables the management not to lose focus on the citizen as an end-user.

“THERE IS LOTS OF COMMUNICATION. WE HAVE DONE A LOT OF WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS, EACH WITH A THEME, WHERE PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES COME TOGETHER. WE ENABLE ACADEMICS AND INNOVATORS TO BRAINSTORM IDEAS TOGETHER.”

Dr. Helen Rostill, TIHM

People’s motivations and pre-conceptions not only need to be managed, but also change throughout the project. This is especially visible when projects organically evolve over time, surpassing the initial ideas of their stakeholders. SMEs and start-ups are especially sensitive to change due to their size, and not only do their expectations need to be managed on a regular basis, but a clear-cut and amicable exit strategy needs to be placed in the initial legal framework. This is something that needs to be set up in both the Consortium Agreement, as well as discussed and agreed on in the primary recruitment stages. “Our approaches depend on whether we are recruiting directly through public facing campaigns or through NHS organisations. We start with good

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Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM)The NHS loT Test Bed in Surrey is a project is led by Surrey & Borders NHS Foundation Trust working with the University of Surrey, Royal Holloway University of London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Science Network, the Alzheimer’s Society, local Clinical Commissioning Groups, charities and ten technology companies.

This is an innovative two year project that will use loT technology to enable patients living with dementia to stay in their own homes for longer. Individuals and their carers will be provided with sensors, wearables, monitors and other devices. This delivers insights and alerts which allows health and social care staff to deliver more effective and timely services. Through utilising telehealth and the loT, the need for expensive long term care in nursing homes is reduced, as are unplanned hospital admissions or GP visits.

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engagement, clear calls to action and realistic plans and expectations. We have also decided to appoint an Enrolment Officer to keep us on track and troubleshoot as required,” said Elizabeth Dymond.

The recruitment process is a large part of the foundation phase of the project. Whilst recruiting, on-boarding, and later working with the chosen partners, a number of best practices can be adopted for more productive partner recruitment:

“Our approaches depend on whether we are

recruiting directly through public facing campaigns

or through NHS organisations . We start with good

engagement, clear calls to action and realistic plans

and expectations . We have also decided to appoint

an Enrolment Officer to keep us on track and

troubleshoot as required .”

UNDERSTAND THE “WHY”: Gather information through workshops and meetings as to why the partner agreed to work on the project. This could be because of social visibility, their investment in the related technology, or simply to bring in an additional revenue stream. Regardless, know their true intentions and drivers.

DO NOT MICRO-MANAGE: The partners are there because they have done something right. Micro-managing collaboration and communication will eventually clash with pre-existing cultures.

THAT SAID, DO SET UP GUIDELINES: Set up a clear meeting schedule from day-to-day meetings to stakeholder meetings. Describe the type of meeting (f2f, phone, and workshop) and be clear on the objectives, whether short or long term. This will set up a backbone for regular feedback, communication, and keeping a reliable structure.

UNDERSTAND AND LISTEN TO THE POTENTIAL PARTNERS: Make sure all of the partners are heard. A struggling small start-up can be just as disruptive to a project later on as a large corporate. Include a representative from all involved and enable them to communicate monthly with the project head and each other.

BE OPEN TO ADAPTION AND CHANGE: The mission, project vision and teams might change from initial conversations. Requirements from partners might change. Usually, the government framework given out will be rigid but team dynamics around it will change and there should be living, adaptable, documentation that can track the changes to ensure expectations remain aligned throughout the projects lifecycle.

FIND THE RIGHT TOOLS: Collaboration technology can make or break team cooperation and co-ordination. Work with the potential partners to create a digital spec and decide on digital tools to facilitate communication, ensuring that they will be able to adopt quickly and individual needs will be met.

CityVerve, THE SMART CITY DEMONSTRATOR IN MANCHESTER, IS BRINGING TOGETHER DISPARATE COMPANIES, ACADEMICS, BIG DATA AND COLLABORATING TO BUILD A PROTOTYPE SMART CITY PLATFORM .

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Partnerships

Ongoing collaboration and engagement of all parties is crucial to ensure that stakeholders share in the vision of the project. Spartan organisation and control needs to intertwine with a human touch and appreciation of cultural differentiation. A well-organised team, management and shareholder structure needs to be mapped out. A solid structure of governance should include a mix of day to day management, partner representation, and stakeholder oversight. For each management structure, a schedule of frequency and type of meeting needs to be planned and adhered to. A well-defined structure could model itself on below:

1.● PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM: A full-time team of employees who are tasked with monitoring the deliverables and day to day issues. The team should work like an independent company.

2.●GENERAL COMMITTEE: This middle management structure should include representation from all partners as well as particular teams within larger organisations including government, university, hospitals, project directors, and speakers of the committee. Regular (for example monthly) face to face meetings will better enable monitoring of all challenges.

3.●GENERAL ASSEMBLY: These are the main stakeholder decision makers who will make strategic decisions such as looking for a new partner. The structure of these meets is organized and professional, with meets every quarter and an assigned speaker. Additional bi-monthly meetings via video and in-person provide control and cooperation.

It is vital that expectations are managed from initial workshops to maintain everyone’s role as partners. This can be performed through ongoing and timely engagement in decision making, reporting, and responsibility. A mix of informal and formal meetings can help alleviate issues ranging from data protection to vision misunderstanding. Dr. Helen Rostill, the head of the Surrey NHS IoT Test Bed stated, “We really value informal meetings. So we had a number of events to talk about sharing a vision and later to celebrate wining the proposal. We had chats about protecting IP and what is the impact of everyone working together. We had some time to focus on culture and leadership”.

“WE HAD A NUMBER OF EVENTS TO TALK ABOUT SHARING A VISION AND LATER TO CELEBRATE WINNING THE PROPOSAL.”

Dr. Helen Rostill, TIHM

Aims and ROI

For a project to win private investment, every aspect needs to have commercial value and ideally also a developed business model. The project needs to be “procurable” and potentially replicable by other organisations. Cisco’s engagement and ROI aims go beyond successful delivery of CityVerve. Cisco’s involvement stems from its wider investment and activity, for example in smart transport, smart parking, and connectivity. A large corporate partner might have wider aims, for example SME partner’s growth with the end result of improved city and national social economic factors.

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Intellectual property

Intellectual Property can be a sensitive topic, especially as future projects are usually part of the long-term goal. For CityVerve, the heart of the project, even at proposal stage, was to design and implement a smart city project that was scalable, replicable, and procurable. The idea that a project needs to be designed to be replicable should be at the heart of the design. Being extremely sensitive on how IP is shared is crucial, to save both legal costs and ensure happy partners and the future scalability and best-in-class status. In simple terms, the project should be structured in a way where each partner is able to put in their component into the project whilst individually owning that part, therefore protecting the individual organisation’s IP.

Managing risk through pre-mortem sessions

Projects that combine so many different stakeholders with varying cultures and backgrounds have a lot of potential for things to go against plan. To avoid significant issues occurring and the subsequent need to perform an after-the-fact post-mortem of why the problem arose, prevention is the best medicine. Just like with foundation, this requires time, commitment, and repetition. By creating and maintaining a risks log, partners can take ownership of risks that relate to their contribution and create mitigation plans for identified risks that cannot be resolved up-front. The dividends will be huge.

Good preventative practice also includes dedicated time set aside for regular “pre-mortem” sessions. Pre-mortem sessions are meetings when partners go

over worst-case scenarios for all and any parts of the project in a systematic manner and then spend half the session finding solutions. These sessions sound grim or fatalistic, but the outcomes might even help to come up with new ideas for innovation, collaboration, and problem-solving apart from risk management. On a human-level, they will bring partners together and hash out creeping cultural clashes and foster an environment of collaboration and shared responsibility.

Do not focus on problems that are out of the project’s control. Budget cuts are often not in project management’s control. Ensuring internal revenue and outside investment very much is. Some rules to set up a productive session are recommended:

1.● ALL STAKEHOLDERS SHOULD BE INVOLVED: A small niggle from a small partner can cause a big problem later on for everyone.

2.●MAKE THE MEETINGS FACE TO FACE: These are human issues and therefore need a human and personal environment. Food can be provided; checking social media or responding to emails should be discouraged.

3.●PROVIDE ENOUGH TIME: Good conversation only happens after a warm-up and when everyone is relaxed. Encouragement to toss around even absurd problems is crucial. A good creative brainstorming session takes time and will save the time spent on crisis management later on.

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Digital Catapult resources

Digital Catapult has a number of resources to help with all aspects of project collaboration, specifically in the SME technology industry. Some relevant publications to help with specific and niche topics can be found below:

Creating Data Services for Citizens and Communities

The project aims to understand how digital services are improving interactions between citizens and government using cloud platforms and improving data access, and whether it is possible to establish common themes across successful cloud projects and share best practice between government teams and departments.

Case Study - Digital Catapult Centre Brighton: Internet of Place

Brighton has long been established as a creative and digital hub, with the local CDIT (Creative, Digital and IT) worth £1bn per annum. Digital Catapult Centre Brighton is focused on the Internet of Place – driving innovation and value creation based on realtime and location-based data.

Conclusion

When projects involve diverse organisations, from both private and public sectors, the task of a successful partnership and management can seem like an impossible challenge.

The good news is that successful collaboration has been done before, and lessons learned can be had from project like CityVerve and the NHS Test Beds.

Time invested in the building of the foundation and in problem management is a key pillar of building

a solid stage for collaboration and happy partners. Solid and detailed documents collaborated on with partners to map out everything from IP ownership to digital tools will grow trust, relationships, and the organisational structure.

Most importantly, everyone is an equal partner. Treat all as equals and transparency, good will, and communication will organically grow.

Digital Catapult, 101 Euston Road, London, NW1 2RA

IoTUK.org.uk • info@IoTUK.org.uk

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