For citizens it means that we will have access to good roads, be informed of traffic congestions and have alternate routes available; have demarcated areas for residence and work places; safe, clean, and timely public transport; security systems; garbage mangement without pollution; efficient and transparent government offices; access to healthcare and many other systems. This list is by no means complete but you get the idea.

This is an opportunity for many businesses to join hands with stable IT systems to enable their smooth functioning. How IT can enable smart governance is by providing actionable information to preempt repeat occurences and elevate the problems of the citizens.

A few examples for how IT works with traditional systems are given below:

Smart Traffic Management

Real time maps show congested roads when planning a trip helping avoid those roads and show routes that are less congested. This would be dependent on more options available such as more number of roads available, highly functional public transport system reducing the burden on private vehicles plying for everyday routes.

Smart Garbage Management

Each area will have a designated route for garbage collection. Garbage collection would de divided according to the type of waste generated. The collector would have realtime data on which areas in his/her route are critical to their route and can plan accordingly. After collection, there needs to be adequate number of designated areas where garbage is recycled, upcycled, and disposed while causing minimum pollution for surrounding areas.

Crime prevention

The police and residents to be better equipped to deal with threats. Police stations to get quick alerts when a crime occurs and to have a faster way to arrive at the scene.

Smart City Rider

A person on a trip within city limits would be able to select the starting point and destination in the map. Depending on the type of trip taken, the user would have an option on different filters like road trip, city ride, hospitals, reataurants, service stations, schools, dentists, etc. The results of the search would populate the map with directions. This concept will be adaptable across any city of any country in the world.

Smart Security Systems

Homes and commercial spaces to have smart systems that are connected with the Internet to alert and avert security breaches by having autoalert systems in place, alerting both the owners and the police. It can also be used as a decoy by mimicing homes as if it is occupied even when it is not by switching on television, music systems, lights, and other appliances at specified times.

Smart Healthcare

From a hospital perpective, hospitals can have updated systems which relay to their patients about vacancy and availability of doctors and beds. Diagnostic centres can go completely online by having their customers reports and medical history on the cloud accessible by patients at any time and sharing them with their doctors.

If the government has access to diseases treated by heathcare service providers in a given geography, then government can see trends of repeat occurences and come up with better management solutions.

Smart IT Security

If the Internet is to be the backbone of all smart operations, it means a huge amount of data generated and stored in the cloud. A lot of information will be personal and confidential; this means security to protect from breaches should be even tighter than it already is. This gives opportunitites to IT firms to invest and protect their data by using better and hack-proof means.

Smart Natural Resource Management

Conservation and prevention of loss of natural resources needs to be tracked and monitored in a timely manner. Pollution levels for air, water, and land are to be monitored and alerted to necessary parties so that steps can be taken to prevent crossing of threshold levels and alerting government authorities. Action can be taken to mitigate such effects. For example, evacuation of people in case of earthquakes, cloud bursts, floods, fires, etc. can be carried out in advance.

Smart Energy

Consumption can be tracked by consumers to regulate consumption and use alternate means. Government can track consumption to forecast and budget according to the demand to provide for citizens and recommend measures to counter over consumption and for generation.

Smart Schools

Schools to have an integrated system of enrolment, attendance, classes, exams, transportation, staff appointments, online library, video coaching, etc. all managed by a single-sign-on platform. This would help the school keep track of the student’s safety and their learning progress. Schools of the same chain will be able to transfer their students and staff seamlessly.

The Smart City Initiative envisages to create a smart govt.-citizen partnership for managing the welfare of the citizens. Several cities globally have already implemented this idea. India has taken up the initiative across 100 citites. Future citizens will find urban life more enjoyable than what it is now.

Baryons provides several application components and solution platforms which can enable smarter and timely governance. Some of these are:

• Smart school management

• Smart Compliance Audit and Tracking

• Smart survey and data collection

• Smart city rider

• Smart diagnostic labs for healthcare.

• Smart workforce for field force and project personnel management

• eLearning for skill development & workforce productivity enhancement

Some of the initiatives that India is currently undertaking are enabled by organizations, such as:

• Cisco

• IBM

• Dell

• HP and others

Baryons is enthused by Dell’s efforts as can be refered to

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/smart-governance-framework-cities-ravinder-pal-singh

The post Smart Cities in India appeared first on Baryons Software Solutions.

Whatever business sector you may be in, however well established your product line may be, your current and would-be customers will be interested in checking your business and its offerings on the Internet, simply because it is one of the easiest ways to do so for your customer.

These are a few reasons that your business needs to be visible on the Internet. There are various ways that your business’ online presence may be felt, namely, having a website, an ecommerce platform and having social media presence, website advertisements, such as Google Adsense, blogs, featured articles.

Having a website indicates what your business is all about, what are the vision and mission values that the business stands by, what is your product line, who your previous customers are, and what kind of customisation (if any) can your product/service achieve in helping your customers attain their goals.

An ecommerce platform focusses entirely as a point of sales for your customers. It should ideally have a category-wise product listing, details of the products, a shopping cart function, a contact number and email in case of ny queries, and a payment gateway. As these are basic functions that many ecommerce sites have, an attractive feature could include discounts and bonuses, shopping points, membership benefits, home-delivery options, etc.

Social media presence points to creating content in such a way that ultimately points the customer towards your ecommerce platform either directly or indirectly. The most popular sites being FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. It could also include sponsored articles on popular traffic-heavy websites. All this would be amiss without using the trending “#” usage. E.g. #usercontent. The content created could be from a specific products or method to industry-wide practices that an interested party could gain information from.

What are the benefits of having an online presence?

Low cost for being online 

With increasing rents and costs of outlets,  banding, maintenance, inventory, and staff costs, owning and running a brick and mortar business is much more expensive than having an online presence. A business with a store needs to have an online presence in terms of their own website, social media presence such as FaceBook, Twitter, etc. because it is not as expensive to set up and even lesser to maintain.

Wider market reach 

A large number of people google search for information about a product or service they are interested in to look for their availability online and for cheaper deals before stepping into a shop. Thus a business must ensure it is among the top search results in popular search engines like Google, Bing, etc. With a physical presence, your sales, depends on footfalls, i.e., people within the vicinity of your business. But by going online, potential customer numbers explode to everyone who has a phone with an internet connection.

Enable a closer relationship with your customer 

Many customers, both satisfied and dissatisfied, rely on venting their thoughts online rather than call the customer support number simply because it is easier. All the more reason to have a feedback form in your website and dedicated support staff to address them. In case of FaceBook as well, it would be prudent to have your company page monitored to address and assure your company’s mindfulness to your customers. After all, brand building goes a long way in retaining loyal customers as feedback received and implemented is valuable in their minds.

Mitigate loss of business 

As there are multiple avenues for creating brand value for your product/service on the Internet, there is a higher visibility which increases the brand recall in a large number of would-be customers. Engaging customers is a good way to building faith and get them to try out your product/service. Offers and promotions are a good way to entice first-time buyers. With exposure to online and offline customers, it would make a significant impact on the bottom line.

Accessible and easy display of your products 

Online product catalogs provide a handy reference for visual appeal to the customer before they order them online. Customers prefer to view their products and read reviews before purchasing them. The earlier apprehension of not buying unseen products has been reduced to a large extent for FMCG products, apparel, everyday products. It is handy to have your product catalogue listed

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