3 March 2022
Hitachi Solutions and Microsoft to deliver a smart city platform for South London Partnership (SLP)
Hitachi Solutions, Microsoft and South London Partnership (SLP) have collaborated as part of the SLP’s InnOvaTe project to deliver an IoT platform that makes the data being obtained, accessible and understandable to the five London boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton.
The InnOvaTe project has used IoT sensors to undertake 40, yearlong trials across the five London boroughs. The data collected, ranges from air pollution to social care, and is striving to help people live better, healthier lives and to generate economic growth. Now, in partnership with Hitachi Solutions and utilising Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, that invaluable data will be collected and visualised to aide understanding, generating insights for both the benefit of officers, councillors, local business and residents.
“The insights gathered by the InnOvaTe project are already making the lives of people in South London better,” said Tim Kidd, Head of UK Public Sector at Hitachi Solutions. “Now, through this collaboration with SLP and Microsoft, we want to make it as easy as possible for others to access the data and deliver better outcomes in their local areas.”
One example of the technology already bettering people’s lives is in social care environments. IoT sensors monitor residents’ movements and send the data to the multi-purpose platform. If decline in activity is detected, an alert is sent to the Independent Living Officers (ILOs) or out of hours contact centre so that they can check on the resident. Maureen, one of the residents whose life was saved by these sensors, explained her story in a video for Sutton Council. Since Maureen’s case, the sensors have identified 22 fuel poverty alerts and two critical health alerts.
Corporate Head of Digital Strategy & Portfolio at the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, David Grasty, said: “We are excited to be taking the InnOvaTe project to the next level with the support of Hitachi Solutions and Microsoft. Having a unified platform will allow our data to be used efficiently, accessed easily and ultimately more helpful in delivering better outcomes for people in South London and beyond.”
Faith la Grange, Director for Local and Regional Government at Microsoft added, “We are delighted to have been selected by the South London Partnership, alongside Hitachi Solutions, to deliver this hugely exciting transformation project. Data, IoT and Smart solutions are rapidly becoming key components of Local Authority infrastructures, both in cities and rural areas. The ability to analyse real-time information to better understand what is going on in a region to keep residents safe, improve quality of life, make urban areas cleaner, keep our transport infrastructure moving, expedite the move to other greener travel modes and protect countryside, wildlife and nature are crucial for all authorities. With the work being delivered with SLP and Hitachi Solutions, we will help to create an ecosystem which all councils can leverage to tackle these challenges, and we couldn’t be prouder to be supporting the great work the South London Partnership is doing in these areas.”
About the InnOvaTe Project:
South London Partnership is working with London Councils to deliver an exciting and innovative “Internet of Things” (IoT) project across the five south London Councils of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton.
This initiative is funded by the Strategic Investment Pot (SIP) as part of the London Councils Business Rates Retention scheme which is administered by the City of London Corporation, and hopes to improve people’s lives through the delivery of a multi-purpose Internet of Things (IoT) platform, which will connect various sensors across borough boundaries.
The project is led by Sutton Council, which was selected to oversee the project on behalf of the other boroughs.
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