Look Before You Leap, Part 6

4.1. Moving from Applications (Point Solutions) to Networks (Holistic Solutions) - Traditionally, city departments have built proprietary solutions into their individual budgets and the applications came with a communication platform bundled in. The result has been a system where the vendor holds leverage over the public sector consumer, which manages an increasing array of proprietary devices and software applications that do not work together, require expensive upgrades, and have differing legacies and shelf lives. In contrast, moving to a general purpose communication network that supports any IP-based application gives the public sector consumer much better leverage over vendors, where standardized products can be interchanged and no one vendor has an exclusive.

4.2. Proprietary to Standards-Based - We've learned a considerable amount about the value of standards over the past century. In the 1800s, it was common for an artisan or craftsman to work alone and make unique goods. Starting with Henry Ford's innovative ideas on mass production, the business world began to understand the efficiencies and benefits of reaching economies of scale. The technology era went a step further by gathering together industry leaders to come to agreement on production standards, thus allowing products to interact efficiently, providing consumer benefits and stimulating demand. That moves the whole industry rapidly through the product adoption cycle and lowers costs of production as cost efficiencies are achieved, creating a self-sustaining virtuous cycle, a great outcome if you can get it.

The best example in our field of this phenomenon is the successful work of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, which gave us among other popular standards, IEEE IEEE 802.11a,b, g and soon, n and s - standards that support Wi Fi and mesh networks - and IEEE 802.16d and e, standards that support WiMAX.

I put together this graphic a few years ago for a client to demonstrate the concept of a virtuous cycle based on standardization and collaboration.

4.3. Moving from Service Purchases to Infrastructure Provisioning - The move to digital platforms and the automation of manual processes raises the profile of the network on which services are delivered. As the network becomes a more critical component for the city, the city can begin to look at provisioning services over its own network infrastructure as a compelling and valid alternative to buying network services by-the-drink, gaining not only lower costs over time, but also greater security. Until the advent of relatively cheap new equipment and unlicensed spectrum, which together keep the costs of such networks low, entry by the public sector was simply not an available option. This approach of owning the network infrastructure is a significant departure from tradition, but should be viewed no differently than owning other critical infrastructure that the city uses to provide itself services, such as the water and electric utilities, and any fiber that it owns.

Next, we'll tie all this together to show how this methodology can lead to less anxious, more sound decision-making when faced with technology change.