The London Office of Technology and Innovation and Bloomberg Associates Launch City Tools: London to Spur Collaboration and Drive Efficiency in London’s Service Delivery

City Tools: London, a report and interactive dashboard, maps London boroughs’ technologies, contracts and IT capabilities to activate cost-savings and upskilling across London’s boroughs

LONDON, November 13, 2019 — Today, the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) and Bloomberg Associates, a pro-bono municipal consulting service, will release City Tools: London, a report and interactive dashboard that maps technologies, contracts and skills across London’s boroughs. By making this information transparent and easily accessible, boroughs will be able to identify new opportunities to collaborate, re-shape the government technology market and improve service delivery for Londoners.

City Tools: London showcases the various technologies used across London boroughs to deliver services to residents. The report outlines key findings and trends, describes several case studies, and provides recommendations for local, municipal and national government. This comprehensive mapping includes 809 IT systems and their respective contracts and identifies skill levels for peer training opportunities at each borough. This research is a starting point to enable possible collaborations between local authorities, identify opportunities for new entrants and innovators into the government technology market, and drive cost savings by coordinating contracts and leveraging borough’s collective bargaining power.

“All London boroughs care deeply about providing amazing services for their residents. To do that, they need to have great technology and strong relationships with the best suppliers,” said Eddie Copeland, Director of the London Office of Technology and Innovation. “Thanks to City Tools: London, boroughs will now have much richer information about how their technology compares to their peers’, making it easier to share their knowledge and expertise with each other, and look for areas where they can work together.

“Stemming from Bloomberg Associates Digital City Tools report, City Tools: London goes a step further and reveals in granular detail the technologies, vendors and contracts that enable London’s services,” said Katherine Oliver, Principal of Bloomberg Associates Media & Digital Strategies. “By connecting the dots between boroughs, City Tools: London paves the way for collaboration across boroughs and creates a model for other government entities that seek to work together across arms of government.”

London’s Chief Digital Officer, Theo Blackwell, said “The launch of City Tools: London is an important step in our work to help the capital’s councils work together more effectively. This new resource will play an important role working at a new scale to design common services which best meet the needs of Londoners of all backgrounds.”

The report and interactive dashboard will be announced today at Big Data LDN, a data and analytics conference, to an audience of 250 local government leaders, tech companies and entrepreneurs. Audience members will hear from Eddie Copeland and Todd Asher from Bloomberg Associates; Omid Shiraji, who will explain the report and give a demo of the dashboard; and Theo Blackwell, who will give closing remarks. The audience will also enjoy a panel discussion on tech-collaboration in government featuring serial entrepreneur, Mary McKenna, and head of the Local Digital Collaboration Unit at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, May-N Leow.

The development of City Tools: London was a collaborative effort spearheaded by Bloomberg Associates in partnership with LOTI, and with support from the Greater London Authority and London Councils. Eden Smith Group, a data transformation company, created the City Tools: London interactive dashboard. Moving forward, City Tools: London will become a real-time resource, hosted and maintained by LOTI.

City Tools: London report was composed by Omid Shiraji and funded by Bloomberg Associates. The report is based on Bloomberg Associates’ 2018 Digital City Tools report which details how city governments around the world use technology to address and solve urban challenges and drive progress.

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About the London Office of Technology and Innovation:
The London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) was established to help London boroughs collaborate on projects that bring the best of technology, data and innovation to improve public services and outcomes for Londoners. Based at London Councils, the LOTI team consists of Eddie Copeland (Director), Genta Hajri (Programme Manager) and Onyeka Onyekwelu (Lead Engagement Officer). It is funded by its core membership of 15 London boroughs, the GLA and London Councils. LOTI was launched on 10 June 2019 at London Tech Week and started its formal operations on 15 July 2019.

About Bloomberg Associates
Bloomberg Associates is the philanthropic consulting arm of Michael R. Bloomberg’s charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies. Founded in 2014, we work side by side with client cities to improve the quality of life for residents, taking a strategic, collaborative and results-oriented approach to make cities stronger, safer, more equitable and efficient. Our team of globally recognized experts and industry leaders have worked with cities across the globe on hundreds of projects in order to ignite change and transform dynamic vision into reality. For more information on the consultancy, please visit bloombergassociates.org or follow us on Twitter @Bloombergassoc.

About Greater London Authority
For more information on the Greater London Authority, visit www.londoncouncils.gov.uk.

About London Councils
London Councils represents London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London Corporation. It is a cross-party organisation that works on behalf of all of its member authorities regardless of political persuasion. More about London Councils here: www.londoncouncils.gov.uk. London Councils and its member boroughs have signed up to a series of shared commitments on the issues that matter most to Londoners, which they will deliver over the next three years. To find out more about the Pledges to Londoners, visit http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/pledges.

About Eden Smith
Eden Smith Group is a specialist data staffing & consulting company. Thought-Leaders & exclusive Big Data LDN staffing partners, we build your data teams today for tomorrow's intelligent world. Providing Permanent and Interim data specialists from entry level to C-suite, our core staffing solutions are supported by innovative workforce re-engineering, data strategy, education, training and technical expertise. We are paving the way to building your workforce of the future and actively support private and public sector organisations becoming data enabled.


PRESS CONTACTS

London Office of Technology and Innovation
Onyeka Onyekwelu
Office: +44-020- 7934- 9656
Cell: +44-07926 078946
onyeka.onyekwelu@loti.london

Bloomberg Associates
Emily Mayrath
Office: +1-212-205-0221
emilym@bloomberg.org

Big Data LDN Press Office
Gary O'Sullivan
+44 (0)203 637 0640
bigdataldn@positivemarketing.com