The recently formed London Office of Technology & Innovation (Loti) and Bloomberg Associates, a pro-bono municipal consulting service, are releasing 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 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 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,” said Eddie Copeland, Loti director. “To do that, they need to have great technology and strong relationships with the best suppliers. 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.”
 
The report and interactive dashboard were announced last month at Big Data LDN, a data and analytics conference, to an audience of 250 local government leaders, tech companies and entrepreneurs.
 
“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. “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.”
 
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.
 
“The launch of City Tools: London is an important step in our work to help the capital’s councils work together more effectively,” said London’s chief digital officer Theo Blackwell. “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 City Tools: London report was composed by Omid Shiraji from Ordatus, 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 problems and drive progress. 
 
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, it is funded by its core membership of 15 London boroughs, the GLA and London Councils. Loti was launched in June 2019 at London Tech Week and started its formal operations in July.