One of the key themes that emerged this year from local government leaders at the New Cities Summit is thatcitizen engagementis a critical component to make our cities better. This theme was reiterated over and over throughout the sessions to really underscore its importance: more effective citizen engagement leads to better outcomes for cities and communities.

Customer Experience in the 21^stCentury and IoE

Technology is enabling a changing customer engagement model across the city landscape. There are now new options to get information and to create engagement. To engage citizens effectively and to improve the citizen experience, local government leaders and cities have to provide a compelling user experience and relevant information and services anytime, anywhere.

This brings in the concept of theInternet of Everything (IoE). IoE is the catalyst that can transform the citizen services of yesterday into interactive, citizen engagement for today. It's a platform to connect the previously unconnected thereby creating smarter, more connected, more efficient government agencies and cities that deliver better, faster, real-time services through improved citizen engagement.

The Solution: Creating an Engaging and Interactive Citizen Experience

Cities and local government agencies are facing increased pressure to improve citizen experiences by providing real-time information and access to the information and services that citizens need. At the same time, these city and government agencies also need to improve efficiency by providing effective self-service solutions when possible, as well as the ability to efficiently scale crucial resources and reduce costs. 

One way to address these issues is through interactive citizen services. As an example, the Cisco Interactive Services solution brings together multiple digital media endpoints to provide efficient management and consistent user experiences by delivering, interactive multimedia content and web-based applications to interactive kiosks. The solution supports real-time collaboration experiences, such as high-definition video concierges or remote experts, for extensive live interactions in multiple languages. In short, it enables the ability to improve the citizen experience by engaging citizens in a meaningful way.

Click on the image below to learn more about the Cisco Interactive Services solution.

The New Citizen IoE-xperience

The Cisco Interactive Services Solution can offer a variety of benefits for city and local government agencies, including providing new revenue streams, and enabling citizens to access information they want, when they want it, and how they want it, which includes the ability for translation. The solution not only provides cities and agencies the ability to effectively reach citizens with important information, news, training, promotions, and events delivered at public sites around town, but it also provides a platform for interaction between citizens and virtual representatives and allows citizens to search for information and make inquiries. To sum all this up, the solution connects the unconnected and consequently creates the ability to engage citizens in a new way, delivering an improved experience, and ultimately increasing revenue for cities and local government.

Interested in learning more? 

To learn more about what cities are doing to create new possibilities for improved citizen engagement and a better citizen experience,register  for the entire#SmartConnectedCity blog series, or visit Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities page and Government page on Cisco.com.