Smart City
DIGIMONDO: Connecting the world, the IoT way
Christopher Rath, CEO, DIGIMONDO
Connecting the world, the IoT way
DIGIMONDO’s successful use of the Internet of Things (IoT) has made them one of the sought-after companies for smart cities. DIGIMONDO enables the IoT by helping customers’ bridge the physical and digital worlds with unmatched technologies that solve real-life problems and make the world smarter, healthier, greener and safer.
“IoT is not only sensors talking to each other but talking to us humans too. We have designed and developed our solutions in a way everyone can understand and use services enabled by IoT, not just the technical folk,” says CEO of DIGIMONDO Christopher Rath. “The company’s objective from every IoT project is to simplify and remove complexity from the work process.”
Christopher Rath has played a key role in implementing IoT within the company and has always remained at the helm of things spearheading major strategy, sales and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services.
Further detailing about how IoT can benefit in Smart Cities, Christopher notes usability and accessibility are two of the highest priority factors for the company, in their solution design phase, which is also of utmost importance in any smart city project. “All city residents can gain from their city becoming smarter and from the availability of new services.”
IoT – The Latest Tech-Enabler
Christopher feels IoT is a new technology arena offering a slew of benefits to several stakeholders. He notes new technologies are always compared with existing ones and a need arises to demonstrate their applicability and relevance by solving some fundamental or basic business problem. “This can be achieved through running pilots or short POC (proof of concept) programs” he points out.
Challenges Galore
On the challenges faced, Christopher notes DIGIMONDO started with a different business model where the company planned to build a nation-wide LoRaWAN network for a single customer. “This plan got derailed. We were working in a bounded business model. Suddenly, we had to reset and re-learn and ultimately refocus to supply solutions to support multiple customers.” Christopher notes this helped them gain a deep understanding of the whole IoT value chain.
The Inspiration
Christopher’s idea of being inspired at work stems from the fact, customers use technology and solutions to solve day-to-day problems and major issues. “In this age of digital transformation and digitization, many cities struggle with adoption. But we want to show them these tools can make cities more efficient, positively impact the environment and make our lives better if we approach the problems with the right mindset.” He cites an example of how the company has deployed an IoT network within one of the largest school management facilities in Hamburg. “The janitors who are getting older, they love the convenience of being able to monitor doors as well as windows and check the school’s heating system from their homes in the cold winter evenings.”
The Success Mantra
A parting shot for budding entrepreneurs, Christopher says one can overcome failure when one makes mistakes and when the same is admitted. “We have made mistakes in our short company history, but we always learn from them. It is important to debrief after any situation and take onboard all opinions.”
Top 25 Smart City Technology CEOs of 2020
The idea of a smart city has become extremely important when it comes to the context of defining the strength, performance, facility, demography and urban economy. How a smart city would perform? In what ways we can identify a smart city?
When it comes to understanding a city in terms of scientific growth and implementing important policies with the right quotient of strategies, it has a tremendous impact on the socio-economic growth of the place and worldwide. Several reports and research studies indicated there will be a continuous rise in the population living in the urban city. Under this circumstance, the present Government needs to tighten the loose ends. The first important aspects are to make all the resources easily available for the people to utilize. Not just basic resources, but when it comes to luxurious resources, the people living in the urban city have first access to it. A person’s mind is extremely inquisitive; they search for the technology that makes their life extremely easy and convenient. In a way, this contributes to the economic and social growth in a city but gives their poor environmental sustainability.
How does the scientist look into this growth?
Growth in technology is so widespread that some of the issues and problems that need immediate attention are often overlooked. The rise in population means deterioration of air quality, transportation, and economic risks. Not just this they are open to major health consequences. When the population density in a city is lesser, the lesser will be the energy consumed for electricity and transportation, which will certainly help in the dropping of carbon-dioxide. But there is no way that all these can be controlled. The situation indicates that the cities are in need of smarter ways to control and combat the new challenges.
The rate of metabolism in cities consists of consuming essential products and excreting waste. This is a common phenomenon and is unavoidable. This gives rise to socio-economic issues. Promoting any goods for sustainability has been taken through the growth and marketing of natural capital stocks. Also, if we consider and take into account city sustainability, this also promotes an anthropocentric approach. According to this, a city responds to people’s requirements for sustainability solutions or socio-economic growth.
If we have to consider that the cities with the high urban population depend on transportation facilities, land uses and other facilities, then we could be certain that this will also have an impact on technological growth. Public transport will be more efficient and will be of the highest quality to be able to respond to the economic needs of the city as well. It gives a better meaning of labor with employment, thus increasing the productivity of the firm.
As we take a new approach towards urban service provision, there is growth in technology, including ICT. The concept of a smart city is not limited to technological aspects alone. With the growing relevance of the smart city concept, the definition and meaning are also changing, giving rise to greater confusion and challenges for the policy-makers. In the next sections, we would take look at the deeper impact and implications of technology towards building a smart city.
