Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Successfully deployed Smart Mobility offerings go hand in hand with a structured and systematic, but nevertheless, design-oriented process. Motives to engage in Smart Mobility are manifold. One is the need to combat congestion and emission issues. Another is the economic need to streamline investment decisions and attract companies and personnel into the region, and launch a commuter friendly and cargo driven intermodal program. We thus sort the motives along six fundamental themes:

  1. 1.

    Exploring new business opportunities, assessing existing business models and/or your own position in the context of mobility.

  2. 2.

    Reviewing, expanding and extending your own BIM in terms of potential market offerings.

  3. 3.

    Initiating and deploying Smart Mobility once the decision has been made.

  4. 4.

    Conducting a fitness check for your own ecosystem that outlines the degree of being prepared with respect to Smart Mobility.

  5. 5.

    Elaborating business opportunities to position your own technology and innovations to get involved in innovation projects and determine the market access potential.

  6. 6.

    Conducting a context check to compare the readiness of your own ecosystem with one or multiple ones. The context check is applicable to any BIM, subject, or theme.

The Smart Mobility Procedure model fosters the structural and methodological discourse along the above listed themes. The model defines sequence and options to apply the BIM. Company-owned and cross-organizational elements can be sorted and added where feasible and useful.

According to the above chosen listing, the addressees and entry points for any of the six themes are as shown in Table 13.1. Nevertheless, initiators and interested groups in Smart Mobility might start differently and choose another order. This is purely driven by the maturity of your very own Smart Mobility engagements.

Table 13.1 Smart Mobility Procedure model – entry points
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In the following, a detailed description of the relevant activities for each of the entry points is provided according to Fig. 13.1.

Fig. 13.1
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – entry points

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Those BIM elements that are mission critical are outlined graphically for each of the six entry points in the subsequent sections. Apart from that the entire blueprint, the BIM as such, facilitates and supports the undertaking of Smart Mobility.

1 Explorative Phase

When considering Smart Mobility driven projects and efforts, the Explorative Phase is a good entry point (see Fig. 13.2). It is this phase’s main objective to gain insights into Smart Mobility, launch ideation contests, and gather ideas from an organization’s environment, its ecosystem, and its employees.

In this phase, project managers, team members, and experts apply intra-organizational and external creativity methods and techniques such as Design Thinking or Service Design. Those are applicable in a considerable low effort starting with a two-days workshop.

Results typically range from idea maps, game planes for organizational and transformational requirements, up to a transformational checkpoint and the resulting to-be-agreed-upon next steps. The transformational checkpoint governs firstly the issue and extent of a change management program and secondly the scope of skills and competences for Smart Mobility in relation to planned user groups and divisions. Thirdly it governs the nature of the Smart Mobility undertaking, for example through proof of concepts, before-after analysis, and the deployment planning on a local and regional scale. One further determinant, fourthly, is the decision about the involvement of external business partners and clients.

With respect to business modeling it should be noted that the first modeling is conducted under certain assumptions. Assumptions relate to primary and secondary business partners, the high level design of an offering for existing and future market penetration. The use of the IoS Role model sharpens the eye for connections, intersections, dependencies, and unknown territory in conjunction with further participants and influencers in the observed or targeted context. Modeling takes place in a staged approach. There will not be one single business model. It is expected that per role and positioning a minimum of one business model is identified.

Fig. 13.2
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – explorative phase

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2 Sound Check Phase

Existing mobility related solutions providers and service providers use the Sound Check Phase to reconcile their offerings with respect to the BIM elements. The necessary steps are depicted in Fig. 13.3.

Fig. 13.3
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – sound check phase – overview

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Each of the steps of the sound check are illustrated in Fig. 13.4.

Fig. 13.4
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – sound check phase – detailing

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3 Initiation Phase and Kick-Off

The degree of successfully deployed Smart Mobility initiatives correlates with the willingness to innovate and the willingness of the decision makers to deal with innovative, yet disruptive, offerings. These offerings can be of a functional and technical nature. In addition, they target the status quo of organizational and operational structures of business and government entities. Not only in Smart Mobility, but in all other contexts that target individual consumers and multi-industry ecosystems, the need for change and the willingness to embed change from the very beginning turns projects into successes.

One further measurement of successfully launched initiatives is the willingness of organizations to not only test innovative offerings in a field trial, but institutionalize them within their organizational boundaries and beyond in the contextual ecosystem.

The Initiation Phase is illustrated in Fig. 13.5.

Fig. 13.5
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – initiation phase and kick-off

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3 Checklist to Prepare Smart Mobility Projects

The overall starting point for Smart Mobility projects is the agreement of the to-be-tested use case(s). Once the selection has been made, the action items as listed in Table 13.2 take place. Those assure the development of a common understanding on key parameters, the evolvement and ultimately the sign-off of a jointly agreed decision paper to initiate the project, starting it and tracking each of the corresponding statuses and to dos.

Table 13.2 Checklist for preparing a use case related to Smart Mobility projects
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3 Change Management – Preparatory Steps for Organizations and Ecosystems

Targeting a high probability of successfully deployed innovation in organizations and ecosystems can be measured by a number of parameters. The following elaboration and suggestions are the result of a longitudinal study and cross-regional and cross-industry assessment [66].

We distinguish two fundamental evaluation streams. Firstly, the organizational capability to cope with innovation and its operational impact. Secondly, the capability of an innovation to connect ecosystem participants and members. The organizational evaluation criteria that have been observed throughout a series of projects are outlined in Table 13.3. The table serves as a working tool for project teams to track the status of their very own Smart Mobility projects.

Table 13.3 Organizational change management capability
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The ecosystem wide connectedness is measured by the criteria outlined in Table 13.4:

Table 13.4 Ecosystem dependent change management capability of an organization
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3 Introducing a Procedural Model to Facilitate Compliance Checks Within and Among Organizational Constructs

The following model has been elaborated to explore the embededdness of IT standards in European Union directives and to foster the transition of embedded IT standards in the dedicated legal frameworks for each of the EU member states [66]. The model aims to ease the depiction of dependency factors when a huge number of participants comes into play in a legal environment such as the European Union. The schema in Fig. 13.6 shows the basic model. The assessment of the participants followed the connectedness analysis as outlined previously. A detailed elaboration took place for each of the participants. The detailing of the schema has been conducted in close alignment with the participants and is depicted in Fig. 13.7.

Fig. 13.6
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Procedural steps to facilitate compliance checks in and among organizational constructs

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Fig. 13.7
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Investigating the impact of innovation on jurisdiction

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4 Fitness Check

Trainers that regularly subject athletes to a fitness check are similar to the individual judging a Fitness Check. Checks are based on common, conventional, and recommended measures from physicians and subject matter experts. Moreover athletes rank themselves and get ranked following a set of local, regional, and global standards. Further criteria depend on the form of sport and the athlete’s profile. Common questions are covered such as asking for how long the athlete is active in that sport, his exercise program, and his routines when doing sports. Further checkpoints are about the goal plan and individual objectives that might not have been considered in the current plan.

Conducting a fitness check for an entire ecosystem is much more complex. A search on key terms such as mobility, urban mobility, intermodal traffic management, and others results in a large number of parameters that might be applicable for a Fitness Check. Not all of the parameters are comparable or useful in an ecosystem wide context. Furthermore, even the key terms are applied differently and are not clearly defined. With respect to metrics, those are subject to a number of distinct resorts, distinct media, and are often maintained separated from each other. Even more, once maintained the digital media differ in scope, quality, and actuality. Therefore it turns out to be a tedious effort to transfer the figures from separate systems, align, and adjust them in a semantic unique manner to derive one comprehensive mobility metrics foundation. The metrics we introduced in Part II promote a method to conduct a location, yet ecosystem embracing, KPI management. Big data tools and modern diagnosis methods lead these efforts.

Overall there is a lack of consideration of the local status quo of urbanizations and ecosystems: the habitat’s profile. A location’s key elements such as those depicted in Fig. 13.8 are of great help. The habitat’s profile presented here is applicable to any location that considers Smart Mobility.

Fig. 13.8
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – a habitat’s profile

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Once these elements are assessed among the group of stakeholders and Smart Mobility initiators, the first relevant step is made! What follows is an agreement about the criteria that serve as the basis of comparison. That agreement is made between the stakeholders and drivers of the project. It is recommended you identify comparable ecosystems and mobility relevant environments (see Sect. 13.6). The shortlist is a result of mapping the ecosystem’s profile against others. It is also useful to look at the ecosystem’s ranking in the local and national indices. Concerning urban settlements, one approach is taken by the Smart Cities index in the USA, another one by the so-called Zukunftsatlas (Future Map) in Germany that compares cities, even villages, and regions along smart city related segments such as Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, and others [151].

Overall a mapping of one ecosystem to others should be conducted based on population, reachability in the hinterland, and events. Events are a good characteristic for Smart Mobility to assess the quality of mobility functioning in cases of peak usage of means of transport in relation to predicted and unforeseen travel. Thus mobility related measures include the profiles of previous attendees, the size of the event and its overall profile, the price range of the tickets, and the mobility related habits with respect to arrival and departure retrieved from previous events. In a Smart Mobility and one ticketing environment, the business traveler, for example, is being guided towards an interesting event, receiving the registry invitation pre-prepared, and a mobility and lodging inclusive offering through the Digital Concierge. Event organizers can count on achieving a higher number of attendees without engaging themselves in direct sales efforts. Hospitality providers will benefit from better occupancy rates through short-term bookings. The same accounts for hospitality service providers as well as further kinds of event adjacent services in the field of tourism.

All other actions that are part of the Smart Mobility Fitness Check are outlined in Fig. 13.9.

Fig. 13.9
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – fitness check I

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The fitness check is also a good instrument to assess the before/after situation with respect to the mobility project (see Fig. 13.10). The assessment compares as-is with regard to the optimal transport operations. As baseline serves the mobility service portfolio that has been agreed upon in the strategic alignment process and the identified roles and responsibilities (see Sect. 13.1). The real challenge is the definition of the ideal mix of public, private, and shared-economy driven mobility service offerings. The IoS Role model and the connectedness analysis are the ideal set-up to derive the ideal mobility mix on the one hand and explore further alternatives in a creative conceptual space on the other.

Fig. 13.10
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – fitness check II

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Furthermore, stakeholders should not hesitate to explore those alternatives by inviting representatives from other ecosystems that have been identified as role models and/or comparable ecosystems. The alignment with Smart Mobility project teams and mobility managers is useful to exchange knowledge and align or even conduct Smart Mobility field trials jointly. A continuous knowledge transfer facilitates even more the build and extension of skills and competences driven by a collaboration-based set-up.

5 Market Access Check

Looking into the emerging number of innovation triggered market entries, conducting a Market Access Check has become increasingly popular in recent years. An entire section in Chap. 15 is dedicated to the trends in innovation management.

Innovators and entrepreneurs pitch their offerings in competitions, hackathons, and workshops issued, for example, by financial investors. The issuing entities are not necessarily only companies and private institutions. It has been observed that the public sector through local government itself, associated interest groups, and research institutes triggers innovation projects. Likewise, the innovators and entrepreneurs gain access to potential customers and have the ability to interact directly and countercheck the projected market acceptance.

It has never been made so easy and low cost to get access to test communities. Compared to market studies and consumer tests conducted by institutional providers, the hackathons and pitches provide a perfect field of opportunities next to access to testers: checking the viability against the competition, comparing your own approach with others, and even more relevant turning the participation into a social selling opportunity and getting access to former pioneers that are now joining advisory boards and acting as business angels and mentors. One the other hand, the industry leaders and stakeholders in public and private entities benefit from a collaborative, co-innovation flavored setting that eases the engagement of constituents.

The conduct of a market access check is outlined in Fig. 13.11.

Fig. 13.11
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – market access check I

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To identify in which area and direction the considered innovation is heading, it is recommended you apply the BIM structure (see Fig. 13.12) and watch out for functional or technical closeness of other offerings. The BIM Catalogue serves as a checkpoint to consider add-on elements or look for useful tools and methods.

Fig. 13.12
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – market access check II

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The conduct of market access checks is driven by viability tests. Viability is one of the key elements of the design thinking method. Here viability relates to usability of an innovation or solution or service. Usability is twofold and targets the economic benefit and the consumer oriented benefit. The more refined the detailing of the to-be-tested offering, the more market driven and realistic are the outcomes of the test.

In an ideal setting the first prototypes are introduced to a test group. Prior to the test, the test organizers define the usability requirements and the test cases. The nature of use cases is subject to the scope of the planned offering. In any case it should embrace design, touch points and omni-channel deployment modes. The test results then are a critical source of information for the development and design team and lead to a further iteration of the development and design. In the next test cycle, personae and targeted user groups are introduced to the offering.

Business model testing is conducted by inviting further experts. They are being asked to assess the identified business model(s) and economic conditions, outline pitfalls, and advise on the go to market and market expansion. More often experts are being invited that are subject novices and come from distinct industries and contexts.

Once the test cycles have been conducted to a satisfactory degree, evolving and refining the solution further, the first larger investments approach. With respect to fixed costs, those account for workforce and production efforts. It is no surprise that the first changes take place in the start-up management. Shifts in functions and roles are driven by upcoming communication and business development needs. To prepare a market access check it might be worthwhile to take a look at one of the largest facilitators for product build and testing: the so called Komponentenportal of Romy Campe [152]. It was founded in 2012, motivated by the book of Prof. Faltin [153]. To date it offers more than 70 software components and tools.

6 Context Check

Subject to the Context Check is a comparison of your own ecosystem with other ecosystems. An own ecosystem refers to the ecosystem in which the initiator of a Smart Mobility offering is active, leading, and/or governing. The initiator might be a public sector entity, a Chief Digital Officer or the Mayor himself. The assessment starts with the profiling of your own ecosystem. The relevant action items are illustrated in Fig. 13.13.

Fig. 13.13
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Smart Mobility Procedure model – context check

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The checklist in Table 13.5 focuses on the conduct of the analysis of the connectedness and the resulting comparison parameters. Based on the chosen scenario and use case, the detailing of the connectedness proceeds.

Table 13.5 Checklist for the conduct of an analysis of connectedness
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The connectedness analysis and the supplemental tools and methods evolved through more than 200+ projects and contexts. Both of them will give credit back to the project teams as they allow an integrated view of personae and services.