The future is fully connected

In our view, the methods and systems of operating in the last century will no longer position cities for success in this century. Simply put, we believe the future is about creating smart, sustainable, innovative cities – each powered by revolutionary technologies and infrastructures that support exciting new ways of living, working and playing. As public needs continually evolve and citizens look to maximize the utility of city life based on their own terms and personal preferences, we predict that tomorrow’s connected cities will truly cater to their economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being.

We believe connectivity will be the key to delivering a revolutionary new era of customer centricity – one that fully aligns technology, talent and external partners across every city service and function. Today’s future-focused cities are already breaking down inefficient silos and forging new connections among people, processes and technologies. Along the way, traditional barriers between front, middle and back offices are collapsing.

City leaders are increasingly realizing that there is no time to lose on the journey forward. The global pandemic’s profound disruption has accelerated an ongoing and inevitable shift from the decades old due-process approach that typically devotes significant time and resources to meticulous planning, time-consuming piloting and uneven implementation. The need for speed amid the pandemic’s impact has demonstrated what is possible for rapid change and smart city leaders are not taking their foot off the gas as they shape the future.

Adding to the pressure is the fact that many national and regional governments have decentralized decision making in the wake of the pandemic, empowering local leaders to assume broader responsibilities as they grapple with today’s pressing public needs and the attendant soaring costs.

The KPMG Connected Enterprise for cities framework is helping local leaders around the globe launch modern initiatives and drive transformation for a new age of city life. Forrester Consulting research commissioned by KPMG shows that organizations investing in all eight critical capabilities of the KPMG Connected Enterprise framework are more than twice as likely to: deliver customer experiences that exceed expectations, successfully execute on one or more customer-centric objectives, and achieve a return on investment for one or more metrics.

Each of these capabilities can help drive improvement – and when combined, the impact of transformation for today’s cities can be significantly enhanced. Our framework strategically addresses core organizational drivers with a focus on these key areas and requirements:

The customer experience: The needs and preferences of a city’s customers – its people, businesses and stakeholders – should be understood and used to help drive the design of the city’s underlying service-delivery model.

Service delivery: Customer-centric service design should be innovative and seamless across the end-to-end customer journey.

Experience-centricity by design is therefore critical to the future and can be defined by key elements that include a modern and consistent ‘experience mindset’ plus effective ‘experience-journey management’  fully meets the needs and expectations of today’s customer-centric world.

Also key will be creating new levels of intergovernmental coordination and integration as cities take on more responsibilities and roles in meeting public needs and demands. As noted, local leaders are facing significant new pressures prompted by the global pandemic, with many national and regional governments decentralizing decision making and empowering local leaders to assume broader responsibilities – and costs – for public services.

The KPMG Connected Enterprise for cities framework also addresses ‘back-office enablers’:

Enabling processes and functions: Helping to ensure that the enabling processes and organizational functions can support a seamless customer experience and leverage leading practices.

IT capabilities and data architecture: Investing in ‘fit-for-purpose’ technology is needed to help support the delivery of customer services and organizational efficiency.

KPMG is helping forward-looking cities to unlock innovative new levels of customer-centric capabilities and services with the well-established KPMG Connected Enterprise framework.