Expertises

Smart City strategies are a major challenge for the future of urban planning. No longer only a marketing concept, they are a reality and an obligation in the face of today’s new high political stakes brought about by population growth, increasing traffic, resource scarcity, security needs and many more contemporary considerations.

The top 10 Smart City topics for ITEMS

1. Digital city infrastructures (water, gas, energy, environment, waste, road and traffic management, etc.)
2. Smart Grids included the integration of new energies and energy efficiency
3. Smart buildings (lighting, parking, energy efficiency, waste management, etc.)
4. Connected city (high broadband, sensors, internet of things, 4G and 5G, etc.)
5. Intelligent transport and urban mobility
6. e-Administration and the modernization of the local government
7. Environment and quality of life
8. Horizontal urban platforms and interoperability
9. Data (Open Data, Big Data) including ownership, access, volume, security and privacy …
10. Data privacy for citizens and the security of systems

ITEMS has strong expertise in Smart Cities and has assisted many officials and utilities in carrying out studies:

• ENVISION STUDY: tailor made strategic studies,
• ACTION PLANS: Definition of phases and budgets,
• COMMUNICATION: promoting ideas and projects,
• ASSISTANCE IN PROJECTS MANAGEMENT: projects management and follow-up.

Based on its across-the-board expertise in digital technologies, mobility and energy, ITEMS offers a high level assistance in addressing political and operational issues.

ITEMS International has been involved with Smart Energy since 2010, when it first stepped into this area with a study on electric vehicles. Building on this foundation, ITEMS now has carried out multiple studies and analyses on different Smart Grid issues such as integration of renewable energies, electricity storage and energy efficiency.

Today, ITEMS provides highly respected expertises covering:

• Integration of renewable energies in power grid networks
• Energy efficiency
• Smart metering
• Positive energy building and local area
• Electric vehicles and their infrastructures

Items is able to provide:

• Strategic studies
• Initial project coordination and organization 
• International benchmarks
• Regulation review
• Economic models
• Business and economic development.

With a clear understanding of the impact of Digital Technologies on Smart Grids, ITEMS offers tested expertise in managing technological, economic, regulatory and societal changes for tomorrow.

ITEMS has organized a consortium to develop international consulting for Smart Grids : Smart Grids Consulting.

ITEMS is also involved in the selection process of energy monitoring platforms.  We use new insights and models gained from research in information technologies, Internet of Things, dynamic and visionary ergonomics, new practices and digital transactional models (activation, intelligent agents), Big and Open Data.

Items has a broad cross-section of expertise based on its multi-sectorial experience in the public and private domains and strategic/technologic and operational/projects.   ITEMS addresses the long term perspective span between envisioning  sustainable cities and new energy infrastructures through the operational deployment of these innovative ideas through project demonstrations and system implementation.

ITEMS maintains a permanent strategic watch on the ecosystem of companies and innovative start-ups. It promotes disruptive models with highly competitive technologies, particularly in the field of intelligent sensors. This allows all actors of the energy system to take up strategic positions both on the market and technological sides of the equation.

ITEMS is partnered with Smart Grids France and promotes its international labelizing through Horizon 2020 European projects . ITEMS is also involved in Vivapolis, promoting the French vision of smart cities: this contributed to the emergence of a French energy-efficiency industry.

Since its inception, ITEMS International has developed acclaimed expertise in the field of Digital Infrastructures. It covers various sectors such as:

Telecommunications

• Regular, high and very high  speed Broadband: ITEMS has carried out many strategic studies including international benchmarks to define local or national strategies aimed at fostering the development of broadband infrastructures based on PPP approaches.
• Mobile networks: ITEMS has worked with Telecom operators in different countries to design and assist the roll out of 2G and 3G networks and other advanced services.

Connected things

• ITEMS works on innovative technologies in the sector of sensors and meters which target various domains of application: public infrastructure, utilities, supply chain and retail platforms, sports, health and others.
• Wireless networks: many innovative technologies have appeared in recent years. ITEMS assists businesses in their strategies. This includes impact assessment of new usage for citizens and consumers.

Software Infrastructures

• ITEMS considers software a major driver of innovation. Software spearheads technological breakthroughs within systems, services and business models. ITEMS has carried out studies and analyses on this topic in sectors such as broadcasting, chain of supply, and smart grids.
• Cloud computing: Cloud applications are the consequence of technological changes in telecommunications and software platforms. They will take a major role in IT system architectures. ITEMS has analyzed the impact of these changes for private companies and for the public sector.
• Open source: Now part of the IT landscape, open source has been the focus of business models carried out by ITEMS, gathering open source and proprietary components. ITEMS launched the Open World Forum after a study carried out for the Paris local government.

Internet Infrastructure – Governance & Regulation

• ITEMS has a strong background in Internet governance including consulting for new gTLD,
• ITEMS has set up an international team to assist companies and local governments in applying for new gTLD’s: gTLDTeam,
• ITEMS has assisted AFNIC in regulation processes to operate .fr and other extensions,
• ITEMS has carried out strategic reviews for ICANN organizations: ccNSO and ASO,
• ITEMS understands the key issues like: debate on governance of the internet, net neutrality and national security.

Standardization

• ITEMS has developed a strong expertise in standardization in the sectors of telecommunications, TV broadcasting and software. ITEMS is specially focused on the impact of software on standardization models and policies.
• ITEMS has carried out many studies on the trends in standardization models.

Applications and usages are now mobile. Half of the world population has a mobile phone and half of those are smartphones. These trends have a deep impact on our daily and professional lives. Social networks and service platforms (business oriented or public services) have taken a  major place in the digital industry. The market is now global and all ICT players have to deal with this reality. Critical questions regarding innovation, control of market value have now emerged. ITEMS helps companies and local authorities adapt their organizations to foster innovation.

Items expertise concerns several domains of applications:

Daily Life

• Transport and mobility
• Health and well being
• Education and training
• e-Administration

Applications & usages for business organizations

• Transformation of internal organizations
• IT Applications and services towards mobile usage
• Internal social networks

Contact : Florian DANIEL florian.daniel@items.fr

ITEMS brings added value by having a global approach which includes:

• Technological breakthroughs,
• Economic models,
• Openness of services based on APIs,
• Local economy,
• The increasing role of community,
• Legal constraints.

ITEMS offers proofs of its concepts, from ideas to reality for businesses and citizens.

• Domains Extensions,
• Internet International Governance,
• Net Neutrality,
• Privacy

The recent buzz around Open Data revealed the Seminal importance of Data in our lives. From the very start, ITEMS International identified this topic as a key issue and developed diverse expertise about:

• Public data opening
• Big Data processing
• Access to data held by public services operators
  
• Privacy protection and policies
  
• Data economy

Today, Big Data is among the most important topics of the digital economy.  A new high stakes market centering on the real-time ability to manipulate very large numbers of data sets or statistical profiles combining historical data and other various sources, has emerged.  These concerns come along with major security issues and data privacy concerns which also need to be addressed.

These new technologies allows for numerous new applications in a wide range of sectors including: smart cities, health, well-being, marketing, risk management, assets management, customer services and many more.

ITEMS International has partnered with Cityzen Data to develop and sell a storage platform which accesses and processes big data sets. There are many reasons for this partnership:

• The performance of Cityzen Data platform,
• The variety of statistical processing of embedded tools,
• The strong APIs for accessing data sets or processing results,
• The neutral positioning of the Company, which is not aiming to replace public service operators,
• A business model based on a turn-key solution,
• Cityzen Data rules on data property.

ITEMS Dataways :  ITEMS International has launched a new branch to support project set-up and assistance for Cityzen Data to provide a technical platform with embedded tools.

Digitalisation has had a tremendous impact on entertainment. ITEMS has carried out several studies on this topic:

• Understanding the impact of the digital world on cultural policies
• Organise local public action on cultural policies
• Analyse cultural policies in relation with ICT
• Strategic studies and audit of local gouvernements and dedicated national agencies
• Evolution of the music industry
• Projet set-up for cultural non profit organisations

We give special attention to all of the variations of the AV industry linked to ICT technologies:

• Digital Homes,
• Setting-up R&D projets on future TVs
• Creation of local TV channels,
• Studies of new TV technologies : IPTV, connected TV, Mobile TV, HD TV and 4K TV,
• Multiscreen applications

ITEMS works with international partners on these subjects, organizing global seminars. We assisted with the organizing and founding of the Images & Réseaux innovation cluster and have worked with Cap Digital for several years.