“Successful establishment of ecosystems and roll-out regions for digitalization”
“Intelligent networking” stands for digitalization in infrastructure areas such as energy, transport, healthcare, education and public administration. Through more systematic networking and the use of innovative ICT applications and technologies such as M2M/IoT, smart data and horizontally connecting platforms, process optimization, productivity gains and cost savings can be achieved and significant growth impetus can be generated, including across sectors.
Over the past few years, the “Intelligent Networking” Working Group of the National IT Summit and its expert groups have developed a clear picture of the situation and concrete recommendations for action. With the IT Summit 2015 in Berlin, it is now time to put the findings into practice. In close cooperation with the “Intelligent Networking” strategy and the Federal Government’s Digital Agenda, the next logical step is needed: the transfer of the expert recommendations to the places where they are implemented.
The cross-sectoral nature of intelligently networked infrastructures requires the cooperation of a large number of players from business, science, politics and administration. In model regions and Smart City / Smart Regions initiatives, this requirement and opportunity becomes particularly clear. Scaling and replicating projects and applications developed on the basis of regionally successful models at a national level promises to be a building block for the success of the nationwide roll-out of smart grids.
In cooperation with the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Research, the Intelligent Networking Initiative and together with you, the experts and members of the “Intelligent Networking” Working Group, decision-makers from the federal, state and local governments and selected other experts, we want to discuss requirements and steps towards successful digitization.
10:00 a.m.
Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy / Co-Head of the Intelligent Networking Working Group
10:15 a.m.
Cornelia Yzer, Senator for Economics, Technology and Research of the State of Berlin
10:30 a.m.
But Berlin is not Germany – How can we use federalism as an opportunity for rapid digitalization? Perspectives and experiences of model regions, test areas and showcase projects.e
11:15 a.m.
The transfer sessions are the main focus of the conference. They offer the opportunity to get to know successful process models, clarify questions and exchange ideas with experts. The sessions are divided into two blocks:
After a short presentation, experiences will be exchanged in moderated short workshops. The participants of the event will be guided by the following key questions:
1:00 p.m.
Discussion of selected results of the sessions – What further steps must now follow?
The transfer sessions were the main focus of the conference. They offered the opportunity to learn about successful process models, clarify questions and exchange ideas with experts. The sessions were divided into two blocks:
After a short presentation, the exchange of experiences took place in moderated short workshops. The participants of the event were guided by the following key questions:
How can municipalities, districts and cities contribute to the success of the energy transition and participate in the transformation of the previously static energy grids into smart grids? The speakers at the session wanted to discuss this together with the participants. In smart grids, the weather-dependent feed-in behavior of decentralized renewable energies and energy consumption can be optimally coordinated through the use of ICT. On the one hand, this means that considerably less grid expansion is required. On the other hand, the use of innovative ICT solutions enables flexible business models and dynamic offers (smart market), which can also lead to changes in the behavior of local consumers.
The German government’s current draft for a law on the digitalization of the energy transition sends positive signals on important topics and creates the conditions for the successful digitalization of the energy transition. In the session, the participants worked along the various dimensions of the best practice example of the smart operator to determine where the involvement of local institutions is necessary for the implementation of smart energy grids and which measures should be implemented in the regions in order to create suitable framework conditions for implementation.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Early dialogue with users is essential for the acceptance of digitalization in the energy sector. In addition to the issues of data protection and data security, the direct benefits for the individual and the community are crucial. In order to increase the level of awareness and information on smart energy grids and their role in achieving the energy transition, the mandated ministries should carry out a “Smart Energy Grids” information campaign in coordination with the federal states and institutionalize a national dialogue on “Shaping the energy transition together”.
The operation of smart grids and the integration of renewable energies requires intelligent load management and the willingness of industry and commerce to make electrical loads available at times that allow them to be used as part of intelligent load management.
This involves close cooperation with grid operators and distributors. The associated flexibilization of energy use requires additional investment by industry, which can be refinanced over time by offering flexible loads on the market.
The energy transition requires considerable investment in smart distribution grids as a platform for future markets. However, the corresponding key points of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for the further development of incentive regulation are not suitable for better facilitating investments by distribution grid operators. There is a considerable need for correction here. In particular, the transition to smart grids involves considerable technical and regulatory risks, which must be adequately taken into account and may require special solutions
if the risk materializes.
The starting point of the workshop was the presentation of current technological developments in the eHealth sector, which in Germany and other countries are mainly taking place in the private sector. Large technology companies are creating facts with user-centric applications, while government projects such as the secure telematics infrastructure run the risk of being overtaken by reality before they are even launched. Demographic change and other developments in Germany make it imperative that eHealth applications play a decisive role in securing and improving the quality of medical care in the future, especially in sparsely populated regions that are threatened by an ageing population.
Based on best practices with a focus on teleradiology, network-based speech therapy for stroke patients and intensive care medicine, the current “major construction sites” of intelligent healthcare networks – the implementation of electronic patient records, interoperability/standardization and the billability of telemedicine – were discussed. Building on this, concrete measures were developed to create suitable framework conditions to ensure the prompt transfer of the numerous regional pilot projects to national standard care.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
An essential prerequisite for the spread of eHealth applications is their reimbursement by statutory and private health insurance. In the case of digital solutions for which a process improvement over the standard analog procedure has already been demonstrated (e.g. greater effectiveness, lower costs, improved quality of life/patient-friendliness), it should be mandatory in future to justify why the digital solution is not being used and the analog procedure is still being used or remunerated instead.
Experience in other countries has shown that purely remote treatment without direct doctor-patient contact can be carried out safely and to a high standard for many medical conditions. This option should therefore also be made fully available to German patients.
The patient data required for optimal medical treatment must be as fully accessible as possible for all relevant applications and specialist personnel involved. The need for an open flow of data must be balanced with the need for privacy and the best possible protection of the patient’s personal data.
The objectives of intelligent transportation networks are to improve the economic, ecological and social circumstances of the transportation system. The aim is to enable safer and more efficient use of existing and future transport infrastructure and modes of transport (road, rail, water, air). Based on the results of the Intelligent Transport Networks project group from 2013 – 2015 and an introduction to the current situation, it was discussed which ecosystems and roll-out regions should be created for the Intelligent Transport Networks. The guiding principle here was that both intermodal and multimodal individual and public mobility flows should be realized and that these should cover the need for mobility in an individual, economical and environmentally friendly way.
Best practice examples were used to work out how innovation platforms for intelligent transport network solutions can be initiated and which measures are necessary to create suitable framework conditions.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Creating user acceptance
Legal/regulatory framework for data use in digital processes
Comprehensive broadband expansion
The starting point of the session was the current situation of intelligent education networks in Germany with a focus on universities and colleges. A lively start-up scene and the first pilots of networked infrastructures at state level are offset in particular by outdated legal regulations that make cooperation across university and state borders more difficult. Further drivers and obstacles as well as development potential and scenarios – e.g. “From university 2.0 to university 4.0” and “From teaching and learning with media to intelligent education networks” – were presented.
Following on from this, exemplary projects from two regions were presented, on the basis of which concrete measures for improved framework conditions for intelligent education networks were to be developed. In view of the federal structure of the education system, regions and regionally operating universities have a pioneering role to play in their implementation. For example, the Digital Campus Bavaria and the Virtual University of Bavaria provide cloud solutions, identity management and online courses. The Hamburg Open Online University, on the other hand, focuses on topics such as open educational resources (OER) and collaboration, as well as opening up educational offerings to civil society. An additional impulse from academia focused on the possibilities of collaborative creation, use and sharing of educational content and educational services using EduSharing.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
The German education system is characterized, among other things, by a historically grown structural disdain for teaching. Reward systems and funding mechanisms are almost exclusively geared towards research, while there are hardly any incentives to develop and impart high-quality teaching. Against the backdrop of steadily increasing digitalization, especially in teaching, it is therefore urgently necessary to recognize and promote the value of high-quality (digital) teaching through suitable incentive systems (e.g. semesters off to develop high-quality digital teaching courses as an alternative to research semesters).
The development of high-quality educational content involves a great deal of effort at both a technical and didactic level. When developing digital content, the technological level adds a further dimension of complexity. The often postulated use of open educational resources faces the fundamental problem that common processes of quality assurance and assessment from research and social media are not applicable or only applicable to a limited extent in the context of digital education (rating the quality of educational content cannot be carried out objectively by students, for example; academic peer reviews are mainly geared towards subject-specific quality). New quality assurance processes must therefore take into account didactics as well as professional correctness and technical implementation (and their interactions) and be backed by a sufficient budget.
The lack of communication between the federal, state and local authorities with regard to education issues and the resulting standstill and mutual blockade must be overcome. This includes the repeal of Article 91b of the Basic Law (so-called prohibition of cooperation). Instead, a new state treaty is needed between the federal government, federal states and local authorities that sensibly regulates responsibilities with regard to the rollout and operation of digital education networks. The private sector, as a supplier of solutions that are in some cases clearly superior, should be considered as an additional partner.
Public administration has a significant role to play in the process of digitalization and intelligent networking of public infrastructures (public services, location development). At the same time, public administration, with its more than 20,000 authorities, is itself an infrastructure domain that still has a considerable digitalization backlog.
The session discussed how the framework conditions for the development of intelligent administrative networks (e.g. in the context of model regions) can be improved in view of this “dual importance” of public administration and which best practices can serve as a model here. The digital development backlog in the area of public administration is also noticeable in the lack of best practice case studies that could be used as a model for the successful regional implementation of digital pilot projects. This is particularly problematic given the strong dependence of the future economic strength and quality of life of our cities and regions on the availability of a nationwide network of efficient public infrastructures. Their digital upgrading and intelligent networking also requires new forms of local cooperation between administration, business and science.
With a view to the implementation of the “Intelligent Networking” strategy adopted by the German government, cross-industry aspects of intelligent networking were addressed in particular.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
The management of the refugee crisis shows that existing work and organizational structures in the federal system can be adapted quickly. In view of Germany’s digital development backlog, it is therefore also important to proactively break new ground – also and especially for the benefit of citizens and companies.
Against the backdrop of demographic developments, but also in view of the new technological possibilities and changing expectations on the part of citizens and companies, the existing federal division of labor in many areas of public administration should be put to the test (e.g. student grants, motor vehicles).
In line with its broad range of tasks and its responsibility for shaping the future, public administration already has a wealth of data at its disposal. Digitalization and intelligent networking will significantly increase the importance of data as a common resource for administrative action. These developments must be taken into account and a new generation of public data infrastructures must be designed and tested.
The importance of smart cities and regions as a response to key economic and social challenges, upheavals and opportunities, all of which are first and foremost visible in municipalities, were discussed. Nowhere else are the success and benefits of intelligent networking so directly tangible for each individual. The development of smart cities and regions is a strategic political innovation program. They stimulate investment, start-ups and creativity, enable new working models, promote collaboration and cooperation and offer opportunities for differentiation from competing regional locations.
Best practice examples were used to work out how the process towards smart cities and regions can be initiated, successfully implemented and positioned as innovation platforms. Factors that promote or hinder smart city solutions were identified and recommendations for action to create suitable framework conditions were discussed. Furthermore, criteria were developed to make the maturity level of smart city solutions comparable. The participants were also invited to present their own examples.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
The management of the refugee crisis shows that existing work and organizational structures in the federal system can be adapted quickly. In view of Germany’s digital development backlog, it is therefore also important to proactively break new ground – also and especially for the benefit of citizens and companies.
As the first step on the road to a smart city is the most difficult, successful examples and continuous exchange with other cities and regions are crucial for all phases of implementation. In this way, suitable solutions can be implemented more quickly and mistakes avoided.
In addition to political support, a prerequisite for a successful Smart City project is anchoring it in the administration and setting up a staff unit with a coordination function. In addition, incentives and funding opportunities should be created or used wherever possible to promote the networking of digital infrastructure structures on an open and standards-compliant Smart City platform.
This session focused on M2M and the Internet of Things. These two topics will determine the further digitalization of our society and Germany’s global economic strength. The cross-sectional technology M2M is the basis for everything “smart”. However, the introduction of this technology is still restrained and remains at a low level in absolute terms.
From an application perspective, secure and networked infrastructures, production facilities and services are a prerequisite for an economically strong region with a high quality of life. From a manufacturer’s perspective, M2M technologies will play an increasingly important role in products, which means that know-how in this area is essential for the competitiveness of manufacturers.
The following recommendations for action for a secure and faster introduction of M2M have already been developed by the project group and were presented in the transfer session and discussed with the participants:
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
The aim is to strengthen links with MINT-EC / schools.
a) Establish programming as a “second foreign language” at schools
b) Hackathons (e.g. as part of the Maker Faire) and the use of M2M/IoT experimentation kits, particularly at schools and universities with industry support
c) Promotion of STEM subjects
Technology pilots are needed to break down mental barriers and provide strategic advice.
a) Overcoming technological challenges (data security, service availability, etc.)
b) Promotion of cooperation projects; targeted cooperation of corresponding regional SME clusters; creation of financial incentives for company spin-offs/cooperative forms of enterprise
c) prepare sector-specific economic forecasts and international comparisons
So far, the consideration of IoT security has been lumped together with the usual IT security. The need for a dedicated, separate approach due to very different requirement scenarios is not yet assessed in the same way everywhere.
The recording of so-called “security events” in the event of attacks on IoT objects is a very central but also difficult aspect. The importance of an IoT-specific CERT was confirmed by the audience and concrete proposals were discussed.
a) Establishment of an IoT/M2M-CERT as a monitoring system for M2M cybersecurity
– Implementation of a procedure to receive and analyze anonymous reports and, if suitable, publish them on the IoT/M2M-CERT website (PoC)
– Development and test operation of a corresponding sensor system (SIEM sensors) for M2M/IoT applications and their connection to an M2M/IoT-CERT database (PoC)
A completely new perspective is required for M2M/Internet of Things. Area coverage and higher availability of mobile networks in addition to population coverage at 50 Mbit/s are required.
Smart data and the handling and use of these large volumes of data is one of the foundations for the digital transformation and determines the direction and speed of the change that is taking place. In the transfer session, examples of the use of smart data in the energy and healthcare sectors were discussed, as well as cross-industry obstacles, solutions and guidelines. In particular, the bridge to data-related topics in model regions and smart city / smart region initiatives was built and discussed.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Today, smart data is mainly used in large companies. In order to demonstrate the opportunities for SMEs, barriers to entry that currently stand in the way of its use must be reduced. Smaller resources in SMEs make evaluation and legal assessment more difficult than in large companies. In addition, there is a lack of in-house specialists with smart data knowledge and high initial costs.
The current purpose limitation makes it difficult to develop new, unknown applications with existing data. Experimentation clauses must offer a balance between the possibility of new innovations and the protection of earmarked data.
Extracting information from big data requires the efficient interaction of technical, mathematical and operational specialists. They need to be trained for the big data age. At the same time, decision-makers need to be made aware of the possibilities and framework conditions of big data.
The municipality of Betzdorf was awarded the title of “Digital Village” in July 2015 – a real test field in which IT technologies are installed as prototypes and can be used by citizens, companies and the administration. As part of the session, the municipality of Betzdorf presented its experiences, the current situation and planned developments. The “Digital Village” of Betzdorf is characterized by various application examples: For example, new ways of transporting goods are to be investigated and mapped with the help of a digital platform. An app that can be used to control the delivery of “intelligent” parcels is also planned for spring 2016. These parcels will independently signal that they are to be taken to a specific location and collected from the parcel station. The project is also investigating new workplace models, innovative shopping options and an improved supply of medicines. The basic idea is to combine and further develop existing technologies in order to make life in the countryside easier for older people and more attractive for younger people.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Ensure a functioning local ecosystem with retailers and businesses
Develop your own broadband strategy for municipalities
Generate digital innovation at municipal level through motivated stakeholders (mayors, employees, etc.)
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Encouraging citizens to “try out digital” through participatory formats
Offer “digital coaching” for citizens
Offer public authority hotline for immediate assistance with the implementation of digitization-related laws
As one of 22 partners in the “Triangulum” project consortium, the city of Leipzig will develop various smart city development concepts aimed at making cities more efficient, technologically advanced, future-proof and socially inclusive. The master plan developed against this background for a section of the west of Leipzig was presented during the session. The selected district serves as a laboratory for the future direction of a city-wide smart city strategy. It is characterized by large areas of brownfield land, diverse building stock and extensive infrastructure facilities. In conjunction with the continuing population growth, there is currently a need for action and adaptation, to which the development of an intelligent infrastructure geared towards SMEs (smart grid, broadband networks) in conjunction with the use of renewable energies and the expansion of public transport services is a response.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Communicate smart city topics to civil society and business at an early stage
Create a legal framework for testing and experimentation in laboratories
Establishing suitable structures in cities for digitalization
The Vorpommern / Rügen region offers economic potential for digital solutions. However, the focus will be different than in industrial and conurbation centers: The focus will not be on networking production processes, but on developing and marketing digital solutions that make everyday life easier for people in the region: These include (buzzword-wise – telemedicine, optimization of local public transport, provision of everyday necessities, optimized use of outpatient care services, digitalization of citizen services provided by public institutions and much more). The aim is, on the one hand, to use digital solutions to keep the region attractive as a place to live in the future in order to meet the challenges of demographic change and, on the other hand, to gather experience on how services of general interest can be provided in more rural regions at reasonable costs in the future.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Develop a digital agenda for federal states / municipalities and communicate it with a particular focus on rural areas
Eliminating legal gray areas in the use of data
Allow freedom for localized experimentation in test rooms
In the joint session of the Rhineland and Northwest test areas and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region (MRN), the main topic of discussion was efficient, regionally networked and innovative administration that meets the increased demands of citizens and companies with modern services
As a basis, for example, e-government standards were standardized in the virtual northwest region in cooperation with the Rhine-Neckar and Rhineland test areas. One resulting example is the virtual lost property office, which offers citizens the opportunity to search for lost items online.
In the Rhineland test area, the expansion of mobile and networked administrative applications is being driven forward. This includes, for example, the provision of a service for the supra-local processing of selected registration matters.
The overall aim of the transfer session was to highlight the importance of efficient and digitally supported administrative processes for an innovative and competitive region.
What measures should a region implement in order to create suitable framework conditions for intelligent networking?
Keep target groups in mind when communicating and developing applications (strengthen acceptance through grassroots, beneficial applications
Create incentive systems for more cooperation and networking between cities / municipalities (otherwise there will “only” be smart cities)
Set up test rooms as “labs” (with a willingness to experiment, new financing models, planned failure)
Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy
(The spoken word prevails.)
Senator for Economics, Technology and Research Berlin
City Director and CIO of the City of Cologne
Plenipotentiary of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate to the Federal Government and for Europe, Media and Digital Affairs as State Secretary in the State Chancellery
Managing Director, SAP Germany
IT Summit Intelligent Networking Working Group
Head of Intelligent Networking Initiative
T-Systems International GmbH
Head of the Intelligent Energy Networks project group
RWE Deutschland AG
Member of the Intelligent Energy Networks project group
GoToMarket Group and Partners (GTM) GmbH
Head of the Intelligent Health Networks project group
Bundesverband Gesundheits-IT e. V. (bvitg)
Member of the Intelligent Health Networks project group
Power Providing GmbH
Head of the Intelligent Transport Networks project group
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI); TU Chemnitz education - Institut für Weiterbildung GmbH
Head of the Intelligent Education Networks project group
IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center (ifg.cc)
Head of the Intelligent Administration Networks project group
embeteco GmbH & Co. KG
Head of the Smart Cities/Smart Regions project group
Cisco Systems GmbH
Head of the Smart Cities/Smart Regions project group
Ericsson GmbH
Head of the M2M / Internet of Things project group
Urbato GmbH
Head of the M2M / Internet of Things project group
Hasso Plattner Institute
Head of the Smart Data project group
Municipality of Betzdorf
Representative "Digital Village Betzdorf"
City of Coburg
Representative "Digital Engagement in Coburg"
City of Leipzig
Representative "Smart City Leipzig"
Representative model region "Digital Future Vorpommern / Rügen"
Representative model region "Digital Future Vorpommern / Rügen"
Digital Agenda Office Cologne
Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar GmbH
Representative Rhine-Neckar Region
Representative of the Northwest Test Area e-Government Network "Virtual Region Northwest"
