Led by Kasve, a leap towards a modern smart city

City of Kuopio, Data Refinery project

Development Expert Retu Ylinen and Project Manager Martti Vanala, City of Kuopio

Ylinen: Together with Kasve, we carried out a business cooperation study for the Data Refinery project of the City of Kuopio. With the help of Kasve, we mapped out how we can offer companies and organizations the best possible conditions for various services and solutions related to the use of data. Our goal is to create new business and improve the daily life of the municipal residents. At the same time, we are building a resource-wise and vibrant city.

Kasve managed contacting effectively and comprehensively

We are building a smart city platform for the use of various operators and to improve the everyday life of the municipal residents. We saw that there is a wide field of actors who could use the platform in the future or participate in its development: various companies developing smart solutions, actors from the research institute side and people with a university researcher background.

Since the platform procurement is large and takes resources from our own team, we wanted an external partner to contact these parties effectively and bring out the needs of real users. With the help of Kasve, we gained extensive knowledge of the regional business and operator field. We feel that the sampling on our own would have been much narrower.

We received several pilotable solutions

The City of Kuopio sees that the better usability of data opens up new business and research opportunities that can strengthen the attractiveness and vitality of the region. With various smart solutions, we also want to promote sustainable development and wise use of resources, as well as make people’s everyday lives easier. It was essential for us not only to open a dialogue with different actors, but also to collect concrete ideas related to the utilization of data from them.

A total of 35 different operators in small groups participated in eight workshops facilitated by Kasve. The workshops were well facilitated and planned. In facilitating the workshops, Kasve also utilized its productization expertise and was able to refine the results. Through the workshops, we collected a total of 27 pilot ideas, which served as the basis for the definition of platform procurement and the request for tenders.

More marketability to communication

Along with the company cooperation report, we got new know-how to use in our team. Kasve helped us to refine the presentation material of the project and to develop our communication towards cooperation parties to be regular and conversational, e.g. via LinkedIn. Kasve brought a certain marketability to the project presentation and helped to pay attention to the recipient better than before. Of course, we knew some of the tips, but now we really put them to use.

Through communication, we got good publicity for the fact that we are at the forefront of developing a smart city for companies and municipal citizens. Similar projects, where the platform is freely available to different operators, have hardly been implemented in Finland. Our main concern about the feedback on the project is how positively it is viewed: especially after the workshops, there has been feedback from strangers that it’s great that such work is underway in Kuopio.

Kasve’s expertise is amazing

Cooperation with Kasve was seamless and enthusiastic. We got what we ordered, i.e. an efficient partner for contacting cooperation parties. Sometimes the result of the investigation work is just a report, but Kasve’s know-how also brought us contacts with whom we can continue moving forward. In addition, Kasve sparred us forward in the project and also offered surprising added value such as communication support.

Kasve’s expertise was amazing: especially Mikko’s social network and expertise, as well as Tero’s business skills and vision, were top notch. Rosa, on the other hand, kept up the pace and enthusiasm. The know-how of the Kasve team worked well together and was excellent as a whole.

Kasve was selected as a partner through competitive tendering. Kasve’s local knowledge and the large number of companies they were able to contact were particularly important in the selection. Based on our experience, we can recommend Kasve, especially for projects related to productization and networking, both for public sector operators and companies.

Data Refinery project

The Data Refinery is an ERDF-funded project that creates a smart city platform for the use of the city of Kuopio, companies, research institutes and healthcare. The project is linked to the city’s strategy by promoting resource-wise and digital services and by promoting the well-being of the city’s residents and the attractiveness of the area.

The Data Refinery is a pioneering project that reflects Kuopio’s characteristic thinking: permission to do differently. What is essential is the fairness and transparency of the operation, which is related to both the utilization of data and the opening of opportunities for different operators. Solutions to be piloted on the data processing platform include e.g. A parking management system and an adaptive traffic light system for the Savilahti area will be implemented in the Kuopio smart transport infrastructure project. Read more about the Data Refinery. http://www.savilahti.com/datajalostamo