London – the world cultural capital with heritage sites like the Palace of Westminster and Greenwich. With a history of over two millennia, the city of London is a home to several remarkable inventions in the field of telecommunications, computing, medicine, military, transportation and so on. Today, you enjoy the latest ultra HD television broadcast whose forefather, HD TV, was from London. The world, as you are watching it now, is a result of Industrial Revolution that started from the English land. If there is anything that transformed the world as big as the Steam Engine did, it is the Computer, you would say. Talking about computers? The ‘father of the Computer’ Charles Babbage himself is from London. Nonetheless, the actual magic of computers unfolded when the Internet was born in the United States. With geeks from the Silicon Valley coming up with new technologies every other day, we, the people of the 21st century, are chanting the Digital mantra. Being the birthplace of many game-changing inventions, the city of London is at the forefront in adopting Digital Transformation to be a leading global city in the world.

The Smart London Plan

As it is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, the city of London anticipates a population of whopping 10 million by 2030 and more challenges in providing better services to the citizens. “We need to harness London’s technical prowess to help the capital work even better as a city” – then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said while launching the Smart London Plan in 2013. Under this action plan, they set some distinct goals for themselves to improve the transport, education, and policing in the city. London is no short of resources as leading tech companies have already made the city as their UK headquarters. Utilizing all the resources available, the Smart London Plan strives to make the life of Londoners even comfortable.

First things first, digital transformation can never happen if it doesn’t include the public. Digital literacy in London is pretty good with 65% of adults in London using smartphones with the internet connection. And London is quite conscious to tackle the digital exclusion and skill gap with its plans to introduce computer education in schools and funding to programs like Tech City Stars which encourages youth to embrace technology. These digital transformation programs provide a strong ground for state-run corporations like TfL (Transport for London) to incorporate technology in their services to the public.

Data-Driven London

Do you know what the 21st century runs on? It’s Data, collected from every aspect of our life. For example, Google can tell you exactly in how many minutes you could reach your destination, considering the traffic in your way. But how? It’s data, from the roads and your vehicle, fed to the Artificial Intelligence systems of Google. And on your mobile, you are enjoying the precise service. The whole world is getting smarter with AI, and so is London. The Smart London Plan is built on a strong technology foundation, what the Mayor of London named it the ‘London Datastore’. Being a first-of-its-kind digital initiation, the London Datastore, with bundles of data collected from CC cameras and sensors across the city, is open for public. So, if someone is interested in developing an Artificial Intelligence algorithm for Londoners, this open-data source is what one needs. If you want to know how AI works wonders with Londoners, you should start with the Pedestrian Scoot technology that helps the pedestrians cross the roads easily and safely. This never-before technology uses video camera recordings to detect the density of pedestrians at one crossing and automatically adjusts the timing of traffic signals.

Digital-First Transport

Do you really love to travel through a jam-packed road when every minute counts? Of course, no. But this is what you would face in a city crowded with ten million people. However, TfL assures the most comfortable transport possible for its users. TfL is a government body that runs all modes of public transportation in London and always wants to be a digital-first business. London is the largest financial centre in the world, where people from every nook and corner of the world turn up to the city. As most of the commuters in London rely on public transportation, TfL is no short of revenues. When the financial grounds are strong, it’s only a creative thought that it takes to transform the way it works. TfL thinks the same way and never compromises in investing in technology.

Debit cards, credit cards and now mobile phones – the invention of these digital economy elements reduced the weight of our wallets. When you are using the services of TfL, you really feel the fruits of these cashless payment systems as you don’t need to wait in queue lines, but can directly get into your bus, tube, or tram with an Oyster card. This smart card can be preloaded with credit and can be used with any transport mode in London at any time. This company also started to send real-time traffic alerts to every commuter in London who follows them on social media. This partnership with the micro-blogging network, Twitter, started in 2009 and today, it has transformed into a 24/7 customer service platform. With trained supporting staff working every hour of the day, the company serves its 4.5 million followers on Twitter, resolving around 3000 queries every day.

Its mobile-based services are not just confined to the social network. It wanted to leverage the services of third-party developers to reach the public more and more and hence, opened its unified API to the public. To date, more than 8000 developers access the data centres of TfL to provide services to more than 42 % of Londoners through around 500 mobile apps.

Squeezing Social Media to the Fullest

Launching something innovative is great. But it will be called a success only when it reaches the ones whom it should do. If reaching masses and spreading awareness is the ultimate objective, you should ask TfL about how far one can use social media to meet the bottom line. An 18th-century writer, Samuel Johnson, once said, ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford’ and that’s quite true, undoubtedly. London is the second most visited city in the world that has attracted around 20 million foreign visitors in 2017. If you plan to visit London once and spend a few minutes of your time enjoying the funny animated videos of TfL on social media, you get to know the best tips to get the most out of your trip to London. So, you would never feel you are new to the city, would you?

Driverless Tube Trains

You might have heard a lot about the experiments being done by big players like Google on Autonomous cars. But adopting the driverless technology in public transportation, that too for tube trains, may sound like a fantasy. But you are going to witness it very soon in London. The plan, what the then mayor Boris Johnson called the ‘New Tube for London’, will bring a fleet of 250 driverless tube trains by 2023, which will also increase the passenger capacity by thousands.

Modern Policing

Police – we should thank them as we are walking freely on roads just because of them. In a cosmopolitan like London, police network is one of the crucial elements of the system and has to be robust. This is why the Police for London take the help of Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing service, to store and process millions of hours of video that is recorded by body cameras. In 2016, a collaboration between London Police and Microsoft made ways to this innovative strategy in accumulating strong evidence against criminals. Before the inception of this digital strategy, many police officers faced false cases reported against themselves. But the trend has changed all of a sudden, all thanks to the technology-powered policing in the city of London. This initiative by the police department set a model to the world and was acclaimed by everyone including the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who himself said that this had brought the police force into the 21st century.

London Police started a new trend in public relations: Police are for public and public is for police. They want to go closer to the public. They want to let the people know what’s happening in the department. And they seek the help of the public to help them with investigations. But yeah, they don’t come into public but have their presence in public and that is how they are using social media. If you wish to know how they are doing it on the social platforms, you must visit their Twitter page once.

Setting Examples with VR

The story of London’s digital transformation doesn’t end here. Be it the 3D visualization of the city for resource management, driverless tube trains, or automatic signalling systems- London is second to none in utilizing technology for an optimized world. As a result, the trend of digital transformation is spreading across the United Kingdom. If someone asks what’s happening in the world of visual content, one would say, without a second thought, it’s VR. This technology doesn’t limit itself to entertainment but entered the domains that involve a great risk of human life. Fire Services is one such risky area where technology has a great scope to tackle the challenges. Moving ahead in technology adoption, Leicestershire Fire Service has already tapped the potential of virtual reality in providing a safer and risk-free environment for training their crew. RiVR, a British VR firm, is behind the revolutionary prototype in which a complete virtual world with different scenarios of emergency was created to train the fire fighters.

You enter into the creative visual world with virtual reality and that’s of great help for firefighters.

Augmented Efficiency with AR

There are certain domains like construction sector where the on-site efficiency is a significant matter. But sometimes, what we draw on the board may not be possible on site. But technology has a solution to tackle this problem by pre-visualizing the master plan. We call the technology Augmented Reality that merges creativity with the real world. The innovation agency of the united kingdom, Innovate the UK, shows us how to use AR to the fullest in the construction sector, with the execution of the Crossrail project.

On Its Way to be a 21st Century City

The fruits of ever-evolving technology are for everyone on the planet. But what makes a difference is the way a nation adopts it. London, call it the capital of UK or the technology capital for Europe, is a model for every government in digital transformation. Though the city is already one of the most advanced cities in the world, as the mayor says, it is still halfway from its destination. When the public and government are on the same line of vision, the journey is only a cakewalk for London, isn’t it?