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Elements of the System

The Smart Region system is made up of an integrated, interdependent set of concepts as described in the table below. Critical to the success of a smart region development is that the primary three sectors, including public, private, and citizens all work together.

Smart Region Triad Sectors

In order to make the SmartRegion.US concept a success all three sectors of the economy must do their part.  And, they must do it in the right sequence.

The first two steps are easy since the engagements are clearly in the players best interest.  If employers engage strategically by adopting a virtually based continuity of operations workforce, they enable an operational recovery in minutes, not painful and expensive weeks.  The by-product is the opportunity to ‘right-size’ their facilities and reduce overhead, space and taxes while claiming a significant social responsibility claim to fulfilling their social responsibility for congestion and emission reduction.  Deploying their workforce with an accountability package also mitigates productivity concerns.
Once the trip reduction process is documented the planners would acknowledge the benefits achieved and incorporate them into their transit success story.  Again an easy win-win. With the adoption of the Deployment Partnership, the community is engaged in defining its own vision for the future.
The Community engagement should also be a win-win as the SmartRegion.US approach strategically engages them with powerful tools that makes their engagement meaningful.  The following table consists on numerous elements of the system, each having a defined role for the three sectors.
smart regions eelements of the system flow chart

(A) Employers

Public, Private and non-Profit employers all have the opportunity to benefit from the strategic telework tools that they system provides.  Not only does this ‘virtualization’ process benefit them fiscally and operationally, it also provides them an opportunity to support the virtualization of the metro region initially but also the entire SmartRegion as well.  Social Responsibilities are always better when it generates so many benefits for the giver.

(B) Planners

FIrst metro MPOs can gainfully engage but the more rural MPOs can  join in as well. In each case the challenge of enhancing the quality of life for their residences is obviously improved as they are empowered with the Freedom of Residential Choice as the Smart Region system’s are deployed.  The data generated by these systems will provide increasingly important information for the planning and forecasting functions. Never again will we have a twenty-five year transportation plan produced without an acknowledgement of the critically important contributions of virtual travel and the related trip reductions.  Emerging trends must be followed and understood, Amazon is only twenty-four years old and it certainly has had an impact on travel and land use. Extrapolations of the past are not enough in this age of change.

(C) Community

The Community must engage.  There are so many special interests that seem to compete for attention by being loud and even violent.  The SmartRegion.US concept is to engage leaders in a thoughtful exchange of ideas with strategic tools that allow one voice, one vote; the support anonymous input and voting so the loudest or the dominant speakers are  neutralized. It is an attempt to restore a democratic process even as it attempts to restore the voice of the people to their rightful position of power in determining the direction of their communities and that their dollars support.

Menu of Phased Elements

Phase I
Workforce VIrtualization

Phase II
Deployment Partners

Phase III
Regional Integration

Phase IV
Distributed City

Phase V
Regional Monitor

PHASE I (Elements 1-3) 
Workforce VIrtualization Program

The Workforce VIrtualization Program (WVP) is a hybrid of embedded consultant process for plan development and a transactional software product the fully supports the implementation of that plan. Although many employers allow telework to varying degrees, few have embraced the concept strategically, i.e., a comprehensive analysis to determine what the optimum deployment would be and how many operational areas would benefit from the program. The first three elements apply.

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Element 1: Telework Program Audit

If you want to work from home, have your employer perform the audit to see if their current program is getting the desired results.

The vast majority of employers use the ad hoc program, just as Honeywell, Yahoo, Best Buy and many others did before they all abandoned it; there must be a reason. If you compare the ad hoc and the strategic approach (this should be a hyperlink to following table ) only the strategic approach addresses facility right-sizing, continuity/disaster recovery while providing a powerful accountability module.

Review our materials checklist and when you have collected them, we will schedule an on-site day reviewing your materials and talking to the identified staff members. Within 10 days we will return with our report and recommendations. If your review of the checklist concludes that your program has addressed all of these issues, then there is no need for this process. If on the other hand, you identify a number of issues that are not addressed, the audit will be well worth this exercise.

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Element 2: WVP Feasibility Analysis

If you want to work from home, have your employer perform the audit to see if their current program is getting the desired results. The vast majority of employers use the ad hoc program, just as Honeywell, Yahoo, Best Buy and many others did before they all abandoned it; there must be a reason. If you compare the ad hoc and the strategic approach (this should be a hyperlink to following table ) only the strategic approach addresses facility right-sizing, continuity/disaster recovery while providing a powerful accountability module.

Review our materials checklist (another hyperlink???? need to create this) and when you have collected them, we will schedule an on-site day reviewing your materials and talking to the identified staff members. Within 10 days we will return with our report and recommendations. If your review of the checklist concludes that your program has addressed all of these issues, then there is no need for this process. If on the other hand, you identify a number of issues that are not addressed, the audit will be well worth this exercise.

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Element 3: Workforce Virtualization Program

Ad hoc Telework focuses on  employee benefits; Strategic Telework focuses on employer benefits. The WVP is a hybrid solution.  It embeds our consultant process into the customizable software to develop the Deployment Plan along with the transactional tools you need to fully implement that program.  There are three fundamental outcomes that the Workforce Virtualization Program uniquely generates:

  1. “Right-Size” your facilities by deploying the workers strategically
  2. Continuity/Disaster Recovery can be completed in hours or less even if the facility is totally destroyed,
  3. embrace a comprehensive accountability system that measures the program as well as the employee  

Consultant services are inserted as needed and where needed.  The process consists of:

  1. Evaluating alternative plans based upon your data and your guidelines.  
  2. Developing Implementation Policies and Deployment Plan
  3. Implementation and Monitoring with all the tools you need to do it effectively

There are three fundamental outcomes that the Workforce Virtualization Program uniquely generates:

  • Facility “Right-Sizing” Development- Taking the raw numbers of the Master Scenario, the Implementation Team is guided through a process by which space conversions and deployments are coordinated. Essentially Deployment Cycles are created to set a five-year schedule. Each cycle goes through the same process supported by the WVP’s Project Management capabilities. The goal is at the end of the process, the saved space can be repurposed, removed from the lease, or subleased.

An important departure from the ad hoc practitioners, this process creates “Compatibility Areas” for each function in the organization. When you apply the workspace / configurations to the space based upon the numbers of employees assigned and their telework profile, the space is radically redesigned. Applying a minimum-on-site standard, all others are deployed. In theory, the organization could radically increase staff levels without changing the design of these areas. And more importantly, the workstations are sized to support the work, not reduced to meet an artificial goal.

  • Continuity / Disaster Recovery Development- With a significant deployment defined through the modeling process, the Geographic Information System (GIS) components support your Risk Management/ Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Program. As long as you have an alternate server, your recovery is accomplished in minutes, not after frustratingly expensive weeks. The Vulnerability Audit ensures that key staff members on the Continuity Team are not affected by the same disaster experiences at the office site.

The system incorporates the establishment of defining Risk Profiles and Individual Continuity Roles to support Continuity Teams based upon operational functions.  Event initiation and recovery tracking as well as training and performance tracking are provided; no more hot sites and annual testing; this approach tests the process daily, while saving money. 

As 9/11 taught us, communication is critical but being able to restore operations must be done quickly. The WVP also provides the processes to keep all of your applications running as well. No one doubts data survival is critically important to the recovery, but the applications are what run your business.

If you are fortunate enough to have a regional government that supports the WVP, they will provide key support information including the results of our Vulnerability Analysis, a location of sites that could have events that would affect your location and a predefined list of four 4 levels of regional impacts that require an employer response. They may be announced for the entire region or for a sub-regional area. These levels start with minor disruptions at Level 1 and rise to a full pandemic at Level 4.  And of course, different types of disasters call for different level responses.

  • Accountability Development- identifies key attributes that you want to monitor as part of your overall evaluation process. These attributes are established and embedded into six different areas of your organization. The entry screen displays trends of past issues, an objective scoring structure etc., it takes just a few keystrokes. The system is driven by the concept of ‘report by exception’. Each of these evaluations feeds a log, an issue trend analysis and a resolution log. Issues are addressed at the lowest level but if it escalates, it is ultimately addressed by the Implementation Team to determine if it is a system-wide issue or not; the team resolves and communicates the results as appropriate.

Equally important is the embedded management structure; you can only manage what you track; the WVP embeds numerous system inquiry screens linking data from throughout the system to give managers a comprehensive view of whatever they want to review. It also includes specific tracking tools:

  • A real time “actual vs plan” screen
  • A critical path analysis to constantly display project status that shows if you are behind schedule, where is the blockage (and the underlying project management module allows you to adjust resources to return to schedule)
  • Dynamic displays showing the status of specific operations, including GANTT charts

And, if the client chooses to participate, there is an additional tool that accesses the Workforce Virtualization Program’s research database. (We believe it to be the first statistically compatible system in the country). Here you can select from a large number of inquiry screens that allow you to compare your program with those of comparable employers. And with standardized tracking codes embedded, peer-to-peer competitive analysis is possible.

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PHASE II (Elements 4-8) 
Deployment Partnership

Gaining the Metro Planning Organization engaged in Strategic Telecommuting is critically important and even though it has been compatible with their mission, there has been resistance perhaps due to their conflict of interest between ‘filling their seats’ on transit vs reducing congestion with strategic telework. The idea of reducing trips through telemedicine, distance learning etc., to my knowledge, has not been discussed at all. If he community is truly concerned about the congested commutes or the climate change issues. There needs to be a concerted effort to change these existing policies. We need to fight trips, not cars.

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Element 4: Occupational Assessment

The Occupational Assessment is the first step in the Regional Virtualization Action Plan (RVAP).  The RVAP is designed to engage the community in a discussion about the potential benefits of the SoTA (Suite of Telecommuting Applications).  The ultimate goal is to have the community decide if, when, and how far they wish to go in pursuing the calculated benefits. It starts with the Occupational Assessment.

The Occupational Assessment is a strategic approach to evaluating as many occupations as possible; it is the same process as the Feasibility Analysis within the Workforce Virtualization Program (WVP) so participating employers can review their own potential at a reduced cost depending upon the MPO’s fiscal participation.  Once all employers have completed their Assessment, follow-up sessions are conducted with the e-Consensus Forum to determine their response to the findings and why they do, or do not want to proceed with the full WVP for their organization.

The MPO will , for the first time, understand the potential trip reduction potential (and even which corridors will be reduced the most) for the first time. They will have the data to add telework to their transportation plan.  If they continue with the Broadband Collaborative, they will identify even more trip reduction potential.

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Element 5: Suite of Telecommuting Applications

With 75% of emissions coming from trips, if  you are concerned about climate change, the Suite of Telecommuting apps (SoTA) are designed for you.  whether it is health care, education, political participation, research, entertainment or many other such things, go for your computer before you go for your car keys. 

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Element 6: Vulnerability Audit & WVP

Inspired by Hurricane Ike that devastated Galveston Island in 2008, it was clear that continuity planning had to include the identification of all static and dynamic risks that might affect the employer.  Using models from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, data from the National Weather Service and others, the impact zone of all natural and manmade disasters are computed and anchored to your facilities. Plotting your selected Continuity candidates’ addresses on the map of impact zone map allows an important perspective before finalizing your continuity assignments.  A key consideration: Are your key continuity staff located in areas that are different from the risk factors affecting their facility? Mutually survivable Continuity assignments will ensure a fast recovery from any disaster. Properly executed, the Workforce Virtualization Program’s Implementation Team can ensure that key staff are in mutually different disaster areas so that operations can be immediately restored following a massive disaster.

Creating Urban-Rural Integration for Sustainability & Renewal

The synergy of the urban and rural economies is an obvious fact that has been taken for granted for so long.  However, the scale of the economy in the rural areas has remained small business both on the farm and in the small towns.  Major institutions and employers have located in the trade centers which in general, have operated in a self-contained mode.  The reality is that about 25% of the state’s population lives on farms and in small towns. They have never had the critical mass necessary to support their access into the Information Age; yet they produce the food and material resources that are fundamentally important to the Trade Centers and the Metro Areas.

The SmartRegion.US concept creates that critical mass.  The farmer and small town resident deserves equal access to the broader economy.  They are the customers and the employees that support the larger communities. It is the responsibility of these larger communities to support this technologic extension.  The bottom-line? If we allow the small towns to disappear, what happens to the trade centers then?

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Element 7: WVP Sales and Support

Built to support trip and congestion reduction, the WVP would provide annual reports on telework in the region as well as comparing other participating regions.  By advocating for all other telecommuting applications. their contributions would also be reported with recommendations to identify additional actions to expand its contributions to the regional quality of life.  Specifically, two areas would closely monitored:

  • Congestion Reliever– Once the number of participating employers has reached a significant level, the VTMO can initiate several levels of congestion mitigation in addition to the mitigation achieved due to the normal deployment levels identified in each employer’s Deployment Plan.

For road closures / construction projects, etc.,  the VTMO would supplement MnDOT’s mitigation efforts at the point of road closure by identifying all employers within the traffic zone.  Using the WVP’s analytic processes, it would support them in a process of selecting all telework-able employees that use the roads affected by the closure and deploy them to their homes for the duration of the closure.

  • WVP Support– providing operational support for training, installation and management support would allow the broader impacts of telework i.e. trips, energy, emissions, accident, managerial attitudes, deployment attitudes etc., to be documented and added to the TCR’s client national database.
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Element 8: Regional Monitor Development

The Regional Monitor is an umbrella application designed to collect all relative data in the support of policy and operational decision-making.  It begins early to accomodate the needs of the Smart Cities group and to convene multiple e-Consensus Forums convened to identify issues of concern to the community and to locate the supporting data necessary to track that data’s source. 

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PHASE III (Elements 9-10) 
Regional Virtualization

With the Deployment Partnership in place, the community engages in a series of initiatives from setting a long term vision for the state and the role of the public and private sectors in that vision; as well as the definition of the Smart Region itself.  Is it Metro only? is it jurisdiction bound? or is based upon the urban service area as defined by the cultural and economic orientation to the metro area? The Occupational Assessment already completed, is actually the first of the four phase Regional VIrtualization Action Plan to bring the urban and rural areas together to determine their joint future.  The next three elements complete this important initiative.

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Element 9: Community Audit

The Community Audit has several functions each of which incorporates the e Consensus Forum process. First the providers of each virtual application are interviewed to determine their profile of client services and trip replacement potential.  Second, they are convened in a forum to determine if they will come together in a Broadband Collaborative to support each other through the Virtual Transportation Management Organization. Individually and collectively these telecommuting applications are analyzed to determine their impact on costs, travel and quality of service delivered.            

Today many marketing operations are focusing on services to the home; the Broadband Collaborative seeks to consolidate select applications and provide a higher level brand for them.  Rather that trying to launch individually, the Suite of Telecommuting Applications will provide access to those services that urban teleworkers will require access to when they exercise their Freedom of Residential Choice.  The SmartRegon concept will distribute these services throughout the region via the Community TeleCenter Network. e-Training, telemedicine, distance learning and other services would be included.

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Element 10: Visioning and Implementation

What do we really want the Smart Region to become?  This third phase is critical. Once given all the information developed during the Occupational Assessment and the Broadband Collaborative Process, it is up to the Community to decide how far and how fast the Smart Region should go in pursuing the urban-rural economic integration.  What policies need to change? What opportunities need to be exploited. Using the e-Consensus Forum, individuals from the five-state area (the SmartRegion definition) will engage in a dialogue to discuss fundamental topics about the future and who is responsible to make these changes..

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PHASE IV (Elements 11-17) 
Distributed City Model

The Distributed CIty Model was developed in 2010 during the Community Dialogue Process.  The initial question simply asked the year long study group: What would be required for your community to survive in the Information Age?  With telework the key element in rebuilding the rural demographics, the Distributed CIty development defined how to accomplish the broader goal of full economic integration.  There are three elements (11, 12, 13):

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Element 11: Community TeleCenter Network

The Community TeleCenter Network is a tri-level concept through which the most advanced technological applications can be delivered to the smallest of our rural communities and our most diverse urban neighborhoods.  

  • The Regional TeleCenter is the technology hub that acquires and provides training, technologic support and maintenance for the network
  • The Community Telecenter, located in the trade centers is the location of application advocates, braodband switching and support of numerous activities including the Community Portal, etc.   It directly supports these capabilities in the Neighborhood TeleCenter
  • The Neighborhood TeleCenter is located in every small town in the Smart Region as well as in potentially multiple locations in the Trade Center itself.
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Element 12: Regional Transit Network

For the Freedom of Residential Choice to truly exist, the telecom systems must support the SoTA and there must also be a reliable, transit system   The Personal Rapid Transit model is the only solution that affordably fulfills the requirements.

  • Economy– by co-locating solar panels along the guideway, we would provide adequate energy for the system and stations without the negative impacts of solar farms i.e., estheiics and loss of food production capability
  • Environment- unlike all of the electrically powered vehicles, this approach would eliminate all direct emissions but also they would also be reduced indirectly by allowing trucks and other diesel powered vehicles to operate on lesser congested roads.
  • Convenience- the Regional Transit Network addresses the other access issue- overcoming physical distance. As long as the automobile is the only way to get to the urban center for meetings, entertainment etc., driving distances will strongly influence the area of economic growth. Using existing Rights of Way the system allows individuals the choice of where to live throughout the region by providing them the ability to return to the urban area within the previous limits of drive time.

Financing the system would be based upon capital costs being shared e.g., the community would build the station,  supporters would sponsor the vehicles and leave the track and its maintenance as the only system cost to be borne by state, freight and other supporters. Would it be feasible to connect our rural communities to the city? A ridership analysis is needed before this can be answered. Using market rate revenue, it appears that it would pay for itself.

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Element 13: Community Alliance

The Community Alliance consists of those organizations whose missions include the concept of enhancing the strength of community. Technologically it creates a demand-side “critical mass” by accelerating and standardizing the delivery of “content” rather than pursuing supply side economics by focusing on the deployment of the infrastructure alone. Local organizations could then access training, conferences and other services electronically to upgrade their capabilities while saving time and money through reduced travel requirements to the city. By focusing on the delivery of services electronically, the alliance members (government, associations, service organizations, etc.) would reduce their own costs while improving service to their members / constituents.

The Community Alliance represents a long-term strategy to bring all of the major community players together to address those issues that affect multiple definitions of community as an organic network of residential communities.  Only a comprehensive and a cooperative effort will be effective in addressing the larger questions that lie at the heart of community viability itself. Figure 5-10 illustrates this collection and distribution model.

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Community Design Suite

Element 14: Community Technology Review

The Technology Review is a critical step for each community in becoming an integral part of the Smart Region concept.  Each trade center and all of their small town partners are examined to determine what types of services are desired and which are needed.  The local media would be enlisted to follow the process and keep everyone informed of the progress and the opportunities as they are identified.  Resident surveys would be conducted to determine their readiness to participate. It is a comprehensive effort to create specifications for their Community TeleCenter.  

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Element 15: Adopting a Community Theme

The Community theme / vision establishes your unique position within the Trade Center and Smart Region.  Teleworkers and others who have the freedom to live wherever they choose need comprehensive technology support and a compatibility with the values of the communities they are considering.  Embedding this theme throughout the schools, institutions and activities not only provides that clarity of uniqueness, but it also lays the foundation for the Community Information System.

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Element 16: Community Info System

With a community theme adopted, the Community Information System provides a data umbrella to demonstrate the level of commitment to it.  A simple monthly/quarterly updating process provides key performance indicators for the community. It allows the community to see if the resources are being expended consistent with the community  theme and if necessary, attempt to modify programs to ensure that they do. This in no way inhibits any organization from pursuing their own mission but rather, it verifies that where there is an opportunity to reinforce the community theme, it is being done.

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Element 17: Community Portal

In contrast to the norms of the Internet, the Community Portal is about structure.  Typically if you search for a particular city, the web delivers hotel, restaurant and other sites, finding the “Community” is a challenge.  Even if you find a link to the city it is about the government or perhaps the chamber of commerce. What if you just want to see what kind of place it is before you go into other details?

The concept is to create a central website for the community with specific capabilities:

  • Supported by a 24 x 7 x 365 receptionist
  • A data structure that provides data from multiple sources to locate in the same place
  • an AI system that helps you find exactly what you want
  • An inclusion of a trade centers neighborhoods, including the small towns surrounding the trade center.  (add another button on the left for life style/neighborhoods)
  • Ideally all websites in the community would link to this one- they could still have their own as well but this site should rise to the top of the search engines whenever you search for the community.

Predetermined theme to define what the needs, opportunities and concerns are. The resulting data from each Trade Center would be merged and the curriculum for that year would be developed. Each region would identify specifically what they needed to know about their issue so that the track could be developed with the right resources.   

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PHASE V (Elements 18-20) 
The Integrated Region

Once the Distributed City Model has been deployed and all of its components are operating properly, the Regional Model can become fully functional. Data collection can be verified, the analytics can be verified and the outreach to other Smart Regions can begin in earnest. The greater the compatibility of this important system is with the rest of the world, the greater the learning laboratory will be. Only with comparable data can you expect comparable results upon which to determine best practices and standards.

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Element 18: The Regional Monitor

The evolving concept about Smart Cities embraces decision-support applications to enhance the quality of life for communities.  The problem is these applications seem to be funded by vertical organizations / government agencies. And while they do support decision-making they do it in a very narrow application often relative to utilities i.e., energy use, transportation etc.  The Regional Monitor is designed to fulfill an expanded definition of decision-support..

The concept is to create a Management Information System for a region as defined by the Distributed City Model / Smart Region.  There are three elements to the system:

    • A profile would be developed for the region based upon factors that would be universal.  This would allow comparisons between comparable regions world-wide.
    • A high level computational process that analyzes all the data fed into the system to maintain monthly trend data for key indicators at three levels or more:
      • At the base level for each of the areas of raw data collection.  For example, how many riders in each of the transit categories.
      • A mid-level that examines all transit operations  into an transportation index, and
      • A high level index that evaluates all sub-indices into a comprehensive view of all trends.    
    • A data collection system that focuses on data at the lowest possible level, must cast a wide net to comprehensively gather it all.  Each index may have numerous sources of index data. It is envisioned that a cell phone app would send messages to each data source requesting the specific data for which they are responsible.  
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Element 19: Consensus and Accountability Forum

The Consensus and Accountability Forum is designed to strategically reach a community consensus about controversial topics or topics that are critically important to the implementation of the Smart Region concept.  Using our e-Consensus tool, the multiple sessions alternate between an open ended discussion and a vote to identify the most important item in that discussion; normally 8-10 sessions are required to complete each forum.  

All recommendations are forwarded to the media and to political process.  How legislators vote on these recommendations, and there will be many, will be tallied to determine which legislators are truly supportive of the Smart Region’s vision that will be developed by the community.

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Element 20: Tech-Trek Conference

Presuming the foundations will also engage in “Building Stronger Communities through Telecommuting”, the Tech-Trek Conference is an on-giong  process. It is a tool that allows the community to define its own needs and access a funding set aside. Each participating foundation would provide a block of funds for the process.

The Tech-Trek itself is a three day conference preceded by a speaker’s dinner. The mornings will be dedicated to addressing detailed issues for each group’s special interests. The afternoons will be dedicated to a directed discussion of specific topics using assigned seating to ensure integration of the group. The results of these discus­sions will be analyzed overnight and new topic sheets prepared for the next day. The focus will be how can these groups work together to implement programs to build better communities.

Registration for a Tech-Trek Conference will be quite unique. Although there is potential for linking this program into the Continuing Education program for a number of professional groups, this has not yet been evaluated. Regardless, participants will be asked to register based upon their selections i.e., each “certification” will be offered complete with required courses, numbers of “credits” and recommendations for “pick 2 of 3” offerings from another discipline. Since this will be an annual conference, it is possible to offer “advanced certificates” as well. Not only will this approach add focus to the conference, the CEU compo­nent, if accepted, would also increase the demand.

Annually each Community TeleCenter within their Smart Region would be convened using the e-Consensus Forum® model.  They would engage participants in either starting with a blank slate or they could follow a predetermined theme to define what the needs, opportunities and concerns are. The resulting data from each Trade Center would be merged and the curriculum for that year would be developed. Each region would identify specifically what they needed to know about their issue so that the track could be developed with the right resources.   

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