Smart Work Centers: meeting the challenges of the sustainable, connected city

It’s a city in the making, and we know what it’s going to look like: the city of the future will take into account the objectives of quality of life, improved working conditions and environmental protection that are those of 21st-century man.

It will be widely interconnected, and will rely on digital technology, which will play a key role in bringing communities together and fostering social ties. In this way, urban growth will no longer be the enemy of sustainable development.

The success of Amsterdam’s Smart Work Centers* shows that the city can benefit from new models facilitated by communications technologies.

As part of Cisco’s Smart + Connected Communities program, the city of Amsterdam, in association with a consortium of manufacturers, started from a twofold observation: daily commutes to city centers generate considerable CO² emissions; the development of teleworking and collaborative tools can provide sustainable solutions.

*from 200 to 15,000 m2, urban, suburban or rural Eco-centres offer optimized professional connection capacities and services adapted and labelled according to the catchment area concerned.

For businesses, it means opening up to the world, without the inconvenience of a long journey; TelePresence erases the miles and recreates the conditions of a face-to-face conversation with remote employees or customers.

The hundred or so Smart Work Centers currently operating in the Netherlands offer high-speed broadband services. They enable less densely populated areas to open up to the outside world, by offering business locations that are usually concentrated in metropolitan areas. Teams of researchers spread over several sites can meet up, and companies can quickly and cost-effectively establish relationships with international prime contractors and service providers.

• South Korea has also launched its Smart Work Centers program, with a national plan to roll out 500 Telecenters across the country, all equipped with TelePresence.

• In France, at Cisco’s instigation, Caisse des Dépôts, Orange and Regus are to set up a joint venture to develop a hundred Telecentres throughout the country.