This year, in a month, Micro Mapper SRL celebrates 20 years of activity. We have dedicated our work for 20 years to fill a gap in the data-geospatial (GIS) market in Romania. We have been imaging data from the field, we have processed digital data from various sources in order to result in a unique GIS database for Romania. This GIS database contains:

• the network of roads and streets at national level having 227,481 km long, 963,562 segments and has 61,373 unique street names – as a comparison in the RENNS system (according to gd no. 777/2016) as of October 1, 2021 there were 86,283 unique street names – so we have 71.1% of the total RENNS;
• administrative addresses (postal addresses) in all urban localities and in several hundred rural areas with a total number of 1,182,378 administrative addresses – as a comparison in the RENNS system (according to GD no. 777/2016) on October 1, 2021 there were 1,252,353 administrative addresses – so we have 94.4% of the total RENNS;
• blocks, units, floors and apartments – at national level especially for urban ATUs with the data: 76,635 blocks, 151,645 stairs, 3,163,734 apartments. The database contains not only the number of apartments on each staircase, but also the number (name) of each apartment on each staircase. (E.g. on the B scale there are 11 apartments, from 21 to 30 and 30A);
• the population in 2011 by age and sex groups statistically distributed by administrative addresses and units at the level of the 41 county residences.

We actively contribute to the achievement of RENNS at national level and we are market leaders, having the most contracts concluded in 2019 and 2021. We support public administrations with prices below the market average and offer free of charge numerous benefits in addition to the public administrations we work with: GIS database, GIS software solution, documentation with georeferenced images, printed mapboards, mural maps about ATU.

Last year we received from the Special Telecommunications Service – The Unique National Service for Emergency Calls 112 (document no. 125.262/08.07.2020) a study on the importance of GIS databases – especially that of administrative addresses, which make it possible to locate and navigate intervention machines to problem locations. This document shows the fact, that due to the lack of addresses in the 112 system and the ANCPI, about 3450 days are lost annually (almost 10 years). Estimating the financial losses resulted in a loss of about. 1 billion euro/5 years. Regarding only medical interventions for cardiac reasons annually per 1,000 cardiac interventions are delayed by 1 minute, when we know that in such situations every second can matter for the life of a person!

Due to the fact that these financial and human losses caused by the lack of addresses were estimated only at one institution – how much is lost annually in all state institutions? To help public institutions and NGOs in the country, we decided to OFFER THE ENTIRE FREE GIS DATABASE to non-profit organizations and all institutions of the country. Companies can use the data we created, but they will have to pay a license fee depending on the benefit of the Micro Mapper geospatial data. The amount of the license fee will be estimated by the licensed firm.

For the next year we are preparing to capitalize on the European money brought through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and we want to offer software solutions and digitization of GIS data at national level for ATUs. You can learn more about our plans and ways to collect geo-spatial data through Artificial Intelligence, drones, LiDAR, street georeferenced images (like Street View) you can find out from our presentation at the Smart Cities of Romania Conference on November 2, 2021.

See you at the Conference!

Some of the first things we think about when talking about a smart city are automation, efficiency and high-tech solutions. What are some of the problems that can be solved with the help of technology in a modern city, and what else is essential for this to happen?

Where can IT systems help in a smart city?

IT applications and systems make the life of our city much easier and allow many tasks to be carried out much faster than was possible in the pre-digital era. From filing a tax return to finding the best connection for public transport, all this can be done in minutes or even seconds thanks to the contribution of IT applications. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, because IT systems primarily support our basic needs – such as access to electricity, water or the internet. We don't usually think too much about how any of these work - as long as it happens and we have uninterrupted access to these goods and services. This smooth operation is partly possible thanks to IT systems – in this case, network inventory systems, which have the most up-to-date information about each element of a network – be it an electrical network or a telecommunications network.
In the event of a disruption, the network owner or manager may check where the failure occurred and take appropriate action as soon as possible.
Such systems are not only useful when emergency situations arise, but whenever access to information about the network is needed – either to look for possibilities for its further development and expansion, or to keep it in operation and to prevent any disturbance or downtime.

High-quality data as a basis for the operation of systems in a smart city

Yes, thanks to IT systems and a free data flow and instant access to information, failures that took days to fix can now be solved in a few hours. Although IT solutions are indispensable for this to happen, they cannot work without data – the key to a functioning IT system is data and not just any data, but high-quality data. This crucial element is often underestimated. In our enthusiasm for the modern we want to move directly to the stage of implementation of high-tech solutions, but in the meantime, often low-quality data or even the total lack thereof can make it difficult or even stop us such implementations.

Most of the time, especially in sectors such as Energy and Telecommunications, companies hold thousands of square meters of information in their network in the form of paper archives or they totally lack up-to-date information on certain elements of the network. It is estimated that 40-50% of all networks in Europe still have no form of digital inventory. Even though the data has already been digitised, it is often stored in different systems and in different, incompatible formats.

The process of digitising, unifying or collecting the data to be introduced into the systems can be one of the most difficult, time-consuming and resource-intensive tasks in the entire digital transformation process. Fortunately, here technology can lend a helping hand. One of these tools that can help speed up the digitization process is GlobIQ – one of Globema's products created specifically to help companies in the utilities and telecommunications sector digitize their assets.

A closer look at GlobIQ's data collection and support process

So, let's take a closer look at the process of collecting and digitizing data for a network and how GlobIQ can help in each of the cases. We will consider 3 different scenarios:

1. Lack of data

Here we have to start from nothing – we have no information about a network – neither on paper nor in digital format. In this case, field workers need to go out into the field and make an inventory of a particular element of a network, write down their parameters, and then put them into a system. This is a tedious manual work, which is also very prone to human error in both the process of collecting and in the process of loading data into a system. These possible errors can slow down the process of collecting data even further, as they need to be identified and corrected, which usually means collecting part of the data again.
GlobIQ accelerates this part of the process thanks to a support-application that helps to collect data in as few steps as possible. Data is collected, digitized and stored immediately thanks to a mobile application..

For power grids specifically, we have the application Low-Voltage Topology
AIt uses Artificial Intelligence to recognize the voice and images. The application supports data collection and verification / updating of data for energy structures, such as: medium voltage and low voltage stations, electrical cabinets, etc. Thanks to image recognition technology, the application can automatically read the parameters of the grid elements in the images taken in the field. The application is voice-operated, so it is extremely useful in situations where manually entering information on a mobile device turns out to be difficult.

2. Data stored on paper

Another case is when we already have a certain amount of data collected - this applies especially to companies that have been operating in the market for decades and that were present long before the digital age, as is often the case with large state-owned companies in the telco or utilities sector. They usually store a large amount of information about their networks, but it is difficult to access employees and inaccessible to modern systems. To be of any use, these documents must be scanned and the information extracted and organized.

GlobIQ uses the LocDoc support application, using AI algorithms, to read and organize scanned documents and extract defined categories of data. LocDoc can extract and classify data on average more than 10 times faster than a human performing the same work.

3. Incompatible data formats

The third case scenario - we have access to a kind of digitized data, but it is stored in different formats - incompatible with each other and incompatible with the system that is supposed to use them. This issue can also be addressed with the help of GlobIQ, which is supported by the FME platform – a popular tool for data aggregation and processing. Thanks to automated scripts, FME can unify the collected data formats much faster and more accurately than could be done manually. The EMF supports more than 450 different data formats and all known geographic coordinate systems.

Let's see where we are after these steps.

• We collected data that we didn't have previously.
• We digitized the data we had on paper or
• We have converted and merged data into different formats to be compatible with each other and with the system in which they will be used.

Only at this point, when we have all the data collected and organized, can we begin to actually think about the implementation of any solutions that we usually associate with smart cities.

As we hope we have been able to show, high-quality data, and therefore the stage of data collection and classification, are essential for the functioning of intelligent systems and cities. They cannot work, much less at a high level, without data. However, this element is often ignored. We assume that we have data, meanwhile, this is often far from true.

That said, data collection, as important as it is, is only the first step towards a smart city. The data collected still needs to be processed in order to carry out certain processes. And this requires a totally different set of IT solutions and tools that help, for example, to view and manage digitized assets. You can learn more about them during the presentation "Smart cities need smart tools. How to digitize and manage geospatial assets in an intelligent way" that will take place on November 2, at 11:15 a.m., as part of the "Smart Geospatial Solutions" section of the Smart Cities of Romania Conference 2021.

65% of civil servants worldwide believe that the pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of smart projects for the sustainable development of cities. (1)
It is a "teaching" applicable also at local level, where, through the Regional Operational Program (ROP), the Romanian public authorities can access in the programming period 2021-2027 dedicated funds for the development of cities and smart communities. Priority axis 2 – "A region with smart localities" supports the digital transformation of the administrative apparatus, regional economies and areas of public interest, and the support is consistent. For example, for region Northwest alone the financial envelope of Priority 2 is about 44.6 million euro.
The European support is useful and especially necessary given that Romania is constantly on the last places in the EU rankings in terms of digitization of the central and local public administration. We are below the European average in terms of the use of ITC technologies in public administration, organisational changes and the development of new skills of officials in the administrative apparatus (2) and occupy the last position in terms of the development of 'Digital public services' (3).
Fortunately, there are concrete results that support the hope that the situation is beginning to recover in Romania as well – the "Smart Governance" projects carried out at local level have registered this year the biggest leap.

However, ROP 2021-2027 is not the only financing solution for the accelerated digitization of public administrations in Romania. If you want to find out what other sources are available and you can access, we invite you to participate in the VII-th edition of the expo-conference Smart Cities of Romania 2021, which will take place on November 2 in the online environment.

The digitalisation of public administration and services are just two of the priorities of a smart city. Areas such as energy efficiency, smart metering, capitalization of renewable energies, smart building, mobility services, smart GIS and open platforms are topics of interest for most cities in Romania that aspire to the "Smart" status.

A point of attraction will also be the presentation of Micro Mapper on the subject "Open (up) GIS databases - RENNS - Romania Green and Digital 2022", the company announcing the availability of donation of the entire national GIS database (developed in Romania by Micro Mapper) to the central and local public authorities.

All these current topics will be addressed during the event organized by Association Smart Cities of Romania Cluster.

Invited speakers:

• Ramona Chiriac, Head of the European Commission’s Representation in Bucharest;
• Marin Tole, State Secretary at Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration (MDLPA);
• Laszlo Borbely, State Counselor, Coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development (SGG - DDD);
• Octavian Oprea, President of Authority for the Digitisation of Romania (ADR);
• Dana Voicu, Personal adviser of State Secretary Ionel Scriosteanu, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI)
• Adrian Curaj, Director General UEFISCDI;
• Marian Florea, President of Association of City Managers from Romania (AAPRO)
• Horia Petran, Senior Researcher INCD URBAN-INCERC 
• Cristian Vasiliu, Director General of Romanian Association for Workplace and Facility Management (ROFMA);
• Stelian Arion, President of Smart Cities of Romania Cluster (SCoR Cluster);
• Calin Vilt, Counselor The Romanian National Committee of the World Energy Council (CNR-CME);
• Mihai Niculescu, Director General of Intelligent Transport Systems Romania (ITS Romania)

We thank our SPONSORS:

• HONEYWELL
  • Catalin Dragoi, Services and Digitalization Leader CEE
  • Aristotel Agapie, Sales Director, Automation for building efficiency (Romania, Bulgaria and Rep. Moldova)
• GLOBEMA
  
  • Cosmin Albu, Business Development Director 
• INTEGRISOFT Solutions
  
  • Tiberiu Lukacs, Sales Director 
• MICRO MAPPER
  • József Kuszálik, Founder and CEO 
• RADCOM

The full list of speakers and the agenda of the event are available here, and for registration you can access this link.

1. Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World
2. Digital Public Administration factsheet 2020
3. Digital Economy and Society Index 2020

RADCOM SA is a Romanian company, founded in 1993, which provides IT and communication solutions for the public sector, GSM operators, the medical sector, the financial sector and SMEs.

RADCOM SA is structured in three divisions:

RADCOM IT&C DIVISION

• Specialized in software and hardware product development, integration and related services
• Over 100 employees, 5 departments: Telco solutions, web solutions, Embedded solutions, telematics and DevOps systems and maintenance

RADCOM RTND DIVISION

• Specialized in installation, commissioning, acceptance tests or preventive or corrective maintenance for GSM sites and civil works
• 200+ permanent employees, up to 600+ collaborators according to the project

SERVICE DIVISION

• provision of specialised and electronic after-sales IT services

RADCOM SA is ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 20000 and OHSAS 18001 certified.

ITS Products - hardware and software

iFleet -  Fleet Management System, including Automatic passenger counting and Video. Planning and resource management tools monitors, creates and edits routes, manages vehicle parameters, vehicle adherence to the traffic/traffic schedule, allocation of vehicles on common routes, fleet traffic diagrams, drivers' activity sheets, estimated traffic time between stops, information display messages, periodic MoT, stock of consumables, user access rights.
Real time interactive traffic dispatch: fleet overview on the vectorized map, vehicle routes on the linearized map, visualization of the geographical location of the vehicle, compliance with the schedule for each vehicle, traffic diagrams, reprogramming of vehicles, improvement of the route by redistribution of vehicles, two-way communication with drivers.

OptiFare - E-Ticketing System is a complex solution that allows transport companies to increase productivity by monitoring all components of the company, increasing the transparency and security of transactions, saving time and reducing operational costs and fraud. The E-Ticketing system is available both as card-based travel validation and as account based validation (ABT).

eXact - Passenger Information System, including route planner. This module is able to collect location data received in real time from vehicles, process it and estimate the time of arrival. Based on the information received, historical data and the behaviour of the vehicle in traffic, the nearest time of arrival of the vehicle is estimated, for each route and each stop. The distribution of information in real time is done either through displays in stations, or in vehicles, SMS or mobile applications. The way of displaying the information is customized using the application available at the dispatcher of the transport company. The route planning app is an extremely useful and user-friendly tool for anyone traveling by public transport. Offers the possibility to plan the trip by finding the best route to the destination.

On-Board Computer - The on-board computer is designed for use in public transport vehicles integrating all ITS functions, being able to simultaneously order/operate all their peripheral devices, to exchange tracking and monitoring data with the dispatching system and to support the activities of the drivers.

E-Check and EMV E-Check Contactless Validators - Easy to use thanks to the friendly graphical interface, equipped with a large 7-inch diagonal display and capacitive touch screen, E-Check allows validation, control of status information and multimedia features. The sturdy case with the very thick glass layer of the touch screen ensures high protection against vandalism.

LED Information Displays - Designed for continuous and real-time display, the information panels provide a high-contrast quality look to the information displayed. Individual sensors, which measure ambient light conditions, allow for complete control of the brightness of LEDs; together with the use of blinds to LEDs, they produce excellent readability even in bright sunlight.

ITS References - Clients