But who is Jules Lesmart?

This little character has been around for a while now. You may already have crossed paths with him since he’s currently touring all around Wallonia, demonstrating all the advantages of a connected citizen space. But where does he come from?

Nowadays, cities are constantly seeking to improve their services with an aim at offering a more fluid experience to all users as well as providing concrete answers to the everyday concerns of their citizens.

In many cases, this desire takes root in and draws inspiration from a booming trend that some people are already calling the "Smart City Hype". While driven by the best intentions, this trend has often led to the development of (too) many ‘smart’ solutions that were rolled-out with a certain enthusiasm. This massive wave apps has boosted the adoption of digital technology. However, it also puzzles the citizens as they are more and more trying to get involved in the projects initiated by their city.

From time to time, the advantages offered by those apps are in contradiction with local authorities’ intentions. Indeed, the objective is not to offer a jumble of tools, each in its own specific niche, but to propose a set of integrated, innovative services that meet the needs of citizens in their daily lives.

Users simply do not want to be confronted with needless layers of technology. Above all, they are looking for concrete solutions, solutions they can use every day. Citizens want to be informed, they want to be listened to and they are more articulate about what they want out of their involvement with the community. Through a better participation, citizens may hope to influence and even lead change within their city. 

In today’s world, local authorities have to offer a wide range of services that citizens can easily relate to. The way users will approach a problem and its solution are key factors in deciding whether a service should be implemented or not as well as evaluating the added value it could create. Indeed, these two elements alone can guarantee the rapid adoption of a solution as well as its sustainability over time. 

This is why NRB & Civadis decided, during their participation in the latest edition of the Salon des Mandataires, to put their focus on the simplification and personification of the services offered by cities and municipalities. It is indeed crucial to better contextualise any problem your citizens are confronted with so that they can easily apprehend its solution.

This resulted, among other things, in the birth of Jules Lesmart! Just like you and me, Jules is a citizen, a user who, like all of us, wants:

• Highly qualitative information, provided to him at the right time and filtered according to his centers of interest
• Fluid and accessible public transportation
• A clean & attractive city
• Simplified interaction with the services offered to him by the municipality ...

Born as a citizen and raised as a star, Jules left a deep impression on the visitors of our stand at #SDM2017 and will now become the mascot of our ‘Smart City’ ecosystem. An ecosystem that brings together global players from the financial, technological and public spheres as well as - and above all - local players in the form of start-ups, SMEs, universities, research centres and more.

Jules is a ‘Smart Citizen’ who juggles with the various connected services offered by his municipality and who benefits from the smart solutions developed by the members of our ecosystem. This character will take our ecosystem further than ever before since each of our partners will be able, thanks to Jules, to better contextualise its service as well as the problem it addresses. Concrete examples framed by real-use conditions will help citizens understand the issue and the manner in which it is solved.

Jules is currently on tour. Feel free to join him for one of his demonstration of the connected citizen space. Two dates are still available! Register today and discover how your city can benefit from its move to become a ‘Smart City’.

Want further information? Please visit our subsidiary’s website at http://bit.ly/JuLeSmart