Communities interested in joining the Procurement Support Helpdesk should submit an Expression of Interest through the Living-in.EU platform or directly via https://ldt.toolbx.eu/join. This initial step is crucial for indicating your community's intent to participate and benefit from the Helpdesk services. 

Upon receipt of the submission of your Expression of Interest, the Online Procurement Helpdesk team will evaluate it based on several selection criteria, including digital readiness, geographical distribution, and alignment with the programme's objectives. Upon selection of your community, a CGA will be assigned to assist you. The CGA will guide you through the next steps, including providing access to the platform and ensuring that your journey within the Helpdesk is tailored to your community's needs.  

The programme is designed for local communities in Europe, which can include both municipalities and regions. It is suitable for local entities and authorities that can participate as a unified organisation, addressing strategic topics related to their advancement as a smart community. The key requirement is that your organisation possesses some level of autonomous or shared technological resources and infrastructure, ensuring you can implement and benefit from the project's initiatives effectively. 

If your community joins, you will need to assemble a multidisciplinary team to efficiently respond to assessment questions. Invest an estimated 2-4 days to ensure thorough and accurate completion of the assessments. This comprehensive team composition ensures a well-rounded approach to addressing the assessment requirements and contributes to the overall success of your digital transformation journey. 

Under “User roles and responsibilities”, you will find details about the roles required from your team to successfully complete the process, along with the roles of the Helpdesk operational team that support you in receiving the service offerings. 

To ensure a successful digital transformation journey, it is essential to understand the roles and responsibilities of the involved parties: the community team and the CGA. The collaboration between the community team and the CGA ensures a comprehensive and well-supported approach to digital transformation, leveraging the strengths and expertise of both parties. 

City or Community Team 

The community team is responsible for driving the digital transformation within their locality. This team should be composed of individuals with diverse expertise to cover all necessary areas effectively. The recommended expertise for the community team includes seven profiles covering the following roles: 

 Strategy and Decision-Making: 

• Innovation Manager: This could be the Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Smart City Manager, or a similar role. The individual in this role is crucial for setting the strategic direction and ensuring the integration of innovative solutions. 

• Relevant City Departments: Departments with strategic and decision-making capacities must be involved to ensure alignment with the community’s overall goals and policies. 

• Project Management Office (PMO): The PMO is essential for overseeing the project’s progress, ensuring timelines and objectives are met. 

IT/Data/Architecture: 

• Data Manager: This role could be filled by a Chief Data Manager, IT Manager, Data Steward, or similar. They are responsible for managing data assets, ensuring data quality, and leveraging data for decision-making. 

• ICT Manager and Systems Specialist: These individuals handle the community’s IT systems, ensuring they are robust, scalable, and secure. 

• IT Architect: The IT Architect is crucial for designing the IT infrastructure to support digital transformation initiatives. 

• IT Procurement: This role involves procuring the necessary technology and services to support the community’s digital initiatives. 

• Infrastructure Provider: Ensures the physical and virtual infrastructure is in place and maintained to support the digital transformation. 

By assembling a multidisciplinary team with these roles, the community can effectively respond to assessment questions, develop a comprehensive digital strategy, and implement the necessary initiatives. 

 City Guiding Agent (CGA) 

The City Guiding Agent plays a pivotal role in guiding and supporting the community throughout their digital transformation journey. The responsibilities of the CGA include: 

•  Guidance and Support: 

• Kick-Off Session: The CGA initiates the process with kick-off sessions to provide a common information session, ensuring that all community officers/representatives understand the objectives and steps involved. 

• Roadmap Explanation Session: The CGA explains the results of the digital maturity assessment and the tailored roadmap, helping the community understand the specific initiatives and milestones outlined. 

• Procurement Support Session: The CGA assists the community in finalising procurement needs and strategies based on the roadmap, emphasising open standards and interoperability requirements. 

• Ongoing Assistance: 

• 1:1 Sessions: The CGA offers personalised support through one-on-one sessions upon request, addressing specific questions and challenges the community may face. 

• Online Helpdesk: The CGA is available through the online helpdesk to provide continuous support, answer queries, and assist with any issues that arise during the journey. 

• Continuous Guidance: Throughout the entire process, the CGA provides ongoing support on procurement strategies and implementation, ensuring the community's digital transformation progresses smoothly. 

By having a dedicated CGA, the community can navigate the whole journey to ultimately receive their tailored local strategy for digital transformation with expert guidance and support. 

You can get support from the team of the Online Procurement Helpdesk for Smart Communities while completing an assessment - or at any other time – simply by emailing directly support@toolbx.eu or the CGA that is guiding you through the service (whose email address will be agentname@toolbx.eu).  

Alternatively, you can reach out to the Helpdesk team through our Support Centre Contact Form,  which you can find at the bottom of the Support Centre dedicated page or at the bottom of the main navigation panel (‘Ask us a question’). 

You are encouraged to first consult the Support Centre for answers to your questions. However, if you cannot find there what you are looking for, the Online Procurement Helpdesk team is always available to assist you.  CGAs are available during normal business hours and strive to get back to you with answers as soon as possible, always within a 24-hour timeframe. 

Yes, assessments can be worked on simultaneously by the persons within your organisation that have been granted access to the Online Procurement Helpdesk. Bear in mind that if more than one member from your organisation is working on the same assessment, and you happen to type in a question for the same answer, the reply will be saved from the last person that clicked the ‘Next’ button. 

The total average expected duration of the journey of a city within the Helpdesk is expected at approximately 7 weeks. This is counting from the moment accounts are created for the community officers/representatives to access the Helpdesk, until completion of the journey which is currently taking place with the occurrence of the roadmap validation session.  

Therefore, we have set as an expected moment of completion of the Strategy assessment two weeks since you receive your credentials for the Online Procurement Helpdesk, considering you might have already taken the LORDIMAS assessment. After the submission of the Strategy one, we expect submission of the IT infrastructure assessment two weeks later. The roadmap creation takes approximately a week, and hopefully the roadmap validation session can take place within two weeks from delivery of the roadmap to you.  

This refers to the duration, not the effort needed. You can see in detail how much effort is needed from your side in the section “Time needed for the completion of the assessments”.  

Nonetheless, these are our estimations and wishful thinking and you are free to take as much time as you need to go through these questionnaires effectively. The only restriction in place is any city that receives a Procurement Helpdesk account completes the journey, all activities, and does not drop out the service in the middle.  Any cities aspiring to participate must finish their journeys by the end of July 2025 to receive the support services before the project concludes.

The time you need to invest is mostly focused on the time it will take you to fill the three assessments plus some online sessions either optional or necessary to complete the journey. The amount of time can be analysed as following:  

• You might participate in an info session or bilateral session of 1 hour before onboarding, to get informed on the programme if you wish so (optional).  

• The LORDIMAS can be completed in around 30 minutes. However, it is important to note that this estimation can vary, depending on the structure, competences, and distribution of responsibilities within each community. This timeframe may vary depending on the availability of respondents required for accurate completion. 

• The Strategy Assessment can be completed in around 30 minutes. However, it is important to note that this estimation can vary, depending on the organisational structure, and distribution of responsibilities within each community. This timeframe may vary depending on the availability of respondents required for accurate completion 

• The IT Infrastructure Assessment can be completed in around 2 hours. However, it is important to note that this estimation can vary, depending on the structure, competences, and allocation of responsibilities within each community. This timeframe may vary depending on the availability of respondents required for accurate completion 

• You will have a roadmap validation session which serves for clarifying specific points such as concrete initiatives or scores and collect feedback from you (1 hour approximately)  

• You can participate in the procurement workshop (2 hours approximately) to give feedback on your particular procurement needs and how we can accommodate your procurement needs best to what regards procuring solutions for Local Digital Twins. 

Your community’s reference roadmap is based on the level of technical maturity derived from the combination of the answers to the assessments (i.e. LORDIMAS, Strategy and IT Infrastructure). A scoring system is in place, where depending on your answers you receive tailored guidance with your personalised roadmap. 

The roadmap includes a timeline with initiatives/activities tailored to the starting point of your community in terms of digital infrastructure. It displays the end-to-end process of developing a local digital platform and digital twin, with the gradual build-up of core strategic and IT capabilities over time.   

The goal is for the roadmap to drive internal discussions bringing together community’s officials from policy, strategic, IT and procurement departments, as to inspire a shared vision and trigger a plan for a digital infrastructure that promotes evidence-based decision-making. 

The procurement support will be available in two ways, through continuous, targeted assistance for cities and communities, and by offering procurement materials.  

Firstly, one-to-one procurement support will be done through CGAs, who can be engaged to respond to specific requirements and deliver customised guidance, and through the Online Helpdesk’s Ticketing System, which permits cities to be put in contact directly with the project procurement experts for specific queries.  

Secondly, we aim to enhance your procurement efforts by providing access to procurement guidelines and templates needed for the acquisition of objects of procurement. These resources will streamline your procurement processes and contribute to the efficient use of your city’s resources, particularly in the implementation of Local Digital Twins.  

In order to refine and finalise this material, cities and communities have participated in a series of workshops to provide feedback on the produced procurement materials. The next opportunity to collect your feedback will be in November 2024, where both new and previously engaged cities will contribute.  

Looking forward, when procurement templates and guidelines will be finalised, they will be made available to all participating cities through the Online Helpdesk. These documents will be uploaded in English by March 2025, and in German and French by September 2025.