Monitoring the innovations produced by start-ups is a source of information for local authorities about the services that were lacking on the territory, which satisfy a demand and for which users would be willing to pay: for example, tourism applications, contract management, creating contact between service providers and underprivileged populations, commercial information.

It then becomes possible to design partnerships between these enterprises and the local authority to develop solutions on a larger scale, by the municipality itself (within the scope of its own calls for tender) or by the existing traditional firms on the local territory.

The opening of the local authority’s data and information is a condition for the development of new applications and a dynamic digital ecosystem. Failing this, the risk is that innovators turn towards traditional private sector stakeholders, or crowdsourced data (generated by the population) to develop their services, thereby bypassing and marginalising the public authorities. Access to information must therefore be as transparent as possible.

A municipal service specialised in data management is a condition for success to ensure the innovations proposed are relevant to the local authority, and also to guarantee the security and protection of the information made available (Part C, Pillar 3).