The deliverable 7.7, Reporting to the SCIS System (3), was submitted by Future Analytics Consulting (FAC) in June 2020. Following, the executive summary of the deliverable:
“This report, Deliverable 7.7 – Reporting to the SCIS (3), is the third iteration in the series of reports delivered bi-annually through the 5-year cycle of the +CityxChange project. The report records the actions taken, progress made and ongoing work relating to the capturing and reporting of project Key Performance Indicator (KPI) data to the +CityxChange Monitoring and Evaluation Reporting Tool (MERT) and the Smart Cities Information System (SCIS) (connected to Task 7.3 and 7.4). Deliverable 7.7 (D7.7) is the third iteration of this report based on the previous versions submitted in Month 6 (D7.2 – Reporting to the SCIS (1)1) and Month 12 (D7.6 – Reporting to the SCIS (2)2) of the project. This report provides an update to prior deliverables and sets out ongoing work that will be attended to in order to have information submitted to the SCIS.
Developed in Deliverable 7.1: Approach and Methodology for Monitoring and Evaluation3, the +CityxChange KPI Framework forms the basis from which each KPI description, expected (or targeted) impact, and proposed calculation is derived for the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) process. As detailed in previous iterations of this report, the MERT will be the main platform on which all 33 KPIs’ data is captured, stored, processed, and visualised. Since the launch of the prototype MERT in Month 12 of the project, refinement to the platform has included: updates to manual data capturing tables; updates to KPI calculations; addressing User Interface (UI) and visualisation issues across multiple devices; and the development of processes that would allow qualitative data submissions. These refinements have assisted in improving the user interface and functionality of the MERT, to enable more efficient data submission for the KPI/data owners. As the project has progressed, very little KPI data has been submitted to the MERT. By the time of submitting this deliverable, data has been submitted for only 12 of the 33 KPIs, but it is expected that further development of project interventions will lead to more frequent data submissions in the short term. Further developments in the MERT have included the amendment of data capturing fields to suit the data requirements for KPIs which will report to the SCIS Self-Reporting Tool (SRT) as well.
As it stands, only six of the 33 KPIs are expected to report to the SCIS, while recent engagement with KPI owners confirmed that two of the six KPIs’ calculations are acceptable for reporting to the SRT. In collaboration with KPI owners and the SCIS, FAC will prepare the MERT and SRT for subsequent submission of KPI data as soon as it is available from the KPI owners. Ongoing engagement with KPI owners hope to increase the number over the coming months, by addressing potential mismatches between the data granularity and aggregation requirements of the SRT, and the monitoring data that will be available to KPI owners.
After the launch of the MERT, KPI owners have been provided with login credentials to enable data submission, which is expected to increase as the project progresses and as data from different interventions become available. Restrictions of movement and interaction brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have hindered the implementation of project interventions and slowed the accumulation and sharing of data. Although recent interactions have had to shift to an online format, all stakeholders are working together to reach project milestones. WP 7 leads will continue to liaise with KPI/data owners and relevant task leads to source quantitative and qualitative data, and work with the SCIS on the best possible solutions to have data shared and available to all relevant users.”
