THE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY PLANNER (SMP)

Project Information

SMP

Grant agreement ID: 662451

DOI

10.3030/662451

Project closed

EC signature date 18 December 2014

Start date 1 January 2015

End date 30 June 2015

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

NTU INTERNATIONAL AS
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMP (THE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY PLANNER (SMP))

Reporting period: 2015-01-01 to 2015-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Sustainable Mobility Planner is a specialized innovative IT software (tool) that enables environmental, economic and social impact assessments of sustainable transport, mobility and urban planning initiatives taken in an urban environment by municipalities.

The SMP acts as a highly specialized tool that can support municipalities in their decision-making process concerning implementation of sustainable transport initiatives. The innovation of this software comes from the SMP focus on supporting municipalities in reaching EU and national urban mobility planning requirements and emission goals. The tool's usefulness and ease of use is ensured through constant updates with the latest available data from NTU’s portfolio of projects, as well as through user-based data inputs and feedback. The business model guarantees a continuous development and upgrading of the tool, which will be based on the latest available transport and environmental data. The reliability will, compared to existing tools on the market, set new standards, by replacing generic estimates with concrete and updated data, which is added to the system via the backend solution.

Following the award of Phase 1 of the SMP project, a feasibility study was performed. The activities undertaken during this feasibility study are:
 Market research for market potential and competitors’ analysis;
 Early field testing of the basic functionalities of the core module (end-user requirements research).

The overall results of the feasibility study determine excellent opportunities for an application prototype testing and developing a ready-to-market Sustainable Mobility Planner software due to the existing customer needs, respectively customer demand and market maturity. The study shows that the excellent commercialization potential of the SMP software derives from its unique market features and the envisaged large bundle of functionalities. The identified prospective market for the SMP is within the European B2G sector, where municipalities need to meet the requirements of EU and local governments and improve logistics locally and regionally. The primary target market for the SMP is municipalities with 50,000 inhabitants or more, which from the performed analysis offers a market of about 1,500 customers around Europe. Moreover, the basic functionalities of the SMP’s core module have been developed and tested. The current stage of the SMP is assessed to be TRL 6.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The following work has been performed during the 6 months project period:

I. Market research for market potential and competitors’ analysis – Commercial feasibility
A. Market review identifying the market potential for the SMP in Europe (WP Task A)
B. Research end-user requirements in terms of market uptake of SMP (WP Task B)
C. Conducting a competitors analysis, including risk assessment and market barriers (WP Task C)

II. Early field testing of the basic functionalities of the core module – Technical feasibility
D. SMP Design and Functionalities (including collection of latest available data) (WP Task D)

III. Financial and economic analyses – Financial feasibility
E. Assessment of revenue stream arising from deployment of SMP among 3 potential clients (WP Task E)
F. Assessment of costs for setting up the solution at a test municipality (WP Task F)

The main result of the above analyses are presented in the feasibility study. The commercial part of the feasibility study include evidence that the european market holds significant interest in a tool with the described fundtionality, and that it is of core interest for European municipalities and policy makers. The technical feasibility of the tool is mature, yet comprehensive amounts of data need to be collected and included in the tool, to ensure its full operational capacity. Finallly the financial feasbility of the IT tool is showing good results and a forecastet turnover of almost 20 mill. EUR in 2021.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The final result of the project is the feasibility study, which has proven a potential European market for the sustainable mobility planner.

The feasibility study carried out during Phase 1 of the SMP project demonstrated economic, financial and technological viability and maturity. These results of the study will be proven by the prototyping and demonstrations taking place during Phase II with the municipalities that have expressed their interest to test the SMP tool, including the initial three Danish municipalities that have provided inputs on the testing of the core functions of the tool.

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