The City Council was at the GrausTIC meeting on 13 and 14 November to promote its Digital Transformation Plan, geared towards offering a modern and citizen-friendly administration.

GrausTIC is an outstanding event in the ICT sector in Catalonia, bringing together professionals and experts to discuss digitalisation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, with companies, public institutions and education centres all taking part. The meeting is a leading space for tech collaboration and innovation.

Emili Rubió, Manager of the Municipal Institute of Information Technology (IMI) at Barcelona City Council, took part in the session “Public Administration and Cybersecurity”, analysing the role of the public administration in the digital transformation of the administration itself and society as a whole, as well as the cybersecurity challenges that need to be addressed to guarantee that services are secure and efficient for citizens.

Rubió shared the strategic lines of the City Council’s Digital Transformation Plan, based around six themes and prioritising four main areas. One of these is to offer a more proactive and accessible administration: “We’re committed to offering a digital and easy administration, centred on people”, affirmed Rubió. This includes a multi-channel support system that enables people to access municipal services through various channels, whether via the Virtual Procedures Office, by phone or in person. This way, “if somebody needs help while completing an online procedure, they can continue the process with the support of an advisor at the same time”.

Rubió also pointed to the cloud strategy as a key factor in guaranteeing the continuity of digital services, affirming that “the adoption of digital solutions in the cloud is a strategic element for us, as it affords us flexible, scaleable and secure management of ICT resources”.

In terms of data governance, Rubió insisted on the importance of maintaining the quality and security of information: “We want the information managed here to be good quality, accurate and safe”, which is essential for improving decision-making and municipal services.

In the improvement of internal efficiency, the session stressed the adoption of digital solutions that unify circuits and automate internal processes, with tools such as the automation of robotic processes (RPA) and artificial intelligence for more agility in repetitive tasks. The City Council has also created the Artificial Intelligence Office (OIA) to coordinate the application of AI in internal processes, geared towards citizen support with virtual assistants and advanced analysis in decision-making according to criteria on transparency, ethics and security.

Finally, the session highlighted cybersecurity as a cornerstone of the plan, with advanced security protocols, periodical simulations and collaboration with other organisations to guarantee data protection and essential services. This support strengthens people’s confidence in Barcelona’s digital administration.

On one hand, the Director for Security at the IMI, David Esteban, also took part in the session “Cybersecurity”, which looked at the challenges and solutions in this area to protect companies in an increasingly vulnerable digital environment. Emerging trends were identified in data protection and IT security.

On the other, the head of the innovation department at the IMI, Jordi Cirera, took part in the session on innovation, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in the use of AI and in innovation. Cirera pointed out “the weakness represented by the imbalance between the number of AI professionals needed by our society and the number of people coming out of university, and the threat this poses”. The session also highlighted the most recent trends in innovation and technology and how these can transform companies and economic sectors and keep them competitive in a digital world.

With its participation in these sessions, Barcelona City Council reaffirms it commitment to a secure and accessible digital administration for all.