Gigabit Squared Digital Economic Development

Gigabit Squared

Digital Economic Development

Digital Economic Development 2

The digital divide, once reserved as a term for citizens without access to broadband technology, now has a new and more challenging meaning for communities engaged in economic development.

The gap between the communities equipped to compete

and thrive in the 21st

century global economy and all others

is widening. Not so long ago it only took access to human

capital, a few tax incentives, and a decent healthcare and

educational system to attract corporate investment and

create jobs. Unfortunately for most communities, this is no

longer the case. For those communities on the wrong side

of the digital divide, the economic development office is

quiet, new companies aren’t coming, and the existing

companies are leaving one by one.

The New Facilities and Services Baseline

Digital economic development focuses on an investment

strategy designed to bridge this new digital divide and

provide communities with the facilities and services needed

to attract and retain businesses, talent and investors.

Broadband has created a paradigm where communities are

evaluated based upon their abiity to provide:

Seamless integration into the global supply chain

through high-speed data exchange;

Robust E-government and enhanced public safety

solutions for improved citizen services;

Access to E-Learning and telehealth services.

Smart grid energy management solutions for the

industrial sector to cut operating costs;

Power, telecommunication, data center and

alternative energy options and redundancies;

Advanced traffic management systems to reduce

congestion and improve product delivery times.

Smart IT-enabled infrastructure makes all of this possible.

Digital Economic Development Creating the conditions required for jobs, economic growth and

quality of life depends on an IT-enabled infrastructure as never

before. As communities compete against one another globally for

corporate investment, knowledge workers and skilled laborers, smart

connected infrastructure investments are the key to success.


Digital infrastructure is the life blood of business today. Cities and towns offering real-time energy management solutions, enhanced facilities and services, and high speed data exchange with global partners win. Period.

Competitive communities today are defined by the quality

and utilization of infrastructure assets. Gigabit Squared’s

focus on digital economic development, the enabling of

new capabilities for core community infrastructure through

the thoughtful application of information technology, gives

communities the ability to leap frog other regions and

towns in the battle to attract and retain business and talent.

Clarity of vision, time and capital are the primary challenges

facing most communities. And given the lead time for

planning, capitalization and roll-out for major IT-enabled

initiatives, the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’

is a challenge to close. Gigabit Squared works to shorten

the deployment cycle through public-private partnerships,

capital source diversification and the leveraging of existing

community and commercial assets.

Vision

Vision can be a transformative agent – one that changes the

destiny of a city, region or country. Effective visionaries

know where they are going and also what they have on

hand that can be used to reach that end. The tricky part of

the visioning process is maintaining both clarity of purpose

and a realistic sense of what is possible when cataloguing

the existing community assets and liabilities that will either

help or hinder attainment of the desired end state.

Time and Capital

Great vision is not enough. Translating vision into reality

requires a managed and disciplined approach to breaking

up the goal into fundable sub-projects that provide the

basis for widespread application, adoption and benefits.

This approach, coupled with the active pursuit of public and

private investment for building block projects, accelerates

vision actualization and impact in terms of business

retention and attraction, enhanced citizen services, and the

overall prosperity and quality of life.

Successful economic development requires

vision, discipline, and an actionable strategy.


Digital economic development is a process. Gigabit Squared provides a repeatable methodology for institutionalizing practices that deliver extraordinary planning, capitalization and execution outcomes.

Transforming infrastructure assets into IT-enabled, 21st

century solutions for business and living can be daunting.

Many projects have a scope, scale and multi-institutional

impact that make them seemingly impossible to get off the

ground. Gigabit Squared’s approach to digital economic

development provides a repeatable methodology for

instutionalizing practices that deliver extraordinary

planning, capitalization and execution outcomes.

Our methodology revolves around a 7-stage process:

1. Vision: Digital Purpose and End-State

2. Benefits: Trans-Sector Use Mapping

3. Planning: Strategic Action Plan Creation

4. Design: High Level Requirements Definition

5. Fund: Capitalization Plan & Fund Acquisition

6. Build: Final Design, RFPs, Vendor Management

7. Use: Deployment, Adoption and Operations

Our team works directly with clients through each stage of

the process, providing both strategic and ‘on-the-ground,’

‘hands-on’ tactical support and leadership. We pride

ourselves on not being traditional consultants that provide

theoretical or ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions: We are seasoned

practitioners bringing real world subject-matter-expertise

and solutions for pressing infrastructure, business

modeling, technical, and capitalization challenges.

Understanding the Puzzle Pieces

The complexity of today’s economic development

challenges requires the ability to move seamlessly between

an expansive view of the whole and the minutae of the

parts. This is particularly true of digital infrastructure

initiatives, where departmental and institutional silos,

public-private partnership dynamics, multiple-stakeholders

and the high cost of entry are often barriers to success.

Navigating these challenges requires jigsaw puzzle think:

literally breaking up the vision into manageable, but

interlocking projects that can be seamlessly integrated as

components of the IT-enabled infrastructure and the IT

applications that ride atop are implemented. This is the

secret to the success of our approach: the movement from

Vision to Trans-Sector Benefits to Strategic Action Plan forces

economic development stakeholders to work in both the

visionary and practical spheres when executing key initiatives.

Strategic Action Planning

These initial two stages of the process lay the foundation for

accelerating the transition from the vision stage to

realization. Leveraging a thorough understanding of digital

purpose (vision) and trans-sector benefits for maximum

impact, we institutionalize a method of operating and

thinking about IT-enabled infrastructure solutions that will

serve as a guide to prioritizing a community’s sub-projects,

funding and implementation process.

We employ a holistic approach, mapping the impacts and

return-on-investment for businesses, key stakeholders and

citizenry for each sub-project within the ‘master plan.’

Capitalization

This process diversifies the pool of potential funders and

investors for each sub-project, and facilitates the rapid

crafting of the subsequent value propositions, business plans

and project documents required for investor support.

Gigabit Squared offers hands on investor identification and

liaison services, including the crafting of funding proposals

and investor packets, and the creation of ‘win-win’

partnership structures.


Businesses evaluate communities based on ease-of-access to enhanced services for both operations and workforce attraction. This puts IT-enabled infrastructure as traditionally defined (energy, telecom, transport, water) and citizen services in the spotlight.

In the heat of digital economic development planning, it’s easy to get caught

up in the technical details of enhanced infrastructure functionality, added

efficiencies and cost savings. But digital economic development is really about

jobs. And even in the information age, businesses and communities are, at

their core, about people.

Workforce attraction, training and retention are critical issues for most

communities and businesses today, especially for those located outside the 1st

Tier markets (e.g. New York, Los Angeles). Companies employ people, and in

today’s mobile society, people have choices as to where they live, work and

play. This puts citizen services squarely in the spotlight, creating both

challenges and opportunities for successful economic development projects.

Information technology and the broadband infrastructure enabling real-time

data exchange are once again the primary tools in the economic development

arsenal. In the space of citizen services, the public, private and non-profit

sectors all have the same target: John Q. Citizen. And all three sectors use the

same infrastructure to provide information, goods and services to ‘John Q.’

This creates a win-win for public-private collaboration in the delivery of

superior citizen services solutions for government, health care, education,

public safety, utilities, transporation and social services. Trans-sector thinking

around shared platforms, capabilities, service delivery and information

exchange provide fertile ground for capitalizing and enhancing both access

and quality of service for core community anchor institutions.

The Extended Enterprise

Turning the ‘John Q.’ phenomenon into a true economic development

advantage requires public, private and non-profit organizations to think

outside of their traditional physical walls, procurement practices and service

offerings. By mapping the synergies, impacts and beneficiaries of existing

operations against the wider community of institutions that delivers services

to ‘John Q.,’ new co-investment, revenue-stream, efficiency, reduced total-

cost-of ownership, delivery venue, and product/services opportunities

emerge, ripe for public-private partnerships. Not only have information

technology and business become inextricably interwoven, but so have smart

IT-enabled infrastructures, thriving communities and economic growth.

“Information technology and business are

becoming inextricably interwoven.

I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the

talking about the other.”

- Bill Gates


Public-private partnerships (P3s) are a growing global trend to diversify access to capital and extend capacity/capabilities. Knowing how to effectively broker and manage P3s will make this your most important economic development tool.

Relationships are hard enough when the stakes are low.

Throw in money, property, time commitments and the

legalese of a partnership agreement, and all bets are off.

Relationships grow in complexity exponentially the more

partners one has. Most transformative digital economic

development programs have a diverse pool of stakeholders

and beneficiaries in both the public and private sectors.

Gigabit Squared structures public-private partnerships that

promote long-term economic sustainability and citizen

services for the public sector, while incorporating private

sector solutions and return-on-investment (ROI). Our focus

is on creating repeatable frameworks for communities to

recognize, evaluate, approach and close potential project

beneficiaries, transforming them into co-investors and long-

term collaborators and partners. The methods we employ

work. The team at Gigabit Squared brokers partnerships

that last, and has raised billions in capital for IT-enabled

infrastructure projects across the globe.

The development of enduring public-private partnerships

requires the ability to create co-investment opportunities

with mutual benefits for all parties, and a fluency in trans-

sector approaches and solutions (both within government

(e.g. crossing agency boundaries) and across communities

(e.g., government, education, healthcare, commercial).

Approaching public-private partnerships in this way makes

the capitalization process simpler. Through strategic action

planning, sub-projects are broken down in terms of

potential beneficiaries, thereby diversifying funding

sources, focusing capitalization efforts, and creating a

continuous pipeline of capital.

Digital Economic Development = Jobs


Smart IT-enabled solutions require expertise. The Gigabit Squared team provides a set of services designed to enable your community to get the most from its digital infrastructure and application investments.

Broadband Infrastructure

Gigabit Squared is your one-stop shop for a complete line of broadband services. From initial

planning and business modeling, to design, engineering, build and operations, we do it all. The

team at Gigabit Squared has been building and operating public and private broadband networks

for over 25 years, and delivers in-house subject-matter-experts to meet your most pressing

hybrid, wireline or wireless network roll-out and operational challenges.

IT-Enabled Infrastructure

A robust broadband infrastructure is the foundation. The real value of the network is created by

using it to enhance productivity, efficiency, customer service and citizen services. Gigabit

Squared helps communities and institutions plan, capitalize and deploy IT-enabled infrastructure

solutions such as advanced traffic management, video arraignment, telehealth and telemedicine,

smart grid energy deployment, public safety, surveillance, emergency response, and public WiFi.

Energy Management Solutions

A community’s energy grid is one of its most valuable economic development tools. As the cost

and consumption of energy rise, smart grid and energy management solutions help drive down

energy costs while reducing the need to import energy to cover peak load periods. The quality

and flexibility of a community’s energy grid is a key commercial consideration, as it translates

into direct bottom line profits. Gigabit Squared’s energy management solutions are the ticket.

Alternative Energy and Technology Park Development

Becoming one of the country’s hottest alternative energy, technology or industrial clusters is the

dream of every community developer. Making it happen requires focus, discipline and attention

to detail. Gigabit Squared works with public and commercial developers through all stages of the

project: inception, planning, capitalization, build and ‘go-to-market.’ We offer a full range of

business modeling, vendor management, design, and investor relations services.

Trans-Sector Approach

Gigabit Squared’s Trans-Sector approach to economic development breaks down the institutional

silos that dominate the way companies and communities typically think about business and

society. This frees us to pursue a diversified pool of investors and beneficiaries, along with new

markets, products, efficiencies and cost savings achieved through the aggregation, collaboration

and communication with upstream or downstream providers and/or peers.

Gigabit Squared

Web: www.gbps2.com E-mail: [email protected] Sales: 1.440.941.1325

http://www.gbps2.com/

Gigabit Squared Digital Economic Development

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