Analysis of the needs of small towns and municipalities in the field of SMART services

The issues of SMART services and solutions, their implementation and operation are presented mainly as a topic of large cities, where a large number of residents, potential customers are concentrated. This argument is logical, as a high concentration of population is one of the parameters to guarantee the return on investment of such projects. We think that the topic of SMART solutions should not be a significant priority only for large cities. For this reason, we decided to analyze the needs of small cities in terms of implementing SMART solutions, identify problems as well as requirements to speed up this process. We collected data for our analysis in the Slovak Republic, which with its structure of cities and municipalities is a suitable candidate for such research. In the process of data collection, we addressed request for information more than 2,744 small towns and municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, while 547 representatives of towns and municipalities responded to the questionnaire. The results of the research show an interesting and unambiguous finding. Small towns and rural areas also want to be SMART. In the research, we identified several, not simple problems that need to be solved for the successful implementation of such goals. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.