The Banque des Territoires and Orange join forces to create HEXADONE, a joint venture that will offer a digital platform to manage and enhance regional data

• This agreement will lead to the creation of the joint venture (Hexadone) in the first half of 2023 in order to develop and distribute this new offer.
• Hexadone will provide local authorities with a new open and interoperable platform to aggregate, structure and use data from their regions.
• The ambition is to be the regions’ trusted partner for the sovereign exploitation and valorization of their data.

Energy and environmental transformations, attractiveness, improvement of citizen’s well-being, mutualization and optimization of infrastructure costs are all major challenges that all local authorities (big and small) must address. With the accelerated digitization of the economy and society, regions must manage increasingly valuable flows of information. Yet this data is both an essential and unavoidable driver for improving the regions’ knowledge and steering local public policies and also a major issue to sovereignty and security. However, the great technical complexity, the infinite quantity of data coming from various players, constant technological evolution, and risks related to cybersecurity and personal data breaches can represent major obstacles to the efficient implementation of a regional data management policy.

Therefore the Banque des Territoires and Orange are joining forces to create Hexadone to design and offer a simple and robust, sovereign and secure, open and interoperable digital platform for all local authorities wishing to manage and enhance the value of their territorial data.

The digital platform, due to be launched in the first half of 2023, will facilitate the aggregation and the quality control of the existing data from local authorities’ information systems, business applications, sensors, open data, public and private ecosystems and citizens. It will then enable the local authority to manage all its data and use it for its own decision-making or operational needs or make it available to other players who contribute to address local needs.

Hexadone’s scalable platform will also make it easier for local authorities to use the data to develop innovative solutions with a large ecosystem of industrial partners and start-ups that the authorities will be entirely free to choose. Interoperability with partners will guarantee the open nature of the platform.

In this context, Hexadone will offer, alone or with an ecosystem of partners, a catalog of data crossing use cases, based on the needs identified by the authorities (knowledge of the region to enhance its attractiveness, mobility assessment to accurately size infrastructures, securing travel and promoting sustainable mobility, identification of heat and cool islands to adapt to climate change, waste management and the pooling of built-up areas for a successful environmental transformation, etc.), as well as the development of solutions for tailor-made use cases. For example, Hexadone will enable a town to control the entire waste management value chain. By aggregating the data obtained by the geolocation of bins communicated by the concession holder in charge of them, and the information about traffic conditions communicated in real time by the city’s services, the waste collection operator will be able to organize its rounds more efficiently and optimize its route planning.

Thanks to secure data aggregation, storage, processing and analysis, the local authorities and public-private entities (digital, energy, etc.) will be able to assess and adapt their public policies and optimize the management of their services, by analyzing the water network to detect leaks, crossmatch traffic data with public lighting data, etc.

Easy to use and adapted to the existing tools used by local authorities, it will be possible to host the platform “on-site” or in a trusted cloud. The solution’s high level of cybersecurity will offer a guarantee of confidence and sovereignty, which is essential for authorities and citizens. The Hexadone solution will also take into account the protection of personal data.

Christel Heydemann, Chief Executive Officer of the Orange group says: “The fully secure management and use of regional data is crucial for local authorities already engaged in a profound digital transformation. This wealth of information is essential to strengthen public action and support all stakeholders, from public bodies to businesses, shops, and citizens. By developing this platform, Orange is once again committing to a responsible digital environment that is useful to everyone.”

Olivier Sichel, Director of Banque des Territoires, adds “As a local player trusted by local authorities, the Banque des Territoires is joining forces with the expertise and experience of a major French group to respond to the complex and critical need of various local authorities’ to manage and use the data of their regions. Contributing to the development of a robust, simple, secure, and open tool is a key aspect of our mission to support local authorities in their digital and environmental transformations.”