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Extending Applications to the Front Line – A day seminar
South West & South Wales and South East & London Regions of BAPCO hosted a regional seminar on March 7th. Pete Prater reports...
Over 60 BAPCO members from both the South West & South Wales and South East & London Regions met together at the offices of Intergraph in Swindon on 7th March to enjoy a comprehensive range of presentations and updates on the subject of mobile data and extending applications to the mobile workforce. Simon Clifton of Thorcom kicked off the event with a paper examining the various bearer systems for mobile data, comparing these in a number of ways and giving sound comment on the benefits of the various options. He was followed by a double act of Chris Paddock of Microbus and Damian Fisher of Dorset Police who, between them, gave the supplier and client viewpoints of implementing a mobile data solution – I am pleased to say without falling out! There then followed a series of shorter presentations by various organisations aimed at telling the membership their previous experience, current position and future aspirations for mobile data, these included Andrew Watson of British Transport Police who gave a great view of their PDA implementation; Chris Bailey of the AA who traced their history and are currently on their 4th generation system; Ian Taylor of Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service who reminded us of the health an safety benefits of deploying such solutions; Jeremy Luckett of Wiltshire County Council who provided an overview of the Council’s Ways of Working programme which links technology to the business drivers beautifully; and, Richard Claridge of Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust who bravely stood up at the very last minute and gave the ambulance perspective on the situation. The presentations concluded with a rousing and energetic paper delivered by DCC Ian Readhead of Hampshire Constabulary who examined the business case for mobile data and amazed us with facts about the data handling and storage needs of Hampshire Constabulary compared with other massive organisations. During the day, which was hosted and sponsored by Intergraph, members enjoyed quality networking opportunities and 8 exhibitor displays including a mobile command vehicle provided by South Wales Fire which demonstrated IMASS solutions, a Dorset Police car demonstrating Microbus solutions and internal tabletops by APD Communications, Arqiva, Cyfas, Hyder Consulting, Intergraph and SunGard Vivista.
The South West & South Wales Region held its AGM during the lunch break, (excellent buffet, thanks Intergraph) and the heart of a new committee was voted in with Pete Prater of Hyder Consulting appointed as Chair, Tracey Quinn of North Wiltshire District Council re-elected as Secretary, Graham Weeks of European Antennas and Phil Jefferson of SunGard Vivista as Commercial Members and Richard Claridge elected as Committee Member. The Committee is still looking for two members from the Active Membership category to serve on the Committee so if you are interested please contact Pete Prater on peter.prater@hyderconsulting.com for further information.
