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When collaborative potential is key
In December 2007 the announcement was made that Wiltshire Police would be investing £2.1m on a mobile and remote working solution from HCL Technologies, a company little known in the UK emergency services sector. With the implementation period now nearly over, BAPCO Journal spoke with HCL and Wiltshire Police to find out more.
Finance Director of Wiltshire Police Matt Bennion-Pedley explains that it was the expandability and collaborative potential of HCL’s offering that most impressed him. HCL’s solution is not a licensed product whose costs grow with the numbers of users, but one that offers the ability to add large numbers of additional users, be these Wiltshire officers or from partner agencies or neighbouring forces, for marginal additional costs. “That was a key element in our decision to go with them.”
Wiltshire is looking at the future and whilst the first phase of its mobile information project doesn’t allow automatic sharing of data with neighbours, the potential and capability is now in place for this to happen. The hope is that in time, officers from surrounding forces will be able to access Wiltshire intelligence systems – or indeed any of Wiltshire systems – and vice versa. “We are keen on being able to integrate neighbouring systems as well. So that is why we wanted a collaborative platform, to have the option to move forward.”
Wiltshire now has 60 users testing the system “to destruction”, and who will train other officers in due course. “They are using the majority of the system, but there are a couple of things we have not switched on yet, such as on-street printing of penalty notices etc. This is because we are looking into other options such as providing the notice by post or email. We are trying to avoid having to ask our officers to carry even more kit,” says Bennion-Pedley.
HCL’s platform is compatible with a multitiude of different systems on the market, so linking with different information sources can be easily arranged, either within the Force or with neighbouring forces/partner agencies.
Bennion-Pedley is confident that the investment will be recovered in terms of increased productivity. “We think we can save up to £6.5m per year. And even if we are 50 per cent off in our prediction, that is still £3.25 million from the £2.1m we spent.”
The force is using two main devices, one geared towards the operational officer (the HTC P6500) and another towards management level and heavy email usage (the HTC TYTYN). “We insisted that solution had to be device-agnostic, and HCL helped us choose the device and manage the deal. At least 80 per cent of the devices in the market are compatible with our mobile solution, so this gives us great flexibility moving forward.”
Once roll out has been completed and information sharing opportunities explored, Wiltshire intends to use its solution to explore other innovative applications. “We want to use our devices to get customer feedback from the public, as well as to explore other elements such as resource deployment. The devices will allow us to draw information about customer satisfaction and productivity right across our user base.”
Taking a gamble
Wiltshire originally found HCL through the UK government’s Catalist Specialist Solutions framework. HCL had partnered with one of the Framework’s approved suppliers, Bath-based IPL.
Although HCL Technologies is not a small company (its global annual revenue surpasses the $1. billion mark), back in 2007 it was new to the UK police market. “They said to us that we might be nervous about their lack of footprint in this sector,” remembers Bennion-Pedley. “So they offered to demonstrate two of their processes on our devices, at their risk and cost.”
Raj Singh is the Regional Director – Public Sector for HCL Technologies. He explains that Hertfordshire is another force that is now going live with stage one of its mobile data programme (ie PNC, Stop and Search, mapping solutions etc), and by October 2009 its 2,100 officers will be “mobilised”.
So how does HCL’s solution differ from others on the market? Singh says that HCL’s approach is different. “We go in with a process led solution that’s driven by the business and not by the technology. We came up with a best business process repository that goes as far as the smallest activity, taking into account legal and regulatory requirements.”
It is here where many forces struggle, explains Singh. “It is easy to carry on with the same processes, but sometimes you need innovation and this is what we believe we have brought to the police market.”
In the time that HCL has been involved in the police market, it has noticed two general categories of police force. “Some just want to mobilise their solution, so basically do on the street what they did previously from their desktop. “Then you have forces that are driven by a desire to make a real difference.”
Singh adds that forces that fit into the former category may struggle in the future, because funding patterns are likely to change as police authorities lose the appetite to increase the local taxes that forces have been so heavily reliant on. “They will either be forced to combine with other forces or to drastically cut their expenses, while increasing their productivity gains – cashable and non-cashable.”
Forces like Wiltshire and Hertfordshire – who are driven by efficiency gains – are the ones that Singh believes will be in a formidable position to weather the uncertain future. “As a result of their business process approach with a single integrated value chain owner, they have developed a solution that fits their business strategy and will be agile to responding to changes in their operating business environment.”
The fact that both the contracts with HCL are 5.5 years long means there is an ongoing maintenance programme and if changes are necessary they can be leveraged from other parts of HCL’s business. “We have 1,000 plus people dedicated to the public sector, and we can pull people from other parts of the business. Normal integrators don’t have that kind of resource pool at their disposal .”
HCL’s next strategy is to create a national holistic shared solution for other forces. “We would love to take many forces and work on a common solution.”
