Whatever your niggles, post them here and let the Consultants ponder over them to give their view.  Only by working together can we continue to realise the full potential of the product and push forward effectively and smoothly by offering a choice of solutions.’

-- Sandra Harvey (APP User Group Chair Person)

APP and Mobile Working:

Salford City Council Environment Directorate have been using APP with SMS messaging for over 5 years.

Missed refuse collection request are received in the Councils call centre and entered directly into APP. APPs automated export program (ULX) uses the audit log to extract all requests inserted into APP in the previous 5 minutes and automatically sends SMS text messages to the mobile phones of the Monitoring Officers who are out on site with the refuse collection vehicles. The message gives details of the client who made the request and the location of the missed collection. The Monitoring Officers can immediately investigate the problem and direct the refuse collection vehicle to collect the missed bin.

Over 80% of requests are received by the monitoring officers while the refuse collection vehicle is still near to the location of the problem. This means that the reason for non collection can be investigated immediately (such as the bin not being put out for collection) so that a more accurate view of the crews performance can be made.

Considerable savings have been made because the refuse collection vehicles do not have to make long journeys to collect missed bins and reduced time spent on journeys back to base to pick up new requests.

The service has been used for the past two years for complaints about grass cutting.

A pilot scheme is currently operating with the text messaging system to deal with problem streets where parked vehicles prevent the streets from being properly cleaned. Residents who want to go on the scheme are sent a text message on the day their street is due for cleaning asking them to move their vehicle to allow for through cleaning.

--Philip Edwards
Business Services Manager (Operational Support & Training)
Salford City Council, Environment Directorate

Derbyshire:

Derbyshire County Council – Mobile Working in Trading Standards
 
Derbyshire County Council’s trading standards officers have been trialling a mobile working solution using tablet PCs. The trial has involved the use of an electronic input form to prove the concept and test both hardware and software. This solution has been developed by Andy Cooling and Matthew Walters in conjunction with Derbyshire County Council’s IT services programming specialist Mark Lloyd. The team concentrated on the system’s ease of use and the use of handwriting recognition was of particular interest. Initial results have shown many positive aspects but it was clear that to offer a full benefit to field officers, the form needed to be expanded to incorporate all paperwork involved in the visit. The form has since been developed so that four different items of paperwork have been electronically replicated.
 
The final version of the form has recently been issued to seven members of staff and so far 145 visits have been successfully recorded and imported into APP over a two-month period. Feedback from both officers and businesses has been very positive. A final evaluation of the system is currently being undertaken and plans for future deployment and expansion are being considered.

--Andy Cooling
Senior Business Analyst
Cultural and Community Services Department
Derbyshire County Council




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