A project to create a single non-emergency telephone
number for accessing public safety services has prompted a spate of
systems integration in local government.
Councils and police forces in the five pilot areas for the 101
service - Hampshire, Leicestershire, Northumberland, South Wales
and South Yorkshire - are integrating their systems with those of
the 101 service, which is designed to ease demand on the 999
service.
The Northumbria Partnership, which began its 101 pilot in July,
includes five local authorities in Tyne & Wear, six in
Northumberland, one in County Durham and Northumbria Police. It is
due to complete the first link between the 101 system and a local
authority system this month.
Northumbria Partnership's 101 call centre application was
developed by software house Iizuka. The systems integrator is Sopra
Newell & Budge. Staff use the software to allocate service
requests to the relevant department and to give members of the
public timescales for the work to be completed. The system is also
being integrated into police systems.
Peter Coates, the partnership's operations manager, said, "Once
we have finished the police's command and control system, the data
interface at the 101 end is complete."
Most of the local authorities use customer relationship
management systems to handle queries about their services. The
project will initially integrate the Lagan CRM systems used by
Gateshead, Newcastle and some district councils. Integration with
Sunderland City Council's SAP system will follow.
The public can initially only use the 101 service to report a
limited number of problems: vandalism, noisy neighbours,
intimidation, abandoned vehicles, littering, drunken behaviour,
drug abuse and street lighting failures.
The Northumbria Partnership, which received £4.2m in Home Office
funding, plans to develop the service to include online
self-service reporting, progress updates for users, and a
geographical information system to more accurately target
problems.
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