Local Government
Implementing mobile working solutions in Local Government will help deliver against efficiency targets and contribute to an improved Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) rating, where efficiency considerations, including collaborative working and the use of electronic service delivery, are featuring more prominently.
Local Authorities across the UK are turning to mobile working solutions to reduce costs and meet efficiency targets set by the Gershon Review. (Gershon requires Local Authorities to make annual efficiency savings of £6.5bn). Given the objective of releasing resource to the front line, resources need to be deployed to front line services or show a direct increase in service provision. Increasing productive time of operational and managerial staff, through investment in mobile working solutions will form a crucial and large part of this process.
Flexible and mobile working will unlock capacity, demonstrate cashable efficiency gains and improve productivity and performance in the following ways:
- Access to real time data via mobile technology will reduce travel time
- Home or satellite offices will cut down on travel time and costs
- Time spent on duplicating administrative tasks can be diverted to more customer-focused tasks and activities
- Better matching of staff time to the peaks and troughs of activity will cut overtime payments and use of expensive agency workers
- Employee satisfaction and motivation will be raised
- Being a flexible employer will improve recruitment and retention
- Abortive calls/visits will be reduced
- Sickness absence will be seen to fall
1st Touch in Local Government
The 1st Touch local government solutions have been developed in partnership with many councils and departments as listed below and the applications integrate directly into back office systems in real-time. Local authorities no longer have to bear the cost and inherent lack of scalability associated with point solutions, because 1st Touch delivers one enterprise mobile across every department in the authority.
Of particular note, is the system’s high speed data gathering and transmission technology which enables operatives to communicate faster and more accurately with customers and managers alike. To achieve this, the platform utilises the latest low-airtime usage, “Smart Client” technology to automate the communication links between the local authority worker and the organisation’s back-office, its depots and warehouses.
This ensures that the handheld or mobile device is always available but not always on as with other, more costly to run, systems. In contrast to these, 1st Touch’s mobile solution can work with or without a signal, transmitting encrypted, secure data in periodic small bursts. 1st Touch believes that this innovative approach, typically reduces communication costs by up to 75%.
1st Touch can mobilise any process or back office solution using the state of the art 1st Touch Mobile Platform, which includes a highly functional forms management module. With this platform existing forms and processes can be easily tailored or new ones very rapidly created. Uniquely, 1st Touch will train the Local Authority to maintain the forms and integrations themselves, thus making them totally self sufficient. This saves future cost and reduces time to deploy, as the solution requirement changes and grows.
Integration tools allow 1st Touch to integrate into multiple back office solutions with minimum fuss. This is by using our code free “drag and drop” tool kit to create easily maintainable integrations which can be managed by the local authority themselves. This allows 1st Touch mobile workforce solutions to retrieve and update data from back office systems in real time to enable the remote worker to become truly efficient in their day to day work.
1st Touch is now the leading supplier of Mobile Workforce Solutions to the UK local government sector, with the solution addressing key requirements and many secondary areas, such as:
| Estates Management | Social Housing |
| Public Buildings Management | Social Care |
| Private Sector Housing | Contractors |
| Environmental Health | Planning / Licencing |
| Building Control | Revenues and Benefits |
| Trading Standards | Waste Management |
| Contaminated Land | Caretakers / Cleaners |
| Legionella Testing | Case Management / Street Scene |
| Air Conditioning Systems | Heating Appliances |
| Asbestos Monitoring | Pressurisation Systems |
| Overhead Gantrys and Lighting | Dust and Fume Extraction |
| Fire Alarms & Detection Systems | Fire Doors / Fire Extinguishers |
| Emergency Lighting | Gas Catering Equipment |
| Intruder & General Alarms | Passenger and Goods Lifts |
| Swimming Pool Water Analysis | Poolside and Disabled Hoists |
| Sewage Systems | Roof and Gutters |
| Fuel Delivery Pumps | Waste and Fuel Interceptors |
| Gym / Cardio Exercise Equipment | Non Mains Water Supplies |
| Saunas and Steam Rooms | Standby Generators |
| Air Compressors | Fixed Electrical Testing |
Case study
Powys County Council
Many local authority organisations are already discovering the benefits of replacing paper with electronic devices for managing repairs to housing stock. Powys is quickly moving beyond this single valuable application to implement a mobile solution in areas as diverse as civic building repairs and inspections, legionella testing and clinical waste management.
At the same time Powys is providing web portal-based access to the information in its databases to the managers of all its buildings, from schools to leisure centres. For the first time managers have complete view of the services and maintenance delivered to their specific building.
Not only will the solution help mobile staff carry out their work more effectively and reduce the time and mileage involved in each working day, but it also enables managers to make faster and better informed decisions.
