Public Sector Roundup: Mobile payments, e-casework

Portsmouth drivers to pay for parking by mobile

Starting next Thursday, parking spaces run by Portsmouth City Council will feature pay-by-mobile systems, letting drivers use their phone to pay rather than dig through their pockets for coins.

The RingGo system rollout will start along the sea front and extend across the city's six car parks and 200 pay-and-display on-street spaces by the end of the summer, making Portsmouth the first council outside London to offer mobile parking payments.

It will cost drivers 20 pence more than paying in a standard way, but drivers will get a text when their parking time is running out.

Ken Ellcome, the council's parking manager, said: "We've been watching the development of phone payments. The technology has been tried and tested in other areas and it's clearly something we should be using. We believe this system will be a real help to drivers in the city who will appreciate the convenience of paying by mobile. But drivers who want to pay by cash, in the familiar way, will still be able to do so."

Lambeth helps councillors with e-Casework

Councillors at the London Borough of Lambeth have a new web-based system to help them handle their casework. The e-Casework system lets councillors create a database of their ward to help them track and share information.

When a constituent calls up with a query or complaint, the councillor emails the details to e-Casework, keying in the department. The query is entered into the council's enquiry system and any action taken on the case is tracked until the matter is resolved.

Aside from tracking how - and in how much time - a case is resolved, it also lets the council see patterns in problems.

The deputy leader of Lambeth Council Jackie Meldrum said: "I welcome this development, which will help councillors with our work on behalf of the people we represent and improve the support provided to the people of Lambeth by their elected representatives."

Kent Police get "six figure" iSCSI storage

Infrasys has been chosen by Kent Police to implement a new EqualLogic Storage Area Network (SAN) worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. It will let the force make use of Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), the internet protocol-based storage networking standard, for its storage and disaster recovery plans. The system is expected to be implemented within the next four weeks.

Kent Police project manager John Edwards-Moss said: "Storage is central to the organisation's functionality so it is paramount that we have a robust, scaleable system that matches our budget. Infrasys offered us a technically sound solution that will enable us to develop and grow the system over time. The iSCSI technology translates into a value for money solution that fits our needs."

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