Norfolk police inks data warehouse deal with Fujitsu Services

Norfolk police are to deploy an operational data warehouse that will combine and link data in one repository.

The force signed a deal with IT services company Fujitsu Services that it hopes will give it more flexibility and be more cost effective that sending data returns back to the Home Office though its National Management Information System (NMIS).

The warehouse is expected to be helpful to police on the beat as it will allow them to carry out many more activities than they currently carry out at present.

Christine Thompson, information management business manager at Norfolk Constabulary, said the force had chosen Fujitsu as it "has access to more resources than the competition and put together the most persuasive tender document". She added that its track record gave the force confidence in the company to deliver the project.

Under the terms of the deal Fujitsu will partner with SAS Software and Amadeus Software to fix common problems caused by multiple information systems with different collection and storage techniques.

The first stage of the project has already seen the constabulary bring together information from its crime and HR systems in order to improve its ability to provide annual Home Office Data Returns. It is hoped in the future that the force will be able to make links between external events such as economic trends and population movements to help to predict patterns of crime.

Fujitsu said that its work in data warehousing with police forces in the UK was to extract important data from the many different information systems used by individual police forces in order to merge and advance its quality. This would, it said, improve forces' capacity to respond to the national policing requirements that emerged from the Bichard inquiry - the 2003 independent inquiry, which examined how the police handled the intelligence surrounding the Soham murders.

Andy Sowden, head of police business at Fujitsu Services, said the contract was an important project for the company "and one which will provide Norfolk Constabulary with a framework that will be able to cope with continued change - both at a local and a national level - and the many information requirements that will come their way in the future".

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