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Did you know Tape-Based Storage is unnecessarily costing Public Safety Organisations thousands of Pounds each year?
Public Safety Marketing Manager at NICE Systems,Adam Smith,looks at the waste of revenue...
Last year Sir Peter Gershon published an independent review of public sector efficiency entitled Releasing Resources to the Front Line.At the time the report provoked much debate about how efficiency gains could be achieved,whilst improving citizen-focused service.
Whilst many large-scale initiatives are passed from the top down, there are many hidden areas to be identified in day-to-day operations where budget is being wasted.
One such area where efficiency gains can and are being made is the storage of voice records in the control centres and contact centres of public safety organisations and emergency services.To give a measure of the scale of the storage issue,the police force alone receive approximately 67 million calls each year and are bound by the Freedom of Information Act to keep records of all interactions for a minimum six years.
Recent reports from those switching from tape-based storage systems to centralised online data storage are revealing significant cost savings totalling thousands of pounds each year,allowing more money and resources to be reallocated to the front line.
These results could prove invaluable in light of the review of police call handling published by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) earlier this year in November. Reported in The Telegraph(03/11/05) it was suggested that;“forces needed to achieve a quantum leap‚to meet required standards.”
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the HMIC chief inspector, was also quoted as saying; "Most current provision falls short of the standards the public demands and deserves.''
The Metropolitan Police,Cheshire Constabulary and Devon & Cornwall
Constabulary are amongst those reaping the rewards of online date storage.
Hampshire Constabulary - who were rated excellent‚in the HMIC report - recently released statistics that prove how return on investment(ROI)from online storage can be achieved.Inspector Roger Carter,responsible for the Call Management Support Unit of Hampshire Constabulary explains.
“Each tape costs £50 and lasts for up to one month. Once the cost to send a member of the team to site for three quarters of a day to maintain each system has been added up,the costs begin to spiral.”
“By centralising storage of all call records we are saving at least £400 per month on tape costs alone.” He adds,“We will never have to buy or manage tapes again!ROI from our investment is expected within 18 months.”
Using digital recording, up to 80,000 hours of calls can be stored locally and when supported by a central archive all command and control centres,such as Hampshire Constabulary can easily cope with storing the 750,000 interactions it receives each year.
In addition to the direct cost reduction of replacing tape-based storage,improved access to the data is also a major advantage of centralised online storage.
By centralising the storage of interaction data, disclosure of multimedia records and evidence is vastly improved, providing the relevant authorised personnel with immediate access,regardless of location.It also creates opportunities to use interactions to make ever further enhancements to Performance Management within the call management facilities to drive the quality of service provided to the citizens.
