Harlow Council embraces mobile working to improve efficiency and reduce costs
"We are very pleased with the mobile solution Plantech has provided for us. It has proved very cost effective and a significant time saver in allowing our officers instant secure access to Licensing information wherever they are. We are able to offer a much more responsive service. We are now working with Plantech to extend the success of the mobile working solution to other areas of the department."
Paul Adams - Licensing Manager, Harlow Council
Drivers for change
Responsibility for administering and enforcing liquor licensing moved from the magistrates to local authorities in 2005. At the same time more flexible opening times were permitted. This posed a problem for enforcement officers who could no longer guarantee that a pub open at midnight was breaking the law. They would need to check the licensed hours for the particular pub; but each licence document is around 15 pages long and there are over 500 licensed premises. Carrying around copies of the licence was not an option. Gaining remote access to their ACOLAID Licensing database was essential.
Solution
Paul Adams, Licensing Manager in Harlow Council, was the driving force behind mobile working in the Licensing department and worked with Plantech to produce a detailed specification, deciding what information the enforcement officers needed and how it should be displayed. Once the specification was agreed, Plantech developed the web pages for display on PDAs, which are the Council's preferred mobile device. The pages offer real time access to existing licensing cases, licensee and supervisor details, hours of opening, licensed activities, conditions and previous breaches. Officers can record details of their visit along with any observations while on site, ensuring that the central information is up to date, accurate and complete.
Benefits
Plantech's mobile working solution has enabled Harlow officers to know what is happening at a premise at any time - the information they require is at their fingertips. More time can be spent providing services more efficiently, and less time on travelling to and from the Council office to collect or submit data. Rather than carrying and sifting through vast amounts of paper, officers can now call up all the details of a licence in a matter of seconds on a discrete portable device that links to ACOLAID in Harlow.
Future
Due to the success of mobile working in the Licensing department, Harlow Council are now expanding the use of mobile technology to their out of hours noise nuisance team.