Civica awarded 10-year software and IT services program as Kingston adopts managed parking service
Royal Borough to adopt “Authority Traffic” software and service solution
19 October 2004, London...Civica plc, one of the UK’s most experienced providers of public sector consulting, software and services, has been awarded a ten-year contract by the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames to provide managed software and IT services for the Council’s parking department. Under the new service, Civica will supply and manage the software and infrastructure necessary to deal efficiently with on-street parking enforcement, which is provided by specialist contractor Apcoa Parking.
Kingston Council will adopt Authority Traffic, Civica’s integrated platform for local authority road traffic and parking management. The solution provides the latest technology for parking attendants, office staff and managers to streamline the processing of more than 85,000 penalty notices, 7,500 parking permits and all correspondence including payments, representations and appeals.
The contract endorses Civica’s managed services model, which sees the company take responsibility for operating and managing systems to agreed levels and predictable costs, as well as keeping technology up to date through an equipment refresh programme. David Bardsley, parking services manager for Kingston Council said: “We are committed to delivering an improved street environment in Kingston along with more efficient operations. In achieving this, long term partnerships with specialists such as Civica and Apcoa are fundamental.
“We believe that parking and road traffic management - across nearly 1300 affected streets - will be enhanced by adopting a managed service where all involved focus on what they are best at. Moreover, we are well placed to introduce further service innovations which will support our road environment, StreetScene and e-government initiatives over the next few years,” he said.
Authority Traffic provides a modern, efficient and robust solution for authorities faced with the growing task of local traffic management. Across the wider parking and street management task, it combines consulting, processing and management services with the proven capabilities of Civica’s software to provide the basis for improved service delivery and greater efficiency.
Built on Microsoft’s .NET platform, the broad capabilities of Authority Traffic include penalty notice processing, permits management, clamping and removal, bus lane enforcement, abandoned or untaxed vehicle administration and moving traffic offences. Through the use of Schweers’ Politess handheld computers and mobile data – which Kingston Council has successfully trialled over 18 months - Civica integrates on-street information from attendants, including digital photographs, to streamline the administration of PCNs.
Authority Traffic also provides the means for parking attendants to report incidents such as traffic obstructions and acts of vandalism for remedial action. The necessary applications and infrastructure will be hosted by Civica at its own secure data centre.
Civica Systems’ managing director Simon Parkes commented, “We are delighted that Kingston has chosen the Authority Traffic managed service, following in the footsteps of other authorities such as the London Borough of Southwark. Across the business of local government, Civica is striving to help authorities transform the quality and cost-effectiveness of services through practical modern technology, an area embraced wholeheartedly by the parking sector, which faces wider operational demands and growing expectations all the time.”
John Young, UK general manager, Apcoa Parking UK commented: “The use of Civica’s Authority system is an important element in our delivery of the different aspects of parking enforcement to the council. We are delighted to be working with a software and services provider which provides a complete IT solution which underpins our own service.”
About Civica plc
The Civica group, which includes Radius, is one of the UK’s most experienced providers of consulting, software systems and managed services to the public sector. The company has a 20-year history of supplying local government, police, healthcare, criminal justice and education organisations in the UK, Australia and the USA. UK customers include approximately 75 per cent of local authorities, 47 of the 53 police forces, more than 250 NHS Trusts and over 30 Local Education Authorities, while in Australia the group is one of the leading local government software suppliers. Civica Services Ltd is an approved prime contractor for software in the GCat government procurement catalogue. Overall the company employs approximately 550 people and has a recent track record of profits growth.