When I took on the role of Programme Manager I had every intention of publishing this blog every couple of months. I didn’t at that time realise the workload that would be coming my way. The Blog unfortunately fell down the pecking order, so this is only my second one in 7 months. Back in April we acquired the PDAs that we had been planning for. They are intended to give all our officers in the field the ability to log into our “worker dashboard” system so that we know where they are and what jobs they are doing. They also give them access to their emails. Oh, they are a phone as well. On the face of it getting a few PDAs would appear to be quite a simple task, but there are always potholes to fall down and we managed a few stumbles before they were successfully deployed. The process had commenced a few months before I came on the scene, with a test on 3 different units to see which would best fit our methods of working. One was a clear winner. For many years our telephone orders had been handled in-house, but since a PDA is much more than a simple phone the processes had to involve our IT partners to ensure that the data security on them was sufficient. The units were thoroughly tested and we were given the go ahead. By that time the particular model had been superseded but the new one had slight improvements over the original, mainly cosmetic, so there was no need for further testing. Since these were the first telephony devices acquired through our partners there were new procedures to be set up which inevitably needed some fine tuning and therefore created delays. When the units arrived they were handed over in 1 to 1 sessions to the users. Training was given at the same time, but I realised that the really effective training would be done after the handover was completed and the devices were actually being used. Rather than set myself up as the font of all knowledge on the PDAs (and therefore condemn myself to spending all my time sorting out issues with them), I asked for volunteers from each of our teams to be “champions” so that support could reflect precisely what was required. People were encouraged to become familiar with the units and a competition was organised to see who could score the highest on the Bubblebreaker game (played in their own time of course). It was a very effective way of getting those who tend to be more wary of technology to engage with it. It worked really well. Problems were raised within the individual teams and solutions found. A lot of the issues were simple “how do you do this” issues. Meetings of the champions were held to discuss the issues that had been raised and the solutions found. A “PDA Tips” document was published with simple instructions on how to carry out functions. Most of the items originated from individuals raising issues themselves. The “tips” document is still being updated when new issues arise. As well as being an excellent way of keeping users in touch with what’s happening, it’s been very useful for the couple of new starters we have had. Unfortunately one PDA issue that can’t be resolved via the “Tips” document is the erratic behaviour of the devices. Battery life is never very good from PDAs because of the relatively high power requirements of graphics, but we did expect some consistency. In live use that’s not been the case with a full charge lasting from one to three days. It helps if the device is set up to use the battery frugally by setting the background light level and automatically switching off when not used for a short while. The solution to most of the erratic behaviour problems so far has been the good old IT solution to everything –“Have you tried switching it off, taking the battery out and starting again”? A further enhancement to that advice has been to add on “and while you’re at it, remove the SIM card and clean it with an anti-static cloth”. When the dust had settled on the PDA installation we tackled the issue of connectivity from outside the office and acquired new data cards for the staff who work in the field. Some areas of Barnsley are very rural and mobile phone reception is patchy. We have changed our Mobile Phone Service Supplier and some previously “dead” areas are now accessible to us. Our plan is to ask officers to supply information on the areas that are now good and bad so that we can create a “Mobile Phone Reception Map” for the borough. Contracts with the new provider are considerably cheaper than the old contracts so we get a double win of better service for less cost. The drivers installed for the new data cards have given us some problems and a few have needed to be re-installed. Hopefully we are over that bump now and can start using them in earnest. The next step on from officers working online from the field is to overcome the problems that occur when connectivity is patchy. Whilst officers are dealing with clients they are also dealing with new software that they are not yet comfortable with. Patchy connectivity and weak signals, often affected by their location within a building, make any problem far worse at that point in time. To get over this our main software suppliers have developed a method of off-line working, named iClient, which allows the application to run without an internet connection. When a good signal area is encountered subsequently, perhaps as the officer is driving back from an inspection, the data is automatically transmitted back to the database. Tightening of rules regarding the storage and transmission of data has meant that we have to be absolutely certain that our data is secure on the device should it be lost or stolen. A meeting between the technical director of our software suppliers and our IT supplier’s technical security architect have reassured us that we tick all the right boxes. Now “all” we have to do is implement it! Andy Wood
ReGS Programme Manager andywood@barnsley.gov.uk | 