Lothians and Fife to benefit from Edinburgh broadband scheme
Thousands of businesses in the Lothians and Fife are set to benefit from free superfast broadband thanks to a scheme led by the City of Edinburgh Council. The initiative was already being delivered in the centre of the city until March 2015 by Business Gateway in Edinburgh as part of the UK Government's £100 million Super Connected Cities programme. It is now being extended to cover organisations located within five miles of the city's boundaries, with vouchers awarded to small to medium-sized businesses or third sector bodies to help cover the installation costs of connecting to superfast broadband services up to the value of £3,000. Organisations located within five miles of Edinburgh's council boundaries are encouraged to check their postcode and apply online. Edinburgh's Connected Capital Programme is part of the £100 million Super Connected Cities programme which is being delivered through Broadband Delivery UK, part of the UK Government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
Pictured: Princes Street from Calton Hill, Edinburgh by Kevin Rae/Geograph.org.uk
Edinburgh City Council: www.edinburgh.gov.uk
Nottinghamshire social workers receive mobile working solution
Nottinghamshire County Council has implemented a mobile working solution from TotalMobile across its front-line social work team. Workers can complete assessments and case notes directly on their tablets using the system, the company says. Nottinghamshire initially deployed TotalMobile to a small group of workers before beginning a wider roll out. More than 75 social workers are already equipped for mobile working and there are plans to roll out the platform to up to 2,000 other users over the next 18 months. Nottinghamshire County Council had previously tried to implement mobile working solutions, but had problems with the poor connectivity in some parts of the county. When choosing the current solution, the ability for users to work online and offline was a key requirement, the company says. TotalMobile has been successfully developing and selling enterprise software for more than 25 years, initially as TASK Software, then since 2001 as Consilium Technologies and now as TotalMobile.
TotalMobile: www.totalmobile.co.uk
SphereVision 360-degree video monitors street cleaning services
Recycling and waste management company Veolia Environmental Services is using a SphereVision 360 degree video system to monitor its waste management operations around Central London, the company has said. Veolia, which provides refuse and recycling collections and street cleansing services to a number of London boroughs and local authorities across the country, was looking for a way of monitoring its operations and collecting data to inform service improvements. "We already used a good GPS system and wanted to add video monitoring that would integrate with that and give us the functionality and flexibility to monitor, map and analyse issues in real time," says Tim Cattermoul, Veolia's Central London Business Performance Manager. The system consists of a car fitted with a roof mounted 360-degree video camera linked to a portable recording system operating with SphereVision's advanced data processing software. Developers have created a novel function that allows the operator to trigger the system to take additional pictures and clips of specific issues such as overflowing waste bins or uncollected rubbish. Because the system automatically captures GPS, date and other data, analysts can identify trends and pinpoint hot spots and problems such as rubbish being put out after collection times. Video monitoring is also proving valuable in providing better customer services, enabling the company to be proactive in spotting missed collections, fly tipping and other issues, often identifying and rectifying issues before customers have reported them, the company says.
SphereVision: www.spherevision.com
