User-led mobile policing

Mobile policing: Building a smarter organisation

Tim Willoughby, Head of Digital Services and Innovation at An Garda Síochána discusses the importance of user-led mobile policing and the accelerating impact of the pandemic on building a smarter organisation.

Albert Einstein famously stated: “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it”. It’s an approach that resonates with An Garda Síochána’s Head of Digital Services and Innovation, Tim Willoughby, who highlights his understanding that failure to understand a problem will ensure that elements of the problem “will remain well beyond the solution’s inability to solve it”.

Addressing and understanding problems before delivering solutions is a principle which Willoughby brought into his current role and to the organisation, from his background as a civil engineer. Similarly, Willoughby recognises the importance of bringing diversity of opinion to digital innovation, stressing the importance of avoiding the common pitfall of groupthink in problem solving. Using one of his first endeavours in the role as an example, Willoughby highlights the ‘mobility project’ which has seen An Garda Síochána utilise smartphones as a platform for change. Willoughby’s team has dedicated significant time to working with diverse innovation groups to define problem statements in mobile technology for the organisation and, from the outset, the Head of Digital Services and Innovation has incorporated frontline gardaí into his team.

Explaining the approach, he says: “If you think the same, you get the same results, so you need to start thinking differently and the only way to do that is to create different teams than that which you currently have.”

Frontline/end user engagement is a central plank of An Garda Síochána’s approach to innovation in digital mobility, alongside other principles such as agile working; solution aware prototyping; feedback loops; real time piloting; and team diversity and open standards.

Highlighting a further major switch, Willoughby says, historically, An Garda Síochána’s held firm to its reliance on proofs for concept but have moved to a minimal viable product approach.

Agile

Outlining the reason for an agile approach, Willoughby points to the benefits of short sprints compared to long development cycles, rapid prototyping to address user acceptance, and better business engagement in a siloed organisation, as examples of greater efficiency.

Another advantage he alludes to is the minimisation of the training process required when integrating new

technology through user-led design.

“With an agile approach you have less training because the applications which you are building are designed by users for users. That means that when they receive them, the core focus is on familiarisation rather than training because staff are so familiar with the business process,” explains Willoughby.

As well as end user input, the Head of Digital Services and Innovation also highlights inclusion of data stakeholders in the design of mobility technology. Explaining the process, Willoughby says: “If you think of a garda at the side of the road they are checking for things like tax, insurance or vehicle roadworthiness. They are doing that with data which is not ours but belongs to various stakeholders. So, we put an awful lot of onus on those stakeholders coming to our workshops to look at the end-to-end process and put in place greater responsibility on data reliability.”

A major project undertaken by Willoughby and is team was collaboration with users to deliver a set of principles required of any project.

The most prominent principle to emerge from the process was that of ‘once and done’, meaning that gardaí have the ability to start and finish something at the side of the road. Willoughby explains that this principle is now central to all design. One example he illustrates is the use of an application which enables a speed gun to automatically issues tickets for a ‘once and done’ approach. Willoughby says that of the roughly 670 different offences monitored by An Garda Síochána, 600 are now once and done in nature.

Other principles to emerge include mobile first, or a recognition that technology that does not work on-the-go is of little use; public self-service to improve engagement with the public; and evidence-based policing, ensuring that the necessary evidence to do the job is available.

Core to the latter principle is the need for quality data capture. Willoughby explains: “We have to ensure that the data capture that we undertake is of a high quality. In each app that we have developed, we omit physical data entry, meaning that the information available on the frontline is already readily available, within the system, for greater efficiency. It’s vital then that that information is of a high quality.”

“Because of all the familiarisation we had done with making the applications right for the end user we were confident in posting the handsets out, allowing staff to self-enrol and complete online training.”

Pandemic

Discussing how An Garda Síochána’s approach to mobile policing was impacted by the pandemic, Willoughby points to a pre-existing availability of roughly 70 people in the organisation able to work from home concurrently, mainly comprising senior staff with a need for access to back-end systems.

“Where we started from was questioning how we could increase the pools of technology so that our front-end users could work from home. In recognising that our training college was to cease, we dismantled our training environment and scavenged the servers to put into virtual pools to dramatically increase our virtual desktop infrastructure and facilitate greater levels of homeworking,” he says.

“We had also originally rolled out around 1,200 handheld devices to our frontline and our challenge was how we would increase that rollout. Because of all the familiarisation we had done with making the applications right for the end user we were confident in posting the handsets out, allowing staff to self-enrol and complete online training.”

Explaining how the user-centred approach to application development has been core to current delivery, the Head of Digital Services and Innovation points to the purchasing and rollout of docking monitors, which support USBC and allow the running of An Garda Síochána’s whole suite of applications via mobile devices. The monitors are now being used by all of the organisation’s call centre staff in their own homes and have facilitated new working environments for guards to bubble in their respective teams.

As a result of Covid-19, the organisation has changed its desktop policy and mobile device strategy to ensure that technology rollout is better suited to the needs rather than the rank of the employee.

Challenges

One of the major challenges facing greater delivery of mobile policing was that of connectivity and numerous stations which are, as Willoughby describes, “at the edge of the network” and not served well by broadband. Mobile repeaters and an amplifier inside such stations have facilitated gardaí located in these stations to utilise their mobile devices in the same manner. A similar set up is being used within cars, boosting the mobile signal for guards around the country meaning that their vehicles can now effectively serve as stations.

Concluding, Willoughby re-emphasises the contribution that frontline feedback has made to the delivery of the ambition to build a smarter organisation. “With the right technology, information-led policing is actually making a difference,” he summarises.

Many consumers won’t feel comfortable shopping on high street until Covid is better controlled

While vaccines offer Ireland a way out of lockdown, until a critical mass is reached and the population is immunised, our economy and society are set to remain in a state of flux. This flux is accelerating major trends in ecommerce and digitalisation. Behaviours and ways of working that boost sales, cut costs or increase convenience are likely to become permanently ingrained.

Key findings

The vaccine era but no return to normal

While vaccines have laid down a path back to normality, all government and medical advice suggests that economic restrictions and social distancing requirements are likely to remain in place until at least the end of 2021. Consumers seem to be mostly on the same page. 55 per cent believe that life in 2021 will be mostly the same as life in 2020 or even more restricted.

The Covid consumer

The way Irish consumers spend online and in-store is changing. 68 per cent of Irish consumers said they spent more online in 2020 than they did in 2019. A sizeable 42 per cent say they will do most of their shopping in physical, bricks-and-mortar stores in 2021, despite the current restrictions, down from 48 per cent in 2020. Greater numbers say they will shop only for necessities in-store but buy most other products online (43 per cent vs 41 per cent) or do most of their shopping online (15 per cent vs 11 per cent).

These changes reflect the current state of the pandemic. The longer compulsory online shopping continues, the more entrenched it will become in consumer behaviour. While consumers are keen to support local businesses during the pandemic (this number has risen from 67 per cent to 74 per cent among majority SME shoppers) international businesses continue to prove attractive. Cheaper prices, better product ranges and superior online storefronts were key factors driving behaviours among those that have done most of their shopping with international businesses.

However, consumer behaviour still implies competitive advantages for Irish SMEs. Solidarity and patriotism aside, many consumers think Irish businesses are faster and more reliable, more trustworthy (which jumped to 48 per cent, up from 41 per cent) and have better order tracking and delivery. With investment in a modern, e-commerce website, Irish SMEs can also win over consumers who are simply seeking a straightforward and convenient online experience.

The .IE Tipping Point report, Irish e-commerce and digital business in the Covid vaccine era, is the second report analysing consumer and SME behaviour and attitudes since the pandemic, writes David Curtin, CEO of .IE, the company that manages .ie domains, the preferred online identity for business in Ireland.

The Covid SME

An increasing proportion of businesses recognise that a digital channel is key to their survival while the pandemic continues. 30 per cent of SMEs now claim to sell their products via an online store, up from 25 per cent in 2020.

Those SMEs with an online store have benefited from consumers spending more online. 86 per cent say they have experienced an increase in sales or sales enquiries from their online store since the pandemic began.

The number of Irish SMEs that have invested in their online presence has grown remarkably: 55 per cent have invested since the beginning of the pandemic, up from just 21 per cent in 2020. Because of this investment, 78 per cent of SMEs say they have been able to sustain pre-Covid levels of business or are busier than before, up from 46 per cent in the summer of 2020.

It is therefore unsurprising that most fully intend to continue investing in their online presence in 2021. 61 per cent believe that their online presence will be more important to their business this year than last.

E: marketing@weare.ie W: www.weare.ie

Insights

Here and now: Local and global factors that are currently influencing consumer behaviour and Irish e-commerce.

1. Buying Irish isn’t enough

More consumers who reported doing the majority of their online shopping with Irish SMEs said they did so out of a desire to help local businesses through the pandemic. However, crisis solidarity is not enough for a stable e-commerce strategy. Irish SMEs seeking to sustain sales through their online store can only retain their customers by consistently improving the online customer experience.

2. Play to your strengths

Multinationals with globalised supply chains can be more competitive on price and range. However, Irish SMEs still have competitive USPs, such as trust and reliability. They need to focus on perfecting these advantages, for example, with personalised customer communications or faster delivery services, so that shopping local continuously generates benefits and value-adds for their customers.

3. Brexit: advantage Ireland?

The UK’s withdrawal from the EU may provide local businesses with some advantages which SMEs should seek to exploit. Because many Irish SMEs ship goods entirely within Ireland, they can pass on cost benefits to consumers, who will not have to pay unforeseen customs charges. Delivery from within Ireland is also faster. Future trends: Short- and medium-term trends with the potential to shape the future of digital Ireland.

4. Omni-channel is preferred

Consumers are spending more online and intend to keep doing so.

Their in-store shopping routines have changed over the last year, and many now favour visiting shops at a certain time of the week, when they view them as safer or less crowded.

This may help to accelerate a long-observed trend that suggests consumers now prefer to buy necessities online during the week, the ‘midweek convenience’, and save discretionary purchases for the weekend ‘experience’. If this behaviour becomes more apparent, bricks-and-mortar SMEs that have invested in an online store since lockdown will have a major advantage over their offline competitors after the pandemic.

5. Virtual service delivery

Services are still purchased only infrequently online by consumers.

This may be because many Irish professional services firms have not yet invested in the tools or methods required to make the consumer experience useful and seamless. Service providers should therefore begin by undertaking an internal assessment of their use and deployment of technology, and whether it is fit for purpose.

6. No way back

From a digital perspective, it is clear that the pandemic is having an accelerant effect. What we view as Ireland’s digitalisation tipping point may, therefore, be an accelerating downward spiral for those who fail to adapt as e-commerce and online interaction become the default. Local authorities and national decision-makers must consider these factors if their digital development plans are to be effective and relevant.