Sydney, May 29, 2008
Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand’s partnership with Western Australia Police in delivering the Police Metropolitan Radio Network was named Australia’s best Communications Application at the prestigious Australian Information Industry Association’s (AIIA) 2008 iAwards, held in Melbourne last night.
Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand CEO and AIIA board member, Mr Rod Vawdrey, said the award gives due recognition to an outstanding joint team that has delivered the suite of projects over the last four years.
“This award bears testimony to Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand’s bold and ingenious approach to our customers' business challenges and the significant outcomes that have been achieved by Western Australia Police as a result,” Mr Vawdrey said.
The Police Metropolitan Radio Network (PMRN) project is recognised nationally and internationally as representing excellence in emergency service communications.
“This is much-deserved recognition for a terrific project that has been an outstanding success, in particular, from a policing and community perspective,” Western Australia Police Director of Corporate Programs and Development and Chief Information Officer, Mr Tony O’Donoghue said.
The project was initiated in July 2003 to replace Western Australia Police’s 30 year-old UHF network and communications infrastructure. Its scope included:
- Procurement of new separate voice and data networks;
- Construction of new radio equipment rooms and staff accommodation in existing police buildings;
- Installation of radio base station equipment at 31 communications sites;
- Installation of equipment into over 800 police vehicles.
The voice and data radio networks were successfully commissioned on schedule and on budget in December 2006 and are now in full operational use across the 9,000 km2 that represents the greater Perth metropolitan area.
Key outcomes include:
- Response times have dropped by an average 11 percent across the greater metropolitan area. These results are boosting community confidence – one of Western Australia Police’s key policing objectives;
- Officers on the road are now executing more than 12,000 person, vehicle and location queries per day, compared to the previous average of 800 confirming the improved utilisation of Police operational databases leading to an increase in the identification of Persons of Interest to the Police;
- Patrol time on a per vehicle basis has improved by 10 percent, meaning more officers are available more often, to respond to incidents in the community.
“The successful management of its technical complexity has seen delivery of a capability that is easy to use from a police officer’s perspective, is robust enough to survive the rigours of operational policing, and provides seamless reliable access to local and national operational policing data to officers in the field - a first for an Australian law enforcement jurisdiction,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
“Working in close collaboration with Western Australia Police, Fujitsu successfully integrated four different project management methodologies across four organisations to establish a unified and productive “one team” approach to project managing the delivery of the PMRN,” Mr Vawdrey said.
The project management approach employed during execution of the project has already achieved national recognition through the Australian Institute of Project Management Awards 2007, where it was awarded a High Commendation in the Western Australian segment of the competition.
Phone: +61 2 9113 9592 
E-mail: kimberley.ramplin@au.fujitsu.com
