An Garda Síochána

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An Garda Síochána

An Garda Síochána (AGS) is Ireland's national police service. Today, An Garda Síochána as the national police service exercises all police functions in the country. It provides the state security services and all criminal and traffic law enforcement functions.

The Challenge

An Garda Síochána (AGS) is Ireland's national police service. Today, An Garda Síochána as the national police service exercises all police functions in the country. It provides the state security services and all criminal and traffic law enforcement functions.

The overall challenge facing AGS was to reduce the number of road fatalities and serious injuries from road accidents. The aim was to reduce the incidence of excess speeding and increase the wearing rate for seat belts.

To address this wider problem AGS decided to establish a computerised system that could record and issue a notification for any fixed charge offence. The system was named the Fixed Charge Processing System (FCPS). FCPS had to integrate with AGS’s core application PULSE as well as integrate with other systems operated by other state agencies. Such agencies include the Department of Environment and Local Government, for attaching penalty points; The Courts Service, for processing summons; TICO, for printing the notifications and An Post, for payment handling.

In October 2002 AGS contracted Fujitsu to design, develop, test and implement the Fixed Charge Processing System.

The Solution

The project was a far-reaching programme of work which covered the full development life cycle from initial process definition through to supporting the live operation of the solution. To ensure a successful delivery from the outset, Fujitsu established an appropriate programme governance structure to manage the development and implementation of the FCPS solution.

The solution handles the full processing of the offence according to the legislation from the capture of offence details; issuing of notifications to the offender; managing changes, queries, appeals, nominations, payments; managing summons applications and court date scheduling to recording the outcome in court.

Fujitsu developed a bespoke application for Fixed Charge Offence Processing and undertook the assessment and selection of the hand-held solution and Camera solution. Fujitsu managed the bespoke development of a mobile application running on the hand-held device selected and integrated this with FCPS. Fujitsu also managed the customisation of the Camera Scanning Product solution and integrated this with FCPS.

The technical solution is primarily based on Microsoft’s .Net technology, utilising many of its advanced features including .Net Remoting, load balancing and ADO .Net. The back end database is Oracle 9i running on the Solaris platform. Fujitsu integrated FCPS with the existing PULSE system which is based on VB6. Additionally, we incorporated and extended the Kerberos based security infrastructure as used by the existing PULSE system.

All the interfaces required with the external agencies were developed by Fujitsu to ensure the business functions operated effectively across all the agencies involved. Fujitsu also specified and managed the procurement of all software and hardware required including the scanning equipment and 500 hand-held devices.

The Benefits

FCPS provides the following benefits to An Garda Síochána:

• Achieving the goals set out in the Government Road Safety Strategy - "Reduce Road Fatalities and Accidents"
• Achieving the goals pursued by An Garda Síochána to increase their capacity to process higher volumes of fixed charge offences fines without deploying more resources.
• Increase the automation of administration processes thereby reducing Gardaí time spent on administration.
• Increase processing capacity to meet the anticipated increase in volume of fixed charge penalties as a result of increased enforcement levels.

The Implementation

Fujitsu’s Benefits Realisation Methodology proved to be particularly powerful in clarifying, from the outset, the nature, extent and impact of the dependencies on external parties. The clarity that Benefits Realisation brought proved a powerful aid in agreeing clear ownership and accountability with all the stakeholders within AGS and all the external agencies involved for key project activities. Fujitsu managed the programme very tightly overcoming issues effectively thus ensuring delivery to a tight schedule. We understood the business perspective intimately and integrated this well with the technical delivery.

Fujitsu also developed the solution following its Macroscope ™ methodology resulting in a high quality solution being successfully delivered to the organisation.

During the process analysis and design phase of the project, Fujitsu documented the business and functional requirements of the system. In the detailed design phase the technical architecture was developed. The entire system was modelled using Rational’s UML tools producing use-cases, object models and sequence diagrams.

In the test phase the system was subjected to unit, function, system, user and performance testing using Mercury test tools - Test Director, WinRunner and Load Runner. Fujitsu provided advice and supported the Change Management unit in implementing the solution resulting in it being embraced positively by all members. We also delivered an e-learning training solution that allowed the Garda Training College deliver training to the 2000 Traffic Gardaí more efficiently.

Finally, Fujitsu undertook the implementation and supports the live operation of the solution in a number of key pilot locations selected by AGS in the Dublin, Meath and Louth counties.

The Expertise

Fujitsu’s core strength is designing, building and operating IT systems and services for clients in the public and private sectors. Fujitsu’s Macroscope® ProductivityCentre™ is a robust, structured and evolving development approach encapsulating more than thirty years of know-how, and described by Gartner as the most extensive set of integrated methods, techniques and tools in the marketplace today.

Fujitsu also has strong partnerships with Microsoft and Oracle which were necessary in developing the FCPS solution using Microsoft .net and Oracle 9i technology. AGS were attracted to Fujitsu because of our track record in the Justice sector of developing and implementing robust and scalable IT Solutions.