(openPR) - Islington Council uses LogiXML business intelligence software to trim resources as well as increase ticketing and revenue while improving customer service - and value for money for ratepayers.

Islington Council, which provides parking enforcement and other local government services to the London Borough of Islington, has reduced contract costs, reduced staff overhead and improved customer relations within the first few months of using Logi Info, the business intelligence (BI) software solution from LogiXML.

Before using Logi Info, Islington Council’s parking enforcement system was not providing the overview of operations or providing meaningful real-time information.

Generating information that would optimise processes was choked by large amounts of data from disparate sources. Live reporting was available but caused massive technical issues and it did not feature write-back capabilities to data sources and stored procedures.

In addition, managers, operatives and the Council’s civil enforcement officers (CEOs) - the people who issue parking tickets - did not have mobile access to reports in the field. They could only access the front end of the system.

“Our systems were good for running day-to-day processes, but we needed greater insights,” stated John Galsworthy, head of parking and business service at Islington Council.

“Being a local authority, we need technology that is cost effective, scalable, and easy to use. Additionally, all technology must integrate with rather than replicate data.

“Corporately, we have Business Objects and Cognos, but development was too expensive, complex, impractical, and time consuming for our application to make them viable,” he added. “We considered all the BI vendors on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for BI and selected LogiXML because it was the simplest to use, was conveniently priced, had the lowest ongoing cost overhead and was able give us a level of integration that was better than we needed.”

Placing Logi Info at the centre of the parking enforcement system’s management processes had a dramatic impact on the ways of working.

The reporting system now scans 2.5 million records in only 1.6 seconds. Previously, similar queries required eight hours with the embedded Crystal reports.

Additionally, Islington parking enforcement managers can now see the activity of all CEOs in real time. Customisable dashboards integrate with Google Earth Enterprise and include real-time parking performance, live ticket issuing and the whereabouts of the CEOs.

“Once implemented, the dashboards revealed a drop in productivity after 1 pm,” said Galsworthy.

“Tracking staff performance and improving processes, enabled productivity across the board to increase by 15 per cent. This, coupled with removing areas of non-productive effort, meant we could reduce the staffing headcount from 147 to 131 while maintaining or, in some cases, increasing output.”

Regardless of the number of parking tickets issued, Islington Council must deal with them within six months of them being issued. If a motorist complains and the matter is not resolved, the penalty fine is cancelled – and this has a financial impact on the Council.

Logi Info includes the ability to instantly access individual parking tickets, analyse CCTV evidence to judge if complaints are justified, view the history of individual vehicles and drivers, query the system (to find addresses for those receiving tickets), and issue immediate responses. This settles cases effectively, improves customer service and saves money.

Cancelling unwarranted tickets used to cause problems because of the high administrative cost involved as well as the number of innocent – but angry - motorists.

By including the application of heatmaps via Logi Info, the Council can identify streets and neighbourhoods where cancellations are too high. Council staff can now pinpoint the reasons for cancellations and take action, such as improving signs or adjusting CEO behaviour to improve the ‘quality’ of the tickets they issue.

According to Simon Ryan, European Director of LogiXML International: “Logi Info is the fastest way for developers and IT to create and deliver BI applications to any desktop or mobile device.

“Creating sophisticated applications with Logi Info takes only a fraction of the time of required by traditional BI solutions. Logi Info does this by providing a code-free development environment that dramatically reduces the effort and cost of creating and maintaining BI applications.”

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About LogiXML
Founded in 2000, LogiXML (www.logixml.com) is the market-leading provider of next generation, web-based business intelligence software. Known for pioneering a unique, highly embeddable web-based architecture for integration within other products, LogiXML provides dashboards, user-friendly reports, and on-demand analysis that enables both technical and non-technical users to make better decisions for their organisations.

LogiXML International Ltd
University of Reading Enterprise Centre, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, READING, RG6 6BU, UK
tel: +44 (0) 118 935 7256 ; web: www.logiXML.com
Contact: Emma Brunsdon, European Marketing Manager, LogiXML, +44 (0)118 935 7166; emma.brunsdon@logixml.com

PR contact: Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com