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Managing incidents in real-time, during the London 2012 Olympic Games and beyond

Local government: Planning and delivery

Managing incidents in real-time, during the London 2012 Olympic Games and beyond
 The PSMA provided an excellent and cost-effective platform to work upon and freed us from complex contractual paperwork with no procurement costs for the client and minimal legal fees for both parties. Utilising both the royalty free mapping data sets available, covered by the PSMA, and the new systems integral GIS technology allowed significant cost reductions over traditional operating methods delivering approximately 145% return on investment (ROI) over the 72 days of the Games operation alone. A ROI that virtually paid for the bespoke system development, technical support, server hardware and hosting fees for 12 months. Of course the system is now available for everyday operations, as a legacy incident management system for the long term, now available for licence by any interested party. This tells us that the PSMA is both time efficient and cost effective for delivering short to long term map based projects.
Terry Howell, CEO, Myriad Optima Limited

At a glance

London Borough of NewhamWith two-thirds of London 2012 events taking place within its boundaries, the London Borough of Newham wanted to develop an incident management system and Extranet that would provide the intelligence needed to underpin activities during the Olympic Games. They choose Myriad Optima, who use their Battle Baton technology

Printable version: download PDFVisit the London Borough of Newham website

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The Borough was one of eight within the Olympic Zone and needed not only to log and display incident data in real-time, but also to share it with the other local authorities and agencies. A key consideration was how to assess high-quality mapping from Ordnance Survey without incurring licensing or procurement costs.

The incident management system and Extranet, implemented on time and within budget by Myriad Optima using Battle Baton technology, was underpinned by Ordnance Survey data supplied under the Public

Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA). The PSMA provides access to core Ordnance Survey geographic datasets, including OS MasterMap®. These datasets are free at the point of use for all eligible public sector bodies and provide a common geographic framework to enable data-sharing between organisations.

Both the incident management and Extranet systems used a combination of data and mapping to show real-time business as unusual incidents and emergency incidents; Olympic and non-Olympic events. They were used around the clock during the 72-day period of the London 2012 Games to provide intelligence for a wide range of purposes (including shift hand-overs and Gold Team Reviews) as well as to provide general overviews of activities.

Once logged into the system, data is automatically shown on Ordnance Survey mapping and could be viewed instantly. During London 2012, it was also transmitted in real-time to others within the Games Support Programme. In addition to recording incidents, the systems enabled two-way communications between operators using a variety of formats, such as text and in-built ‘chat’ facilities. The calendar feature allowed data to be viewed and interrogated by ‘looking back’ and ‘looking forward’.

Ordnance Survey data, at a range of scales, was used to show the location of events and incidents, with pop-up windows providing further information. OS MasterMap layers provided an accurate and easy way to find a specific location, whilst also enabling the coordinates to be transferred for use in other Ordnance Survey datasets used by the London Borough of Newham, transmitted to them in real-time, 24/7.

Pictures taken on mobile devices with GPS coordinates could also be positioned on the mapping.

  • Provided a cost-effective system, underpinned by high-quality map data, without incurring licensing or procurement costs.
  • Delivered efficiency savings through automatic placement of data on mapping and easy-to-use data interrogation that required no specialist training.
  • Allowed transfer of information into the Borough’s other mapping systems, and sharing of information between local authorities.
  • The system can be used for everyday logging of service activities that require geographical representation and future analysis, such as crime statistics, domestic violence, highways and construction, and also in areas such as adult care (reablement administration/monitoring), care home logistics, vulnerabilities and the new Department of Health initiative of ‘Loneliness’.
  • Results and full audit log can not only be used for analysis, but also for IT forensics.
  • New developments include the logging of virtually any form of data, putting services in the driving seat, with minimal training and virtually endless benefits.
  • A legacy solution developed for the 2012 Games, which has the potential to benefit many with a new way of capturing data, mapping displays and analysis.
  • Enabled environmentally friendly, paperless working as all information was viewed via screen and smart boards.

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