LGA plans ‘cyber stocktake’
The Local Government Association is planning to assess the cyber security arrangements of local authorities as part of its effort to support their work in the field.
It has published two procurement notices, one for support in a “stocktake” project of prevention measures in place and arrangements to respond to any attack. The other is for officer peers and associates with experience of cyber security to provide advice and support to councils.
Liverpool moves public protection and licensing to cloud
Liverpool City Council has chosen Tascomi to provide a cloud based public protection and licensing software solution and fully integrated online services portal. It will use Tascomi Public Protection, which is fully hosted on a secure private cloud facility and is mobile by default.
The company said the inclusion of an online services portal will enable residents and businesses to submit, pay for and track applications for the full range of licences the council administers.
Paul Christie, the council’s category manager in the commercial procurement unit, said the system will help it to streamline core services and provide for savings.
Bedford uses software to rationalise transport
Bedford Borough Council has reported that it has rationalised its transport services and achieved savings of £200,000 per year by using QRoutes route planning software.
It said it has been able to cut eight large buses from its fleet of 50 vehicles that carry schoolchildren and social care users.
Chris Pettifer, the council’s chief officer for transport, said: “It fitted in perfectly to scope new school routes as Bedford reorganised its schools organisation. It used to take days or weeks to re-plan routes but with QRoutes we can run a new plan for 3000 school bus children literally in minutes.”
NI chooses Concerto for asset management
Northern Ireland’s Department of Finance Properties Division has selected Concerto Support Services to provide and maintain an off-the-shelf asset management system that will interface with other systems.
The deal is worth just over £1 million and will run for five years with options to extend another three and two years.
