Fujitsu Services, one of Europe’s leading IT services companies, last week announced a contract with Norfolk Police in the UK to deliver an operational data warehouse that will allow data within the force to be combined and linked in one repository.
The new data warehouse will give Norfolk Police more flexibility and prove more cost effective than supplying the Home Office data returns via the National Management Information System (NMIS). It will also be more practical to front-line policing, allowing the force to carry out many activities that cannot currently be achieved.
Christine Thompson, information management business manager at Norfolk Constabulary, said, “We chose Fujitsu because it has access to more resources than the competition and put together the most persuasive tender document. This was backed up with a proven track record which gave us confidence in the company and their ability to deliver.”
Fujitsu’s strategy in its work in data warehousing with police forces across the UK is to extract important data from the many disparate information systems used by individual forces in order to consolidate and improve its quality. This should improve forces’ ability to respond to the national policing requirements that emerged from the Bichard Enquiry in 2003 which examined the manner in which the police handled the intelligence surrounding the Soham murders.
These requirements include the Management of Police Information (MoPI) standards to help police forces meet common standards for information management through a statutory Code of Practice and associated guidance, and ultimately the provision of data to the Police National Database, which will provide a single access point for searching across all of the Forces’ main operational information systems.
Andy Sowden, head of police business at Fujitsu Services said, “This is an important project for us and one which will provide Norfolk Constabulary with a framework that will be able to cope with continued change – both at a local and a national level – and the many information requirements that will come their way in the future. The ability to link key information together now and in the future will provide much more value to the force as the data warehouse develops further.”
Under the deal, Fujitsu will work with SAS Software Ltd and Amadeus Software Ltd to combat the common range of problems caused by multiple information systems with different collection and storage techniques.
In the first phase, Norfolk Constabulary has already been able to bring together information from its crime and HR systems in order to improve its ability to be able to provide the annual Home Office Data Returns.
Future phases will enable the force to make links between external events such as economic trends and population movements to help to predict patterns of crime.
For more information on Fujitsu Services and data warehouses, visit www.fujitsu.com/uk