04/01/11  Image Capture added as a new SmartSurvey Data Capture/Question Type.

Having successfully implemented GPS stamp events into SmartSurvey, Mobile Solutions Ltd have proceeded to develop a number of additional question types/data capture events. One notable example of this is Image Capture.

Most Smart Phones on the market today include camera technology. This has presented Mobile Solutions Ltd with a golden opportunity to provide images as an option in their SmartSurvey product.

Image Capture is now available in the latest version of the product and when selected, digital photographs taken with a Smart Phone, and captured in a SmartSurvey Mobile survey, can be sent to SmartSurvey Office along with traditional captured data. Thereafter, such images can be exported and/or processed as required.

At a later date this functionality will be further enhanced to allow the capture of image, audio and video clips too.

26/11/10  Mobile Solutions Ltd move to new premises.

Mobile Solutions Ltd has relocated to a new area in Telford. Our new office can be found at:

St Andrews Hall

Broadway

Shifnal

Telford

TF11 8AZ

All telephone and email contact details remain the same. Full contact details are provided at the foot of each page of the Mobile Solutions Ltd website.

30/10/10  Lancashire County Council extend the roll out of SmartCard compatible SmartCare.

Following a successful pilot, Lancashire County Council have decided to extend their roll out of the SmartCare installation with integrated SmartCare readers to additional vehicles within their 100+ fleet.

This will allow a greater number of NoW Card holders to use their cards on board Lancashire County Council TravelCare minibuses.

30/09/10  Halton Borough Council approve mobile data security enhancements.

With the need for Local Authorities to provide data security in line with the Code of Connection, (CoCo), regulations, Mobile Solutions Ltd have enhanced SmartCare to enable Halton Borough Council to meet the new legislation.

This was achieved by modifying the data transfer method to use Secure FTP instead of standard FTP. The use of Secure FTP ensures all data traffic is encrypted using the AES 256 standard, therefore preventing unknown hosts from gaining access to any file stored on the site.

SmartCare security was further enhanced by the use of both field, and file level encryption, also using the AES 256 standard.

These enhancements were signed off by Halton Borough Council as being CoCo compliant and the enhanced security version of SmartCare Mobile has subsequently been installed throughout their fleet.

05/09/10  GPS Stamp added as a new SmartSurvey Data Capture/Question Type.

Mobile Solutions Ltd continues to integrate the latest technologies into their innovative software products.

Most of the current generation of Smart Phone devices now include onboard GPS technology. This gives Mobile Solutions Ltd the opportunity to introduce a GPS data capture event into SmartSurvey surveys.

When completing a pre-defined survey using SmartSurvey Mobile on such a Smart Phone device, the onboard GPS hardware will allow the user to capture his or her location at a certain point, or several points during a survey. This is a powerful tool which allows Data Analysts to see where the survey was completed.

At a later stage, Mobile Solutions plan to extend the use of GPS technology to allow for real-time GPS tracking of surveyors and their handheld devices using SmartSurvey Mobile. This has previously been limited to SmartCare Mobile only in the past utilising in-vehicle GPS tracking.

18/06/10  Mobile Solutions Ltd showcase SmartCare, SmartSurvey and SmartWay at the 2010 Summer ATCO Exhibition.

Each summer, ATCO, (Association of Transport Coordinating Officers), host an exhibition and conference allowing businesses, that provide services to the Transport Industry, to showcase their products.

Mobile, with the tagline "Freedom from Paper", demonstrated SmartSurvey Office, SmartCare Office, SmartWay Office and their Mobile equivalents, using a variety of different handheld devices, from Smart Phones and PDAs to rugged, handheld computers.

The image above shows Fran Litherland demonstrating products in front of the Mobile Solutions Exhibition Stand at ATCO 2010.

The exhibition was a great opportunity to remind Transport Professionals about who Mobile Solutions are, what they do and how they can help them to improve overall efficiency, reduce costs and provide a more environmentally friendly service to the general public.

26/04/10  Mobile Solutions launch SmartWay for "smart" BSOG claim processing.

Mobile has launched a new low cost product to help those in the Community Transport sector to reap the benefits of a system designed to make that all important BSOG a simple and easy to manage process. For those that wish to go paperless, Mobile Solutions Ltd announce the arrival of SmartWay Mobile, using our leading PDA or Smartphone data entry software to record journeys as they are made and with the option of a paperless vehicle defect check. Freedom from paper!

For those who wish to retain the paper but perhaps reduce it, yet stay remain in complete control, our entry level SmartWay product is the answer.

"SmartWay will suit many of the smaller service providers that need to improve efficiency in order to save money but might not be able afford all the bells and whistles and with the mobile option they can make further savings, improve their service and reduce their risk, with paperless defect checks"

24/03/10  Lancs CC confirm all 140 minibuses now returning paperless vehicle defect check data with Mobile Solution's SmartCheck.

After a 30 vehicle trial in late 2009, Lancashire County Council has successfully rolled out SmartCheck to all 140 of the wheelchair accessible minibuses that make up their Travelcare fleet. Daily returns, whether reporting defects or not, are now returned each morning for the whole fleet, signed by the driver. VOSA compliant, electronic, immediate and paperless: SmartCheck, part of Mobile Solutions "Smart" suite, is actively saving our clients time and money, while reducing their exposure to risk.

"The safety of our clients and drivers is paramount to Travelcare and, as part of our drive for operational efficiency we recently added daily vehicle checks and defect reporting to the handhelds. SmartCheck uses our own defect rules to inform a driver of the severity of any defect recorded and what action to take as a result, so the safety decision is taken out of his/her hands.

We've reduced the risks associated with defects and made further real savings by going paperless. We already had the PDAs and communications infrastructure in place running SmartCare, so the only additional investment was the new SmartCheck software, survey design and training.

Even though the defect survey is relatively static, we sometimes need to make adjustments in the survey for internal or legislative reasons. With SmartCheck we are able to make changes to the survey questions and the sequence of those questions ourselves, quickly and easily. We can even add extra questions if need be, without having to refer back to Mobile Solutions Ltd.

We trialled this in one region installed into 30 minibuses and quickly proved that we were receiving defect checks results each morning for those minibuses installed with SmartCheck, sent electronically from within the minibuses. Defect reports are delivered to our service department, so they can prepare parts and labour without delay. Administration costs are reduced as there is no longer a need to report defects manually and there is no risk of delays in reporting defects. We have since rolled out the solution across our 140 minibus fleet that provide our Travelcare service in all corners of Lancashire"
Andrew Gill, Head of Travelcare, Lancashire County Council.

23/03/10  Centro moves entire 100 man data collection team over to SmartSurvey V5.1 from Mobile Solutions Ltd.

Centro, The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, have enjoyed the benefits of electronic data capture using handheld computers and IKI data capture software for some fifteen years. Recently Centro decided to move to Mobile Solutions Ltd's new SmartSurvey PT. This derivative of SmartSurvey includes the full complement of data entry features included in SmartSurvey Deluxe, however PT includes a range of passenger transport specific data entry options, such as headcount and paired lists: combining data entry events and adding extra, instant validation.

"SmartSurvey Designer allows us to set up pretty much any mobile survey and we can even test it locally so we can make sure we are fully satisfied before we commit it for distribution"
Heather Holness, Smartcard Technical Services Manager.

With the move to SmartSurvey, Centro's many existing electronic surveys are, of course, 100% compatible, plus Centro are now able to enjoy the many new data capture features of SmartSurvey.

"We're particularly looking forward to utilising the new checkbox features of SmartSurvey, as this will support our plans to diversify our data collection activity and offer these services to a wider client base."
Heather Holness, Smartcard Technical Services Manager.

SmartSurvey boasts four separate "Office" modules; Designer, Scheduler, Gateway and QAViewer. This means that in a data collection team, the administrative support team can be one person or a whole team, SmartSurvey Office can be scaled to suit.

"With SmartSurvey, our administration team can share the workload when it comes to scheduling work for the team and processing the results."
Heather Holness, Smartcard Technical Services Manager.

SmartSurvey allows our clients to develop and maintain their own surveys and retain complete control over operational or client requirement changes, as they occur. So, there is no need to return to IKI each time an adjustment or new survey is required.

"IKI software allows us to have full control of requirements, specification and timescales for all of our survey projects"
Heather Holness, Smartcard Technical Services Manager.

26/02/10  Halton adds enhanced mobile data security to SmartCare installation to meet the demands of CoCo.

As Central Government apply necessary legislation to ensure that all government organisations, including local authorities, implement adequate data security, Halton came to Mobile Solutions Ltd to discuss the specific security aspects they needed to implement to meet the needs of this Code of Connection (CoCo).

Tighter security of data held on mobile devices, tighter security for data being sent to and from a mobile device and tighter security for data held centrally. This is particularly important for passenger related personal data, especially risk assessment notes, which may include medication and behavioural data.

Mobile Solutions Ltd implemented its AES 256 encryption solution across the entire mobile system plus a secure driver login process to meet the stated criteria. Halton will soon be in a position to confirm that they have fully complied with the government's CoCo requirements

14/12/09  Halton BC SmartCare installation with Logical Transport integration starts to pay dividends.

Halton Borough Council's Transportation Department run a council sponsored SEN and community services welfare minibus service throughout the borough and beyond. The service known as "Door2Door" has seen major expansion over the years to also include a Women's Safe Transport service.

The goal of the Borough was to bring these services, their borough wide volunteer car service and Halton Community Transport services under one umbrella; the Door2Door service. This would improve access to the local community and allow a central coordination of these critical services.

To make this objective possible a centrally controlled IT system was required and Logical Transport was awarded the contract to provide a transport scheduling system. However, journey log sheets, passenger pick up lists, passenger notes and critical risk assessment information remained paper based and needed to be distributed and kept in each minibus, or volunteer car, for the requisite passenger(s) due to be transported.

Halton achieved a major time and cost savings by installing SmartCare, the paperless, mobile system from Mobile Solutions Ltd. Now the journeys take place without any paper relating to the passengers or the journeys. Now pickups and drop offs are recorded as they happen. Risk assessment data is provided electronically to the drivers in their vehicles and maps showing pickup and drop off locations are available at the touch of a button. Halton can now start to reap the benefit of a community transport service that is free from paper.

10/12/09  Lancs CC enhance SmartCare installation to add integrated SmartCard readers for recording concessionary fare travel.

Lancashire County Council's Travelcare service continues to look for more flexibility in its approach so it can offer its service to a wider section of the public.

One possibility was the installation of a smartcard reading facility on the minibuses so that the NoWcard, the county's concessionary travel card, could be offered to the drivers as a valid pass for journeys on Travelcare.

Travelcare decided to trial an extension of its SmartCare system from Mobile Solutions Ltd to tackle this challenge. Mobile Solutions Ltd provided an enhanced version of SmartCare including an ITSO card reader. The result being that passengers can now use their contactless concessionary passes on TravelCare minibuses, resulting in the journey event and any related fare data, being relayed back to CART, Lancashire's internal transport management system. The transactions are then forwarded on for concessionary fare claims through the normal channel.

The pilot has been a great success. All the technology and data exchange operates to specification and Travelcare are considering an extension of the service to other vehicles in the fleet.

16/09/09  Lancs CC pilot of SmartCheck for paperless community transport for the first 30 Travelcare minibuses is deemed a "complete success".

As part of their continuous push for improvements in operational efficiency, Lancashire County Council trialled Mobile Solutions Ltd's SmartCheck to carry out paper free vehicle defect checks in support of the safe running of their wheelchair accessible minibus fleet that provide the Travelcare service countywide.

The pilot was applied to 30 vehicles in a chosen area of the county. The target was to add SmartCheck to the already successful SmartCare system, to perform an electronic defect check at the beginning of each shift or journey. The resulting data would then be returned using the proven GPRS infrastructure already provided by Mobile Solutions Ltd for SmartCare. This new data would then be processed upon receipt by the County's internal CART system.

The objective was to prevent the need for the printing, distribution and completion of paper based defect sheets. These were being returned for typing and at some stage the defect, and the potential need for repair, i.e. parts and labour, would be communicated to the service department and the vehicle possibly taken off the road for repair. In addition to the removal of paper costs, Lancashire County Council also sought to prove the several other benefits:

• Electronic defect reports do not need to be typed so data entry costs are removed
• CART is able to provide defect reports directly to the service department, reducing the time for defect notification and allowing resource to be prepared earlier
• This early preparation should reduce the time that vehicles spend off the road
• The interactive nature of SmartCheck enables drivers to be guided as to what defects are severe, which require a supervisor and which do not affect safety

Within weeks, Lancashire County Council were able to prove most of these benefits and in particular the robust data capture and data return methods to the extent that the pilot was deemed a complete success. A full roll out to the rest of the 140 vehicle fleet is planned in the coming months.