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Banksy beware: New mobile app from Lagan Technologies set to clean up Britain's streets

BANKSY BEWARE: NEW MOBILE APPLICATION SET TO CLEAN UP BRITAIN’S STREETS
• Free application enables residents to report potholes, graffiti, streetlight failures, uncollected rubbish and more direct to responsible council officials
• Successful trials in the US point to better, faster service, cost savings and cleaner streets

Lagan Technologies, the Belfast-headquartered World leader in technologies that connect governments and citizens, is in talks with a number of local authorities in the UK about the launch of trials of its Citizens Connect iPhone application.

Citizens Connect enables local residents to pinpoint nuisances on the move and report them direct to the desktop or mobile device of the council worker charged with resolving the problem.

Potholes, broken lamps, missing signage and graffiti are amongst the many things that the application enables residents to report. The camera in the phone takes an image of the problem and a GPS reference is attached to it before it is sent to the local council.

Citizens Connect was launched recently in Boston, Massachusetts, where locals have used it to great effect. Recently, for instance, local residents fed back details of a spate of graffiti incidents to the City of Boston. The team responsible for cleaning up graffiti were alerted direct and despatched cleaners to remove it. Local law enforcement officials can also receive data on incidents overlaid on a map using GIS, creating a guide from which to potentially determine where culprits are likely to strike next. As soon as the request is fulfilled residents receive a confirmation direct to their phone.

The feedback from local residents has been very positive. One local resident commented: “My graffiti picture is going to the dude who’s going to fix the graffiti. Directly to the dude! And that feels good.”

“The use of mobile devices to communicate with local councils is something we expect to soar in the years ahead. We already work with 180 local governments worldwide – from Toronto to East Timor,” said Des Speed, CEO of Lagan Technologies. “In many cases those governments are looking at ways in which mobile technology can create a closer link between local residents and the people directly responsible for service delivery.”

According to industry analysts Gartner, by 2013 mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. Gartner estimates that the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of web-enabled phones will exceed 1.82 billion units.

The Lagan Citizens Connect application includes the following features:
• Government-branded iPhone application available to citizens as a free download in the iTunes App Store
• Available for iPhone and other mobile devices
• Seamless integration with local authority systems
• Intelligent case routing based on report fields and location – getting requests to the right people more quickly and providing authority management with an overview of performance and service delivery.

Speaking at the launch of the service in Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino said: “The Citizens Connect iPhone application is a great example of new urban mechanics. We are using the latest technology to make government even more accessible and more responsive to our constituents. We are excited for residents and visitors to use this application and help us keep Boston beautiful.”
One of the many benefits of the application is the ease with which in engages a younger generation communicate in the process of communicating with local government.

- Ends –

Notes to editors:
More information, images, Lagan spokespeople:
Hamish Thompson / 07702 684290 / hamish.thompson@1238kmh.com

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