Maintenance of Municipal assets is important: sometimes for function and sometimes for beauty
Street based roads and municipal services don’t just happen, but Citizens want that to be the case.
My time working for a London Borough taught me that Citizens are quick to take great services for granted and to criticise – often “generously”. The fact is that we do want clean streets but do not want to see people cleaning them, we do want great road surfaces but don’t want delays from roadworks and we do want green spaces to be beautiful but do not want grass cutting machines spoiling our Sunday stroll or child’s football match.
What do you remember about that remarkable place? Was it the lack of litter, the smooth roads, the pavements that you could roller blade along, the cycle lanes off of the roadway? I doubt it! The things we remember are the good times, the pictures we take, the meals we had and it all comes across that invisible efficient Municipal background.
We would all be quick to criticise, but when did we last send a letter complimenting our local council for things we did not notice?
With my job, I do notice municipal efficiency wherever it happens, but I also notice that others do not notice. So every day I turn up with unswerving confidence for the importance of what I do – help Government departments provide that efficient and invisible service that creates experiences, memories and a street scene vista that is only treasured when it is no longer there.
I get confidence knowing that Confirm does for this critical part of our lives what Marks & Spencer did when they connected the Suppliers with their computer system, and the computer system with the shopper. Nowadays, in all retail outlets, a dress is purchased and the stock holding is updated and the supplier receives a controlled order for another one. In every Confirm user Government department or Municipal department, a citizen notices a pothole, reports it and a repair is ordered, the ticket is electronically issued over the airwaves and the team that has to fix it can make safe the existing low impact task and go straight to thathigh impact event or pothole so that they are, indeed, efficient and mainly invisible. An inspector can take the post works inspection in their stride, without even returning to the office and reports go to the major stakeholders without anyone “pressing a key”.
Connecting the Stakeholders in the value chain was the largest leap ever made with software for Street Services and Mobile software is the most sought-after element of any operational system in any department. IBM seem to be creating the ideal advertising campaign for Confirm – smarter cities indeed!
Jyvaskyla: an example of invisible efficiency. There are many in the UK such as Derbyshire, Liverpool, Moray and many, many more.
So, on a recent trip (it happened to be Jyvaskyla in Finland), I noticed the municipal workers come out the morning after heavy rain to clear up, unlike the rest of my family. We all noticed the sculptures in the parks of the “City of Light”, along with the people skating because there was no snow and the old people using ski-poles to help them walk. Only I noticed that the pavements were spectacular as I cycled around with my youngest son, yet I never noticed anyone fixing a pothole. Then, on a visit soon after to Derbyshire, I noticed another wonderful place, this time managed by Confirm. During my business trip to Matlock in Derbyshire, I wondered how many families just like mine went home with similar memories of a great place in our country and just how many wonderful places there are in the UK. Moray, West Lothian, Liverpool, Haringey, the Public Housing green spaces in Northern Ireland and hundreds more.
Making an invisible but efficient difference to peoples’ lives, all day, every day, Confirm Software. Where’s beautiful in the UK? Answers by email to dominic.mcneillis@pb.com
Version 9.5 is unusual insofar as we normally release once per year. However, there is so much that has changed in such a short space of time:
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