One of the big problems facing councils as they consider introducing mobile information and services is the sheer number of available technologies. The way a mobile capability is developed and delivered impacts the number of staff and the type of skills required to deliver the service; the time to deliver; and the cost of development and ownership. So how do you judge what's right for your needs?

Buying apps may seem an easy way to get started but long term, a profusion of mobile apps creates an IT management nightmare. Think of the overheads to coordinate and support them all.

You can develop in-house but there are numerous phone operating systems, each of which has its own set of development libraries for creating applications. Using one of these libraries limits your ability to deliver the solution to other phone operating systems. The only alternative is to develop on multiple operating systems concurrently. This is costly and it complicates the addition of future functionality and services.

You could build mobility into the IT architecture using one of the commercially available frameworks for mobile delivery. An architectural approach is a sensible start but frameworks on their own typically require highly-skilled, specialist staff and it may take weeks (or more) before a project is delivered.

The more manageable approach is to use a service delivery platform. These sit above the framework and contain all the infrastructure and administration that would normally need to be programmed. They simplify the task of getting mobile by offering an almost instant delivery environment.

Getting practical
Tweed Shire Council on the North Coast of New South Wales took the service delivery platform approach when it adopted BlinkMobile’s Blink Mobility Platform to provide a simple but powerful information service to ratepayers.

After thinking about the kind of information that would be most useful when people are not at their PCs, the council ‘mobilised’ its event calendar, the library systems, status information on roads, beaches and sports grounds plus a number of ‘most used’ aspects of council information. It also created access to Tenders and Contracts, and the Development, Planning and Property status systems for developers, builders and their clients.

All information is just two clicks away, drawn directly from the council website, displayed in way that most suits the viewing screens of mobile devices. The Blink platform provides the services without any need for council staff to write, maintain or host any application or additional mobile site.

In conjunction with asset maintenance planning partner, Assetic, Tweed Shire Council also mobile-enabled its asset capture and condition reporting system so that inspectors can retrieve existing records and capture new information while out in the field.

Further south Wyong Shire Council is using the Blink Mobility Platform in a similar way, providing locals and and tourists with mobile access to road conditions and rail updates, library, parks and event information, council news and development applications. Remote staff are also benefiting. A recent trial saw lifeguards use their mobile devices to submit incident reports and daily updates without having to set foot in the council office. It was a huge success and the council is now extending mobility to staff involved in activities such as tar patching, area maintenance, tree assessment and swimming pool audits.

Mobility solutions
Platforms such as BlinkMobile allow the development of attractive, sophisticated forms that take advantage of the cameras, GPS location tools and other added value functionalities that mobile devices bring. They link the forms to existing workflow systems with relative ease and work on any device the user wants.

For councils like Tweed and Wyong, the architectural approach to mobility has provided flexibility to design, develop and deploy a diverse range of mobility solutions from a single management environment.

Most importantly, it is enhancing internal and external customer service through the speedy creation and delivery of new information services as and when they are required.