West Midlands Police deploys cloud as part of digital transformation plans

published 23 January 2018

West Midlands Police has teamed up with Accenture and Oracle to deploy a range of Oracle's Cloud apps to improve the way the police force works.

"The deployment of this cloud technology is the latest step on our technology transformation journey as envisaged under our WMP 2020' change programme," said Neil Chamberlain, director of Commercial Services at West Midlands Police.

"This project represents a significant investment by the force as part of our transformation programme and demonstrates our commitment to investing in digital technologies to enable new and more efficient ways to manage operations, share information and deliver police services to the public."

West Midlands Police has implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Capital Management (HCM) and Customer Experience (CX) solutions to help it transform the entire operational structure of the force.

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A move to SaaS solutions means its processes have been brought up to date. In addition, staff can also more easily access the services they need, collaborating with other departments seamlessly and moving away from legacy systems that were a drain on productivity.

"The public sector is innovating at a rapid rate to transform its organisations and deliver better services to the taxpayer," Debbie Green, senior sales director for the Public Sector at Oracle UK added. "West Midlands Police is a leading example of how organisations are looking to make use of cloud technologies to change their operations and deliver the next generation of public services."

Accenture has a three-year history working with West Midlands Police to implement better tools to help the organisation work more effectively, both in its role as a public-facing service, but also, internally within the local government.

"By leveraging our Cloud First approach and leading industry and technology capabilities we have, in partnership with West Midlands Police, delivered a modern suite of back-office services that will drive efficiencies and increase collaboration and information sharing across the force," added Dave West, managing director of Accenture's Health & Public Service business.

"The technology enables WMP to access and share information where and when required and supports modern digitally enabled Policing in the West Midlands region."

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.