Electronic traffic and citation payments system

nCourt, LLC's electronic traffic and citation payments system has been selected by Dauphin County, Pennsylvania for use by 18 District Courts. With an average of 250,000 citations processed in the county per year, the nCourt system will enable users to easily enter their plea and submit payments through an easy-to-use, convenient service that is available via both phone and Internet.

Escalators at McCarran International Airport

KONE, one of the world’s leading elevator and escalator companies, and Power Efficiency Corporation, a clean tech company have installed the EcoStart on escalators at McCarran International Airport (LAS), the nation’s seventh-busiest airport. Operated by the Clark County Department of Aviation, in 2008 the airport served more than 44 million passengers. The KONE EcoStart is a motor efficiency controller that soft starts an electric motor, bringing it from rest to full speed. Once it is at full speed, the EcoStart monitors the motor and improves its efficiency when operating. By conserving energy, the EcoStart supports the building’s sustainability programs and contributes to environmental protection efforts. McCarran and the four general aviation facilities in the Clark County Airport System are owned by Clark County, Nevada and operated under the policy direction of the Board of County Commissioners, the authority of the County Manager and the management of the Director and Deputy Director of Aviation. McCarran International Airport is part of the Clark County Airport System, which owns and operates five airports, including four general aviation facilities: North Las Vegas Airport, Henderson Executive Airport, Jean Sport Aviation Center, and Overton/Perkins Field.

Predictive Bus Arrival / Departure System

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. has been selected by San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) to install a Predictive Bus Arrival / Departure System (PADS) system to provide real-time bus arrival/departure information to their customers via the Web, telephone systems, and on dynamic message signs at major SamTrans terminals. (Robert Tam, manager of Technology and Research and Development at San Mateo County Transit District.) San Mateo County Transit District was formed in 1976 and provides public transportation services to the cities within San Mateo County, California, a 446-square-mile area with a population of approximately 737,100. Currently, the District operates approximately 339 fixed-route revenue buses, 76 paratransit vehicles, and 48 shuttle buses.

$20 million outsource by City of Santa Clara

Unisys has signed a contract to provide information technology (IT) and application outsourcing services to the City of Santa Clara. The five-year contract has an estimated value of approximately $20 million. The Unisys services will support 15 city departments, administrative offices and utilities, helping more than 1,000 end users serve the city’s 117,000 residents more effectively. (Gaurav Garg, director of information technology, City of Santa Clara.)

Paperless post in New York

Zumbox, a paperless postal system, has been launched in New York City, after Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a pilot project that will send municipal paperless mail to all five boroughs of the city and explore further opportunities to cut down on the cost and environmental impact of printing and delivering “snail mail.” Immediately after the announcement, New Yorkers accessing their Zumbox mailboxes found a series of letters from the Office of the Mayor, Department of Sanitation, the New York City Fire Department, and the Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability.

“Every day, new technological innovations help make information flow faster, systems work better and our lives a little easier,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “But often, when it comes to adopting new technology, governments lag behind the private sector and even the casual consumer because they are unwilling or unable to try something new and change the way things have always been done. That’s small-minded thinking. In serving the public, government should constantly be looking for new and better ways to provide information and services. The City’s pilot program with Zumbox will give us yet another means to get information to New Yorkers.”

Campbell Union High School District to save $0.25m pa

Campbell Union High School District, located in Silicon Valley, has deployed Citrix XenDesktop™ with HDX™ technology for more than 8,000 students and faculty beginning with the 2009-2010 school year. The school district will improve security, simplify desktop management and realize an estimated savings of $250,000 each year compared to standard desktop purchasing – with additional savings expected as their desktop virtualization project continues to expand.

Serving more than 7,600 students across seven campuses, Campbell Union High School District first explored desktop virtualization as a way to help bring down skyrocketing hardware and IT management costs. The district’s IT team serves the computing needs of all students, as well as 650 employees and faculty members. In addition to personal PCs for staff members and student laptops in each classroom, each campus also provides multiple computer labs for instruction and student use. The maintenance, security, upkeep and refresh cycle for all those PCs and laptops was placing a real strain on the district’s budget. Desktop virtualization dramatically simplifies this process, allowing IT to manage all desktops from a central location while delivering a rich, personalized experience to each user, regardless of their location or the device they are using. (Charles Kanavel, director of technology for Campbell Union High School District.)

One-to-Watch: SUMS Online will soon arrive in the US with a web site at www.sumsmath.com.

$12 million by City of Chicago

The city of Chicago has signed a $12 million agreement with Sprint for five years of wireless services. The contract calls for Sprint to provide wireless services to all government departments for the city, including voice and data solutions, the new and rapidly expanding Sprint 4G technology, and a continuance of its Nextel Direct Connect. Renewing the wireless services contract will help the government entities work more efficiently while cutting costs.

Missing girl found

When a nine year old local Sandy girl was reported missing in this Salt Lake City suburb in the heart of the Wasatch Mountains, the Sandy Police Department (SPD) was able to use the department’s new state-of-the-art wireless mesh video surveillance network to track her path. The system allowed the department to survey a vast portion of the city which narrowed the search area and decreased the time it took to locate the girl and return her to her family. The surveillance system, which was deployed by Salt Lake City’s AlphaCorp Security using Firetide wireless infrastructure mesh equipment, was initially installed by the SPD to monitor the town’s main State Street corridor, parks and business districts. Because the wireless network has been a resounding success for the community’s public safety goals, the network is building upon the interest from other municipal groups as they realize its value. (Sandy Police Chief Stephen Chapman.)

Online and phone-based citation payments

The Municipal Court of Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, one of the largest traffic courts in Georgia, is joining over 80 other jurisdictions throughout Georgia that are taking advantage of nCourt for online and phone-based citation payments. Individuals who are facing a traffic violation citation visit www.athensgatix.com or www.ncourt.com and select Athens-Clarke County from the menu. They can also pay by phone at 1-800-701-8560. The easy-to-follow system enables payments to be made and confirmed within minutes, ensuring completion and avoiding further potential penalties. The nCourt service also provides a free, bilingual customer help center that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court Judge Kay Giese.)

St Petersburg to share crime data

St. Petersburg, Floirda has become the 500^th law enforcement agency to share crime data with the public through CrimeReports.com. St. Petersburg joins other agencies that have chosen to inform and engage their citizens through timely, block-level crime data. The city’s 250,000 residents can now more fully benefit from the St. Petersburg Police Department’s continued commitment to cutting–edge technology and community outreach efforts and local neighborhood watch efforts have gained a valuable tool that will enable them to work more closely with officers to keep their communities safe. (Chief Charles Harmon.)

Case management solution

Kansas City Municipal Court (KCMC) in Kansas City, Kansas recently integrated their JustWare | Municipal Court case management solution with their local law enforcement's Advanced Public Safety, Inc.'s (APS) electronic ticketing devices. This integration automatically enters ticket information directly into JustWare using the data from each officer's APS PocketCitation ticketing device, saving both the municipal court and police department both time and resources. Prior to implementing an eticket solution, the Court would receive two of the four paper copies of the citation. Once data entry entered all citation information, KCMC manually filed each citation with the appropriate court date and would relocate the ticket when the date approached. Not only was this process time consuming but also expensive to store and maintain old violation records. (Lisa Garcia, KCMC Administrative Supervisor.)

First Response software in emergency vehicles

Santa Clara County Fire Department in California has awarded ADASHI a contract to put its First Response software in every emergency response vehicle. ADASHI directly integrates with Santa Clara County’s dispatch system automatically initiating and routing emergency units to an incident site using sophisticated maps and audible turn-by-turn directions. (Fire Captain Jim Swanson.)

Mobile inventory management system for Fire Department

The City of New Orleans Department of Homeland Security and the City of New Orleans Fire Department have selected Upp Technology, Inc. to help improve the efficiency of their day-to-day operations. New Orleans chose Upp’s irms|EM (Emergency Management) solution, deployed on the irms|Go-Kit for a mobile inventory management system allowing the city to track inventory through the use of bar-coding at their warehouses and storerooms. Furthermore, the same Go-Kits can then be redeployed to the field in times of emergency to receive and distribute cots, water, food, and other critical supplies needed in Emergency Response.

Emergency buttons for school buses

Charlotte County Public Schools (CCPS) based in Port Charlotte, Florida has standardized on GPS-driven applications from Everyday Solutions. EveryPoint and an emergency button will be installed on 132 buses at CCPS. In the event of an emergency, the driver can press the emergency button and an alert, including the precise bus location, will be sent via email and text message to school officials. EveryPoint will also supply CCPS with real-time and historical data that can be presented in reports and on maps of the district to monitor activities such as excessive speeding, engine idling and fleet performance. (Richard Duckworth, Transportation Director at CCPS.)

Capital project management processes at Seattle

The Port of Seattle has chosen Skire Unifier to support its newly streamlined capital project management processes and to provide visibility into project estimates, budgets and cost controls. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is the sixteenth largest U.S. airport as measured by total passengers and has relatively high origination and destination traffic compared to other large airports. Seaport facilities include terminals for containers, general and break-bulk cargo, fishing support facilities, space for more than 2,000 recreational and commercial fishing boats, two large vessel cruise facilities, conference facilities, office buildings and industrial properties.

New York combats counterfeiting

NYC & Company, the exclusive worldwide licensing agent for the City of New York, and OpSec Security have announced a three-year contract to combat counterfeiting of the City’s world famous brands, including NYPD and FDNY. The on-product authentication program is a continuing keystone of NYC & Company’s enforcement efforts to protect the City’s valuable intellectual property.

According to Lloyd Haymes, Vice President, Licensing & Consumer Products, NYC & Company, “This coordinated enforcement strategy, which features an on-product authentication program with uniquely sequenced hangtags and holographic decals, has been a vital component of our comprehensive brand protection program.

A significant portion of the proceeds from the sale of these officially licensed products benefits the City of New York. The iconic brands currently licensed through NYC & Company include the NYPD, FDNY, New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, New York City Department of Sanitation, City of New York Parks & Recreation and New York City Department of Transportation, as well as its own stylized “NYC” trademark.

Ones to Watch: Naultilus Security Solutions' unique holography revolutionizes overt and covert solutions for brand and print security. http://www.nautilussecurity.com

Registration & outcome student assessment system

St. Louis Public Schools has selected nFocus Software to provide the school district with a registration and outcome based student assessment system for its Community Education Program. nFocus Software will provide St. Louis Public Schools with the ability to assess, improve, and secure additional funding for its community programs and activities. (Peg Pedersen, St. Louis Community Education Supervisor.)

Baltimore promotes PEACE

The city of Baltimore has teamed with HipCricket to promote its “PEACE” (Pledge to Engage in Actions Considerate of Everyone) initiative – a community activist program which aims to highlight the many positive activities offered by the Department of Recreation and Parks and to create fun, safe, social activities for local youths. Through the program, the city hopes to connect directly with adolescents through their most personal possession, their mobile phone. The Peace Baltimore Text Club was created by the City of Baltimore in conjunction with various community and business partners including Waterfront Partnership, the Maryland Transit Administration, Downtown Partnership, Visit Baltimore (formerly BACVA), and Cordish and Company.

Strategic Academic Enterprise

Hudson County Community College (HCCC) has selected Datatel Colleague SQL Server to provide an end-to-end solution that manages its complete student lifecycle. The software will enable HCCC to build a Strategic Academic Enterprise that drives student achievement and institutional success. Colleague will replace an IA Plus software system from SunGard Higher Education. (HCCC Board of Trustees Chair William J. Netchert.)

$18 million spend by City of Irvine

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. has been awarded a five-year contract extension to provide information technology (IT) services for the City of Irvine, California. The agreement, with a total value of $18 million, began July 1 and continues through June 30, 2014. (Jan Stinger, information technology administrator for the City of Irvine.)