Mobile Install Trifecta: Hardware, Software, Recurring Revenue
By The Business Solutions Network
This integrator/ISV landed a deal with the Miami Beach Police Department that included 200 rugged mobile printers and its own software.
It’s always nice when your solutions not only solve a business problem, but make life a little safer and better for users. This was the case for a recent installation by integrator/ISV iyeTek, which specializes in solutions for law enforcement. The integrator was approached by the Miami Beach Police Department to alleviate a handful of the problems that it was facing.
According to Salman Anwar, director of operations for the integrator, Miami Beach Police Department was looking for a way to increase productivity in crash reporting at the scene of accidents. “Officers wrote their notes for the seven-page report, which led to a number of problems,” explains Anwar. “Handwriting was time-consuming, therefore scenes weren’t able to be cleared quickly, endangering all of those involved and delaying traffic. There were also issues with illegible writing.” At times there were instances of human error caused by the officers overlooking essential aspects of the report, for example, checkboxes and other mandatory fields that are required by the state to be completed correctly.
All these issues slowed down the process of submitting completed reports, which had two significant negative impacts. One, accident victims did not have access to their reports to get the insurance process moving along quickly, and two, the Florida Department of Highway Safety And Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) was inefficient in analyzing areas of high incidents to identify potential problems (malfunctioning traffic lights, poor signage, etc.) on the roadways. “By not getting the reports filed quickly and accurately, everyone was suffering and lives were potentially at stake,” he says.
For its solution, iyeTek loaded its iyeCrash software on laptops already installed in the Miami Beach police cars. Using the software ensures all required fields are filled in and gives officers the ability to autopopulate certain sections (e.g. vehicle information, driver license information, date, officer’s name, etc.). “Officers are now able to fill in the seven-page report in half the time,” Anwar explains. “Since accuracy is ensured, reports are filed the same day, allowing the DHSMV to immediately respond to any patterns found when analyzing accident reports.”
Additionally, iyeTek installed Brother Mobile RuggedJet 4030 4-inch thermal printers in all the cars, enabling officers to print driver exchange forms for those involved in an accident while still on the scene. The integrator chose the Brother printers because they were rugged and because they were thermal models that use fewer consumables and don’t rely on ink, which can fail in extreme temperatures.
Create A Win-Win For Your Clients
The RuggedJets also were used as part of the department’s new citation-writing solution that included the iyeCitation ticket-writing software installed on the officers’ laptops. Similar to crash reporting, paper-based citations were vulnerable to human error — errors that could often cause citations to be invalidated. The iyeCitation software enables officers to fill out citations more accurately and in one quarter of the time it took with the previous system. Additionally, the software has several built-in safety features, one of which alerts an officer if the driver license number entered returned as a fugitive or known felon.
Once citations are issued, the RuggedJet 4030 enables the officer to quickly print and distribute the citation to the citizen. An added benefit of thermal printing is that the printed tickets are able to withstand direct sunlight without fading. IyeTek sold the Miami Beach Police Department an enterprise license to use its iyeCitation software in 200 police cars. Additionally, the integrator sold and installed 200 of the Brother mobile printers.
IyeTek gave the iyeCrash software to the Miami Beach Police Department for free in exchange for the ability to provide the reports to people (charging a $7 convenience/transaction fee on top of the agency’s report fee) via its e-commerce site. The agency’s report fee is reimbursed to the department every month. This is the standard way the integrator offers this software. According to Anwar, it’s a winwin for police departments. “By offering the reports online, it reduces the burden on the department’s records bureau and creates a cost-recovery model, rather than an expense.” The department completes about 6,000 crash reports each year with iyeTek’s software and the Brother mobile printers.