4-page Case Study - Posted 3/5/2007

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Beijing Municipal Administration Commission

City Administration Saves $875,000 Using Mobile Infrastructure Data Reporting

Beijing Municipal Administration Commission (BMAC) is the executive organ of Beijing municipal administration, covering 24 departments. It has 16 districts and 2 counties, with 11.3 million people under its management. BMAC wanted an integrated communication and administrative system to meet its expanding needs that could enable timely information flow, better response time, efficient administration and a responsive administrative mechanism. BMAC deployed Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 2003 platform for a mobile terminal-based multimedia data collection system, to create a new Digital City Management System (DCMS). This system enables minimum time to identify, report, and eventually solve infrastructure problems. The new system has accelerated the process of problem reporting and problem solving, increasing the problem identification rate by three times and saving $875,000.

Situation

Beijing Municipal Administration Commission (BMAC) is the civic administration responsible for the unified administration of city infrastructure, public utilities and environmental hygiene for the 11.3million inhabitants of Beijing, People’s Republic of China. BMAC administers 16 districts and two counties across 24 departments over an area of 16,800 square kilometers.

Faced with lack of timely information and the lack of a highly centralized and unified system, BMAC was suffering from isolated administration departments with overlapping managements and functions. As there was no IT-based reporting, all problems had to be reported by citizens or by regular manual checks – both of which were very inefficient.

The administrators were unable to respond quickly and effectively to civic problems leading to lack of an effective supervision and evaluation mechanism. In order to bring down its response time, the city management wanted a real-time, efficient system to transfer and exchange information between patrolling and supervisory staff.

Management needed a grid management method that involved all the field and supervisory staff, city administrators and city events management to co-ordinate efforts to respond quickly to problems of licensing, provision of utilities and public safety. This system would require a multi-functional communications tool based on mobile phones that would provide inter-connectivity to all stakeholders. The system would have to be specially designed for the city’s patrolling supervisors to quickly collect and transfer on-site data.

Solution

The Windows Mobile-based DCMS allows us to identify on-site problems and effectively solve them in real time. It assures smooth operation in providing citizens with higher quality and more effective.  Wu Yali Commissioner Beijing Municipal Administration Commission

The DCMS is linked with the government information sharing platform by the real-time wireless communication technology, which enables real-time data exchange through the Dopod 575 handheld devices. It provides fresh, detailed and accurate on-site information for city management, allowing the city management to respond quickly to civic problems. The system is specially designed for the patrolling supervisors to quickly collect and transfer on-site information. Patrolling supervisors send field reports with real-time information on city components and city events to the supervision center while, at the same time, receiving assignments from the supervision center.

The DCMS consists of the terminal application system and the server application supporting system. There are different servers in various districts that integrate GIS and Office automation system to monitor case status. Most of them are based on the J2EE platform. The terminal application system provides phone, form, on-site picture, recording and fast geographical positioning to collect a variety of on-site information on civic facilities. It then transfers the collected multimedia information to the electronic sharing platform in real time via the wireless network. The embedded electronic map technology and embedded GIS technology enables patrolling supervisors to mark the place where a problem occurs, on the device and then send it using the Windows Mobile devices back to the District’s city management supervision center.

The built-in data compression and encryption technology ensures accurate and secure transfer of the information.  Before the DCMS was implemented, there was no IT system to find and deal with the cases. All civic issues were either reported by citizens of were uncovered during periodic checks. This mechanism was very inefficient.

The mobile terminal application is deployed on Windows Mobile to and is embedded with the networked maps with 10 main functions including receiving and dialing calls, group SMS, information alert, picture collection, form completion, location positioning, recording and report, and map browsing. The new model enables patrolling supervisors to transfer and exchange the information in real time with the city management supervision center.

Benefits

With the introduction of the Windows Mobile-based DCMS, BMAC has achieved a simplified city management working process, standardized information, sharing of responsibilities, and professional on-site problem handling, and centralized command, dispatching and collaborative management.

The DCMS applies information technology into city management and helps digitize the city management process. While it improves the productivity of city management organizations and saves the management costs, it also provides convenience to the residents and can quickly solve the problems that they report.

“The DCMS allows us to identify on-site problems and effectively solve them in real time. It assures smooth operation in providing citizens with higher quality and more effective public services. It has created a solid city management model that is supervised and coordinated by the government, operated normatively by enterprises, and widely involves citizens,” says Wu Yali, Commissioner, BMAC.

Improved problem identification rate

The DCMS has accelerated the process of problems reporting and problem solving. With the patrolling supervisors’ real-time monitoring, the city management problems can be identified and solved more rapidly. It can help save a large amount of resources. The administration’s problem identification rate has trebled from 30 percent previously to 90 percent after adopting the system.

Accelerated the response time

The DCMS speeds up the process of reporting and solving civic problems. This enables the civic management to handle the problems more rapidly. It takes no more than five minutes for a patrolling supervisor to identify a problem and use the DCMS to take pictures, make a recording, enter the text information and send it back to the supervision center.

Improved productivity

The patrolling staff uses the wireless network to send real-time reports, which enables the mobile positioning system to identify the precise location of the problem area. The average time to complete a case is about 12 to 13 hours. Previously, it would take one week.

Reduced operating cost

The new model enables supervisors to file on-site reports. This has reduced the number of mandatory departmental inspections, thus saving about RMB7 million (around U.S. $ 875,000) in the overall inspection cost. The DCMS also saved 11 percent in personnel cost, amounting to RMB32.76 million (around U.S. $ 4million) in personnel costs. In addition, the new model provided jobs to 401 unemployed citizens in Beijing Dongcheng District.

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about China Mobile products and services, call +65 000 0000 or visit the Web site at:
www.chinamobile.com/ENGLISH/index.html

For more information about Beijing Mapabc Technologies products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.mapabc.com/declare/aboutus.htm

For more information about eGOVA products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.egova.com.cn

For more information about Beijing Municipal Administration Commission products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.bjmac.gov.cn/english/index.htm

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile brings the power of the Windows® operating system to mobile devices, helping businesses and their mobile employees stay connected while on the go. Windows Mobile runs mobile versions of Microsoft programs, including Microsoft Office Outlook® Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, Pocket MSN®, Windows Media® Player Mobile, and Microsoft Office Word Mobile, PowerPoint® Mobile, and Excel® Mobile. With Windows Mobile, information workers get powerful software combined with the familiarity of Windows. Combined with available service plans and connectivity options, Windows Mobile–based devices, available from 42 device makers and 68 mobile operators in 48 countries, can be used to make calls, send e-mail and instant messages, surf the Web, and access critical business information even when users are away from the office.

More information about Windows Mobile can be found at:
www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published March 2007