SunGard Helps Greater Manchester Police Provide Enhanced Security for the Labour Party Conference 2008
Wednesday, 19 November, 2008
Greater Manchester Police initiated a new Operational Control Room in Manchester to provide enhanced security for the 2008 Labour Party Conference.
Building on previous achievements of the two organisations, in April 2008, SunGard was awarded the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) TETRA Radio Managed Service Contract. In September 2008, the city of Manchester hosted the annual Labour Party Conference, which required GMP to replicate London security levels - a major challenge since all UK Government departmental heads were based in Manchester for the period of the conference.
The time from the award of the contract to the conference itself was just four months. In the build up to the conference, SunGard worked in close cooperation with GMP to design, build and fit the Integrated Communications Control System (ICCS) elements of the new Operational Control Room (OCR), known locally as the Command Module.
The core of this system is the "spare" SunGard DS2000 ICCS which is used for training and updating GMP's control room operators. SunGard redeveloped this system to become a fully operational ICCS which was then integrated with GMP's other OCR's.
SunGard's Communications Systems Support and Field Service teams were heavily involved in the design and development of the system from the outset. This included the physical movement of the existing equipment into a new facility and working with GMP to help provide an appropriate layout. GMP believes that the new Command Module is amongst the most advanced of its kind in Europe.
As well as the development of the ICCS, SunGard provided additional support to GMP helping ensure spare TETRA radio handsets and other essentials were available throughout the conference period. SunGard's Service team worked with GMP to help ensure selected operational officers and vehicles had the Automatic Resource Location System (ARLS) activated on both personal and vehicle radio equipment, undertaking upgrades to hardware, including ancillaries such as batteries and audio equipment.
Ian Murgatroyd, radio network services manager at GMP, said, "SunGard worked extremely hard in delivering a resilient ICCS solution for the Command Module and the local service delivery team pulled out all the stops in provisioning and supplying the identified handheld and vehicle radios that were integral in achieving the success of the operation."
Paul Moffat, head of radio network services at SunGard, said, "SunGard has worked in close collaboration with Greater Manchester Police throughout previous and current contracts. The agreed long-term technology refresh programmes placed the Force in a good position to introduce the new technology and services to support the Labour Party conference. This was backed up by a lot of hard work allowing the event itself to run smoothly."
