About British Transport Police With more than 3,000 police officers, special constables and police staff, British Transport Police provides a policing service throughout England, Wales and Scotland which covers the national railway system, the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, and the Midland Metro and Croydon Tramlink systems.

More than five million passenger journeys are made every day on Britain's railways, and over a quarter of a million tons of freight moves around the network. British Transport Police has the unique task of ensuring that this traffic takes place within a safe environment that is free from disruption, graffiti and antisocial behaviour, as well as the ever present threat of serious crime and terrorism.

Ageing IT estate British Transport Police’s IT estate was becoming increasingly slow and unreliable; users complained that PCs took up too much space on the desktop, and managing and supporting the desktop fleet had become increasingly resource-intensive for the IT department.

The solution With the decision to upgrade more than 1,900 of the transport police’s PCs, DTP was selected to provide a comprehensive mix of technology products and support services over the course of a 10-month rollout programme.

The project commenced with site surveys, during which DTP established the current network infrastructure, desktop estate and user requirements.

This was followed by UK-wide PC rollout which included configuring the new equipment by installing a software image on each PC. "Disk imaging was a key requirement for us" said Andrew Watson, Head of Technology at British Transport Police, "because it made rolling out and managing the estate so much easier."

Stable, manageable IT fleet Replacement equipment took the form of HP TFT monitors and ultraslim PCs running Windows® XP and Microsoft® Windows® Office 2003 which would deliver faster processing speeds and improved compatibility with internal systems. In order to ensure that the new PCs occupied the minimum of desktop space, DTP proposed an innovative solution which involved removing the original stand supplied with the monitor and replacing it with an integrated work centre stand, essentially combining the monitor and PC into a single unit with a footprint occupying just one third of the space of the original desktops.

In determining specifications, British Transport Police also wanted PCs with a planned lifecycle, image and hardware stability, ensuring ease of management and support for as long as possible into the future. HP equipment was able to meet this requirement with ease.

Evaluation equipment To allow the transport police to assess units before committing to final specifications, DTP provided evaluation equipment which included full software image support.

Complex project With a project of this scale and complexity, it was vital that it was very tightly managed. DTP carefully controlled every aspect of the programme, ensuring the work was kept on schedule and that any changes to the original scope - such as adjustments to stocks and delivery quantities, locations and dates - were accommodated.

Stuart Broadbent, National Sales Manager for DTP comments: "With such a large number of products that needed to be built to order, DTP's supply chain management abilities were tested to the full - we had to plan for varying manufacturer leadtimes and product lifecycles in order to make sure that products and components were available to fit a very precise schedule. To ensure consistency of supply we also provided a stock bonding service."

DTP and British Transport Police Project Managers worked closely throughout the programme, rapidly rolling out nearly 2,000 PCs across 100 locations with computing facilities using a very small, but flexible combined team of staff which included a permanent on-site resource to manage the project.

Andrew singles out the logistics and team-working elements of the programme for particular comment: "The correct numbers of machines were delivered, exactly as planned, to each site. We agreed how the work would be divided between our own and DTP’s staff but were able to help each other when needed".

"DTP also kept all the hardware and services costs on target throughout the project", adds Andrew, "so there were no deviations from budget or nasty surprises."

As part of the project plan, DTP scheduled regular review meetings with British Transport Police, at which progress reports and budgets were presented and discussed. This allowed DTP to develop a close understanding of the issues faced by British Transport Police and to add further value by helping to identify ways in which a broader range of technology solutions could be leveraged to its benefit.

Secure disposal With equipment that couldn’t be reused, DTP also arranged for data erasure following a period of quarantine, and donation to charity.

Transparency of costs Faced with strong competition at the bid stage, DTP worked hard to put forward a solution that offered best value, proposing a simple unit cost arrangement - encompassing all hardware and services - that would remain static throughout the life of the project irrespective of the location where the desktop was being installed. Also built into the price were a number of additional support services including regular project review meetings and on-site resources to manage rollout.

Phase Two Under a separate contract, DTP will provide procurement, delivery and image management services which will see a further 1,000 desktops brought up to specification.

As an approved supplier to the UK’s emergency services under the National Framework Agreement for PCs, printers and associated hardware negotiated by Thames Valley Police on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers, DTP has also provided British Transport Police with a wide range of additional IT hardware and services including:

• UK-wide server installation planning and implementation
• Cluster servers and setup
• Complex Blade server systems and setup
• Storage & SAN
• High redundancy racks
• Operating system setup
• System management tools
• Training
• Windows server™ Active directory® consultancy
• Backup and Symantec Backup Exec™ software consultancy
• Exchange consolidation consultancy

Always innovating Throughout its long history British Transport Police has been an innovator in the use of IT. The first arrest to be made as a result of information technology came as early as 1845 when the then newly invented electric telegraph was used to circulate a murderer’s description.

Things have come a long way since but, with this latest technology injection, British Transport Police is now better placed to meet its objectives of reducing disruption and danger associated with the modern-day threats of terrorism, crime and public disorder.

For more information contact:
Tel: 0113 276 0210
e-mail: ips@dtpgroup.co.uk