Customer SolutionCase Study
/ Software FirmCuts Deployment Costs and Increases Profits with Cloud Technology
“By moving lovecleanstreets to the Windows Azure platform, we made an immediate 28 per cent saving on hosting and solution management costs.”
Ian Blackburn, Director, bbits
bbits created an award-winning portal called lovecleanstreets for Lewisham Council in the United Kingdom (U.K.). After the site attracted nationwide interest, the company redeveloped the site as a cost-effective, scalable application based on Windows Azure. With cloud technology, bbits generated an immediate 28 per cent return on investment by reducing management and deployment costs. London’s Mayor Boris Johnson launched the London site in March 2011.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published August 2011
Business Needs
bbits is a software development company based in Kent in the U.K. The Microsoft Certified Partner specialises in creating applications that improve the way in which services are delivered to citizens.
In 2010, it worked with the London Borough of Lewisham to create lovecleanstreets, a web portal from which citizens can document and report environmental crime in their neighbourhoods. Built on bbits technology called Mediaklik, lovecleanstreets was an immediate success. Citizens can upload photographs of environmental crimes, such as dumped rubbish or graffiti seen in
their neighbourhoods, and also file reports on the website. The council uses the data to respond quickly to citizen complaints and requests for services. Soon after the portal went live in March 2010, the council’s response rate for clearing graffiti improved by 87 per cent, and complaints from citizens dropped by 30 per cent.
lovecleanstreets attracted nationwide media interest and the company was given the opportunity to roll out the solution across London. This presented a challenge. Ian Blackburn, Director at bbits, says: “In a traditional hosted environment, you have to try to predict what server capacity you’ll need, how many customers you’ll attract, and what user numbers will be. It’s usually an expensive and time-consuming process.”
bbits was aware that lovecleanstreets could potentially attract thousands of users, particularly in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics when London’s streets will be under worldwide scrutiny. But at the same time, the U.K. government is demanding that local authorities reduce spending, open public services to competition, and increase efficiency across all business areas. “We needed a scalable, cost-effective way to deploy the solution quickly to 33 boroughs across London,” says Blackburn.
Solution
Blackburn decided to develop lovecleanstreets as a cloud-based service running on the Windows Azure platform. The application is hosted in Microsoft data centres, and guarantees 99.9 per cent uptime to bbits council customers. Citizens can download the lovecleanstreets application onto their Windows Phones, iPhone handsets, or Android phones—or access councils’ sites from their computers.
Blackburn says: “We subscribe to Windows Azure on a monthly basis, and only pay for what we use. Councils pay a yearly fee of £7,500, which includes a branded interface and a suite of mobile applications. This is cost-effective for councils, which can now cap their expenses to suit their budgets.”
It took just four months to develop lovecleanstreets on Windows Azure. “We went through a training period, and made some small configurations to the application, but it was relatively easy for us to become familiar with Windows Azure development tools and create the cloud application,” says Blackburn. For councils that want their websites to have a locally branded look and feel, bbits offers a customised version of the website. “We can deploy a branded website within three to four weeks,” says Blackburn.
Server provisioning is managed automatically, increasing or decreasing according to user and application requirements. bbits can add new clients to the solution instead of provisioning servers for each client. “It takes less than 15 minutes to provision new servers for clients,” says Blackburn.
Benefits
By developing lovecleanstreets on Windows Azure, bbits has created a cost-effective, scalable application that helps its local government customers cut administrative costs. bbits generated an immediate return on investment after deploying lovecleanstreets at Lewisham Council in November 2010, and, by March 2011, the portal was available to all boroughs in London. “As our customers grow, we’ll continue to increase revenue through tighter control of running costs,” says Blackburn.
- bbits generates 28 per cent return on investment.bbits only pays for what its customers consume, and Blackburn says profits are greater than before, when it ran the application in a traditional hosted environment. Blackburn says: “By moving lovecleanstreets to the Windows Azure platform, we made an immediate 28 per cent saving on hosting and solution management costs. Our financial model is more transparent now, and we can predict our expenses accurately.”
- Councils save money through increased efficiency.Medway Council in Kent is saving £20,000 a year because of the increased efficiency the service brings. The authority can control costs effectively with Windows Azure.
- Scalable platform enhances application performance.lovecleanstreets page views have increased by between 10 and 15 per cent a month since February 2010. “After the London Mayor Boris Johnson launched the site in March 2011, we experienced a peak in traffic. Page views tripled overnight, and continued for the week,” says Blackburn. But even with the sudden increase in users, lovecleanstreets performed seamlessly. “We’re delighted that the application performs better on Windows Azure than it did before,” says Blackburn.
- Portal reduces costs and improves citizen satisfaction.As clean up times have become shorter, the cost of processing complaints has decreased. Nigel Tyrell, Head of Environment at Lewisham Council, says: “The relationship between citizens and the council improved significantly after the portal was created. Citizens can now see that the council is proactive about enhancing services and supporting local communities. It’s also more cost effective for the council if citizens submit complaints online. For example, it takes just £1.50 to process a report from lovecleanstreets compared to £5.10 for a complaint made to a customer service employee.”
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published August 2011