Unisys adds mobile access to HOLMES2

Unisys is teaming up with business mobility company Dexterra to provide mobile access to the police service’s investigation management system HOLMES2, currently used by all police forces across the UK.
The system plays a crucial role in assisting forces to manage the large amount of information generated by major criminal investigations and helps identify critical links between information from various different sources that could hold the key to solving a case.
Once complete, more than 5,000 police investigators, support staff and management from across 59 police forces could benefit from 24/7 access to HOLMES2 via mobile devices such as Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and RIM BlackBerrys.
The HOLMES2 mobilisation project will comprise 11 applications built on the Dexterra Concert mobility platform and will address areas such as managing case actions, storing information about exhibits and searching and cross-referencing information from multiple cases. These applications will be made available to the police service through 2010 and individual forces will also have the ability to choose the combination of applications that best suits their mobility needs.
Based on demand for greater mobility by law enforcement agencies and their personnel, Unisys worked closely with the UK police service to design additional products which enhance and extend the core functions of HOLMES2, allowing multiple discreet applications to be utilised by field personnel and deployed on mobile devices.
Forbes Gallagher, client Home Office account manager at Unisys, said: “To date, UK police service mobility projects have typically involved small, customised applications for one-off local deployments, making the addition of mobile capabilities to HOLMES2 incredibly significant.
“The Dexterra partnership enables us to deliver solutions capable of supporting thousands of users across the country.”