Making good
use of tried and tested ‘new' technology
Each of the organizations featured in the case studies in
this chapter faced significant challenges. London's was the world's largest
congestion charging scheme to be developed. The JTrack system for the Criminal
Justice System involved the input of 43 police forces and 42 Crown Prosecution
Service areas. The Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Trust needed a system that
would centralize procurement while simultaneously allowing clinicians to make
requisitions as they moved around wards. But the solutions found did not involve
state-of-the-art technology: instead, existing technology was used in new ways.
SMS text messaging was one of the ways in which Transport for London (TfL) made
paying the capital's new congestion charge as convenient as possible. JTrack
provided the agencies involved in the persistent offenders' scheme with secure
access to Web-hosted software. Clinicians in Bradford were given PocketPC
devices enabling them to place orders through a wireless network. After the
excesses of the e-business boom, organizations have focused their efforts on
leveraging existing technology in innovative ways, rather than investing in new
systems. The All England Lawn Tennis Club also used personal digital assistants
(PDAs), to get information to important people likely to be roaming around the
site - club officials, VIPs, and special guests - the first time that this
technology had been used on this scale anywhere in the world.