Untangling covert operations – ABM grants users’ wish list with improved abmpegasus™ functionality

Simplifies and speeds up workflow, reduces bureaucracy and administration

Nottingham, 13 May 2010– Intelligence, investigation and criminal justice software solutions specialist, ABM, today launches the latest generation of its covert policing and intelligence suite, abmpegasus™. The system’s enhanced modules deliver considerable high value enhancements to boost usability and efficiency in intelligence led covert policing.

Explicitly designed to simplify covert policing processes, abmpegasus™ reduces bureaucracy and administration, offering maximum flexibility and sophisticated functionality through a user friendly interface. The solution encompasses Source Management, Information in Confidence (IIC), Protected Persons, Communications, Surveillance and Debrief, Intelligence Source Register (ISR) and Undercover.

The extended functionality is the culmination of an extensive two-day workshop held at ABM’s Nottingham head office. The 30 attending police forces came together to discuss the abmpegasus™ solution and compile a wish list of improvements.

Workshop participant, Detective Constable Richard Paterson from Strathclyde Police explains: “User groups provide the perfect forum for presenting new ideas for improving abmpegasus™ and ensuring it continues to meet all legislative requirements. Many of these ideas appear as new features in later versions of the software. Not only do I find these meetings important in ensuring abmpegasus™ meets the requirements of the Force, but they help maintain the close working relationship we have with the ABM team.”

Emma Campbell, RIPA Compliance Officer at Cleveland Police continues: “It is reassuring to know that ABM had the foresight to consult with its customers whilst the product was being developed. Equally important was that we, the customer, took an active role in this process.”

The consensus was to further simplify and speed up workflow, reduce bureaucracy and administration. Improvements included elements like time zone enhancements, batch printing and a summary screen printing option, all of these helping officers transform information into valuable intelligence, in line with legislative requirements and established best practice.

“ABM thrives on maintaining close contact with our customers,” explains Anton Roe, Director of Operations at ABM. “This allows us to adopt a flexible response for software development with a quick turnaround time, acting with speed and agility to change proposals and error reports.

“The quality of the abmpegasus™ user experience is of paramount importance. Building software that delivers a first-class user experience requires a symbiotic relationship between ABM’s software designers, engineers and business teams, and of course, the end-users. We maintain a delicate balance of users’ needs with the practical realities of sustaining application improvement throughout the product lifecycle.”

The processes in abmpegasus™ facilitate best practice procedures as well as ensuring adherence to legislation. Overall administration time is significantly reduced so police officers can focus resources where it is most needed, rather than being slowed down by unwieldy paper processes.

abmpegasus™ is the leading covert policing tool in today’s law enforcement environment and is fully compliant with UK legislation and standards, including the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), National Intelligence Module (NIM), ACPO Codes of Practice, Community Service Policy (CSP) and the Government Protective Marking Scheme (GPMS) . It is designed in accordance with Information Systems Strategy for the Police Service (ISS4PS), CESG ITSEC ORACLE Certification and a number of other initiatives.

ABM’s specialist software team is already underway with the next set of improvements expected this Autumn, which will further refine the search functionality to enable more targeted and speedier searches.