Efficiency savings by running ‘live’ meetings

Dramatic cost and efficiency savings are being made possible through an information sharing system that allows police to run ‘live’ multi-agency and team meetings with partners, even if they are not on secure networks.

E-CINS is a secure, cloud-based system that is enabling police and their partners, who are signed up to the system, to run paperless meetings and share information and documents from one place and at one time. With the Information Commissioner’s Office recently stating that 90 per cent of security breaches occur through paper documents, E-CINS provides an increased level of security by enabling partners to view and share information over a password-protected network.

Police and partners using E-CINS for meetings are reporting significant time and efficiency savings, cutting preparation, printing and distribution costs. It is also possible to hold virtual meetings, saving time and travelling costs for all involved.

The anti-social behaviour (ASB) unit at Waveney District Council has been using E-CINS in meetings for the past three years. Rachel Tucker, active communities officer (ASB), explained: “We use it at our fortnightly ASB partnership meetings, which we project onto television screens in our conference rooms. We no longer have to use agendas or type minutes as the information is already there on E-CINS – the agenda is our caseload. These can be accessed by individuals prior to the meetings by searching our team’s caseload on E-CINS.”

E-CINS’ tasking functionality can be used live in meetings negating the need for someone to take down actions and email them out. Tasks (actions) are also updated live within a ‘meeting case’, making it easier to see which tasks have been completed and which are outstanding. Cases, reports and profiles (people) can be linked to a meeting case so all the information is available at the meeting to be viewed by all participants. This dramatically cuts down the cost of printing and distribution and the time spent preparing for meetings and circulating information afterwards.

“The minutes are either added under the case log/actions page (at the moment it is discussed) or more confidential information is created under reports,” added Ms Tucker. “We also set our task from the meetings. The time spent on administration has reduced immensely. Once the two-hour meeting is over, there is no need to do anything else, unless you have a task sent to you from the meeting.”

Real-time information sharing through the system enables participants to update their information live during the meeting, so everyone is immediately kept in the loop of changes. Access permissions can be applied to a ‘meeting case’ so it can be locked down if information needs to be kept secure or confidential.