Leamington Spa-based Yotta to help UK councils get residents’ issues resolved faster
Yotta, a global connected asset management and services provider, has announced a partnership with local authority services provider, SocietyWorks to provide a revolutionary solution that will enhance service delivery and engagement with the public, while resolving citizen issues faster and more efficiently.
The combined solution will allow citizens to report any public street issue: from potholes to broken street lights, or loose drain covers, using SocietyWorks’ online service, FixMyStreet Pro. That information is then seamlessly transitioned to Yotta’s connected asset management software, Alloy, operating at the back end.
Alloy triggers an alert to maintenance or inspection teams to take appropriate action, which can be forwarded to operatives working on their mobile devices out in the field. Once a task has been completed, Alloy can similarly automate an update into FixMyStreet, where ultimately a communication can feed back to the residents that their issue has been resolved.
SocietyWorks is the wholly owned subsidiary of mySociety, the charity that has been putting citizens at the heart of local authority services for more than a decade. It offers a complete suite of products for highways, environment and public realm reporting.
Sam Orton, Transformation Accounts, Yotta said: “Both residents and local authorities want to see resources put to the best possible use in order to make public funds go as far as possible. It is therefore more important than ever for councils to improve their connection with residents and operational maintenance responses. Communication has always been key to an authority’s relationship with the public and we believe our new partnership with SocietyWorks will allow us to deliver this capability for councils and their public.
David Eaton, Sales Director, SocietyWorks said: “The joint service offering we can deliver benefits councils financially by enabling them to streamline processes and therefore save time and money, it also helps them to deliver an enhanced experience for members of the public. Citizens benefit from getting a better delivery outcome from any queries or requests they may have which, in turn, helps strengthen the reputation of the council in the community.”
When engaging with new clients, both companies are already proactively looking for opportunities where they can combine their offerings to deliver an integrated end-to-end service and bring in the other’s expertise. While the new integrated solution will initially be utilised primarily for highways and street works applications, the two companies see great potential for it to be used over time for a much wider range of applications from reporting missed bins to processing payments for garden waste to broken street-lighting to issues with grounds maintenance.
As Yotta’s Orton confirms: “In any service area where Alloy can deliver connected asset management for councils, we also see potential to bring in FixMyStreet Pro to streamline service delivery and enhance citizen engagement.”
