Upgrade of VRES ELVIS-VR System

The Easy Link Vehicle Information System (ELVIS-VR) on-premise version 3.1 is old and end-of-life and is not compatible with Metropolitan Police Service Windows 10 mobile devices. The on-premise ELVIS-VR is 35 releases behind and therefore lacks the functionality of the much later version used by other police forces/agencies across the UK and prevents the Metropolitan Police Service from working collaboratively with 3rd parties and other agencies (on a regional and national level).

In line with the ONE MET Digital Poling Strategy 2017- 2020, and adopting a ‘cloud first’ principle making use of public cloud offerings whenever possible, it is recommended to decommission the current on-premise ELVIS-VR and migrate to a supplier-managed Software as a Service (SaaS) UKCloud hosted WPC Soft ELVIS-VR. This approach provides good value for money, and will ensure that the Metropolitan Police Service has the most recent version of the ELVIS-VR application and interfaces available for use at all times.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

• Approve the recommendation to decommission end-of-life on premise ELVIS-VR, migration of all data and upgrade to current 3rd Party WPC Soft ELVIS-VR Software as a Service hosted within UKCloud.

• Approve the Capital and Revenue expenditure within the funding options.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Easy Link Vehicle Information System (ELVIS-VR) is essential to VRES operations, as it enables the Metropolitan Police Service to provide vehicle recovery, removal, examination, retention and disposal service to meet its statutory requirements and duty of care related to vehicles involved in road traffic collisions, concerned in crime, seized under police powers or criminal/decriminalised parking offences.

1.2. The on-premise version of ELVIS-VR currently used by the Metropolitan Police Service is technically out-of-support. It is 35 releases behind the current version that is available to the Metropolitan Police Service as a SaaS solution. It therefore lacks the functionality of the much later version used by other police forces/agencies across the UK, resulting in many administrative functions that could be automated, still requiring manual input from VRES car pound staff.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Being 35 versions behind is preventing the Metropolitan Police Service from working collaboratively with 3rd parties and other agencies (on a regional and national level). All the neighbouring police forces use ELVIS-VR, and dependent on usual information security and data sharing caveats, the new ELVIS-VR SaaS instance could be configured appropriately for reciprocated searching.

2.2. VRES are not gaining from the benefits of the full functionality of ELVIS-VR, resulting in a number of manual processes with high data processing issues.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The capital spend of £226k is fully funded from the Digital Policing capital plan. The additional revenue costs of £81k in 2018/19 will be funded from the Digital Policing budget provision for inflation. In future years additional savings will need to be identified to cover the full year cost of £139k p.a.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £181,302 or above must be procured in accordance with the Regulations. There are no significant legal issues arising by upgrading from on-premise ELVIS-VR to Software as a Service ELVIS-VR.

5. Equality Comments

5.1. The nine Protected Characteristics specified by the Equality Act 2010 have been considered, and the only one to be engaged by upgrading to ELVIS-VR Software as a Service is disability. The latest version of ELVIS-VR is compatible with assistive technology and this will be fully tested against that used in the Metropolitan Police Service as part of the acceptance testing.

6. Background/supporting papers

6.1. Report