Gain the flexibility to focus on real tasks

By Sebastian Althen

One of the most common impacts of the global economic crisis is the rise in reduced short-term budgets in connection with decreased mid- to long-term resources for public administration – generally as an integral part of larger cost saving plans. And with different departments increasingly finding themselves saddled with greater responsibilities, this means achieving the same – or increased – goals with fewer resources.

So how to manage this transition and deliver high performance while dealing with all of the varying challenges? The answer is the same as that used to address similar challenges in most industries throughout the last century: focus on your core competencies. For example, ask yourself, as a department of transport professional or equivalent in a city municipality, whether IT operation and the running of server farms represents your core competence? Should you worry more about data traffic or rather it's road and rail equivalent?

The vast majority of companies in the private sector have been outsourcing auxiliary operations to specialised companies for a very long time now; just think of mail services, payroll accounting, catering, facility management, etc., all of which allow organisations (and smaller organisations in particular) to concentrate on their real, individual tasks, and still enjoy the advantages of professional and experienced services at a fair cost.

Yet despite the obvious advantages offered by outsourcing these types of functions, most traffic administration organisations are still spending a significant amount of time and budget on running their own IT staff, one or more experts for the urban traffic control (UTC) application, software maintenance, training, appropriate server facilities with air condition and uninterruptable power supply, redundant data storage, a local communication network and many more things required for professional UTC operation. And on top of that, they are still carrying the risk of operation for these installations and the availability of the traffic control system.

Of course, there are economies of scale in this field, and cities of over one million inhabitants might be able to justify such capital and operation expenditures; but what about small to medium sized municipalities?

Renowned players in the global traffic management business - such as Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems - offer to connect field devices to their own professionally maintained UTC system, fully operated by themselves. The users have full access for status monitoring and traffic control from their normal office computers, so that they can use the application just as if it was located right beneath their desks - an approach that is already widely known in other industries under the term application service provision (ASP).

A closer look at the ASP offering quickly reveals a number of typical benefits:

• Mature, proven UTC application: performing in numerous 'classic' installations all around the globe

• Professional operation: after all, it is the vendor itself that takes care of the system

• Fair price: manageable and transparent cost

This allows even small municipalities with, for instance, 20-70 intersections to utilise an urban traffic control system that might usually be far beyond their budgets. Further, they do not have to think about server locations, updates and fixes, etc., but can instead focus on the traffic control itself.

Of course, what you will need to successfully focus on your traffic control without sacrificing any resources to UTC centre operation is an application provider with experience in the reality of traffic control. Add commitment to long-term collaboration and an outstanding and field-proven UTC system, and you are on the way to getting support in focusing on what you do best: managing traffic.

Since 2004, Sebastian Althen has been Innovation and Product Manager for Intelligent Traffic Systems for Siemens Traffic Solutions in Munich. In this role he is responsible for environmentally conscious traffic management and the Traffic Information innovation project.