Developing the Use of Technical Tools in Cross-Border Resettlement (DUTT)

Transcription

1 European Union Developing the Use of Technical Tools in Cross-Border Resettlement () Video Conferencing Booking and Evaluation Tool - Design, Development & Implementation Overview Authors: Mudassir Shaik, London Probation Trust and Ernst Eilering, Custodial Institutions Agency This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the project partnership and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.

2 Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Description 4 3. Benefits 5 4. Application Overview Registration User Dashboard post log in 9 5. Technical Summary Application design Financial Summary Indicative Summary Support Provision Recommendations 18 2

3 1. Introduction As part of the EU funded project on Developing the Use of Technical Tools in Cross-Border Resettlement (), it was proposed that a booking and evaluation tool be designed and developed in order to assist in the use of Video Conference Technology (VCT) across EU Member States and respective Criminal Justice Services (CJS) for example Courts, Prison, Probation, Police etc. Such a system was deemed to be of particular benefit in supporting the EU Framework Decisions 909 and 947 and encouraging the take up of VCT as a means of communication in prison and probation transfers. With a large number of Criminal Justice Services potentially considering the use of VCT for the purposes of cross-border resettlement, the issue of connection could be better enhanced by ensuring each country and agency has access and information on the VCT resources available in other Member States in order to establish business and service contacts. This system would substantiate the requirement and the benefits of deploying a tool which acts as a video meeting scheduler and also provides usage statistics for individual EU member states and organisations. The system would also hold information about avaialble MCU s (Multipoint Calling Units) at an organisational level, and supplier information for support services. MCU remains one of the mandatory piece of hardware that is required to establish a connection in most scenarios, thus information resources like this will certainly gain popularity and promote the use of video conferencing across EU for the proposed framework decisions and also for other legal meetings. Before commencing the development of the tool, the application requirement was scoped; and potential stakeholders such as Criminal Justice Services across the EU were identified. If the application were to be developed, then it will need a fully functional and categorically defined process for all CJS, regardless of the timezone, language and additional set-ups they may have. This would require a detailed study of each orgainsation in each state for example a court, prison and probation office in each country, to asses the technical capabilities including a study on existing infrastructure. For example, it has been identified that Austria currently maintains a database for the court video meetings purposes at a national level, which is available on the EU Justice website. The aim of the web application tool therefore would be to incorporate all such systems into one central database with access to individual subscribers where they could not only organise video meetings at local or state level but could also have sufficient information through to arrange video meetings internationally. 3

4 A detailed study of all European CJS would have required considerable time. In addition, a live web application would have required additional technical resources and hardware requirements. For this reason, the project board decided to develop a prototype which would provide a high level understanding of the capabilities of the system. 2. Description The proposed Booking and Evaluation Tool will cater for the demand to effectively manage the use of video conferencing facilities across the EU member states for various Criminal Justice Proceedings within Courts, Prisons and Probation business. The tool will be accessible with file permissions i via internet ensuring secure access to the subscribers of the system. The tool will be a secure web based application, hosted within a secure environment. It will be implemented with required compliance from relevant security standard agencies and will act as a central database for all European Video Conferencing End Points (updated on a regular basis with registered and permitted EU CJS agencies). The system can be used by any legal organisation and its employees who are involved within the CJS across the European Union, looking to get information on video technology and facilities available in other CJS agencies within their own and other Member States. Some of the core information held in this tool will be: 1. Details of subscribed organisations from each member state; 2. List of Video End Points per organisation in each member state; 3. Business & Technical contacts; 4. On-Site coordinators; and 5. Individual Registered Interpretors and Interpreter Agencies. The information recorded within the system will further lead to substantiate the online and direct booking process which can be arranged via a system generated and an online request. 4

5 The bookings will include details of the meeting, business information, legal requirement data and other quantifiable data 1 which will enable the tool to evaluate and provide usage data and necessary facts regarding the type of usage, for example most popularly used for cross-border resettlement between German Probation and UK Probation and Prisons, number of meetings held between each organisation involved, number of cases dealt, number offender interviews held, number of probation to probation meetings held etc. Some of the additional information the system should record will be the interpreter information such as interpreter name, language, location, telephone details, interpreter presence via phone or video. 3. Benefits o EU wide Video End Point Directory available at a single click via the internet - curently there are no striaght forward means to arrange a video meeting or to identify which organisations in the European justice sector can hold video meetings. o Single Database - single point of reference for video conference technology related information across the European Justice Area. o Web based application service accessible throughout the EU region. o A simple process to organise video meetings across the European member states as explained in the booking section o Language based Interpreter data and information. o National level Video End Point Directory with filters per organisation. o Hosted within a secure network with disaster recovery, the application will be hosted in live environment with daily database backup including a disaster recovery incase there is damage to live environment. o Full access via subscription and verification process to consume the ongoing maintenance costs (the system once fully operation will hold a lot of valuable data thus a set up fee and an annual subscription fee will provide its users the value for money). 1 Quantifiable Data: Data which can be used for analysis purposes by organisations associated, for example the type of meetings that were held between x and y agencies for resettlement purposes only, and other filtered data that can substantiate the use of VCT in any way. 5

6 o System will encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing opportunities, with subscribers able to share business contacts and other valuable information stored within the system. o The system will hold up to date contact information for real time Video Service managers at individual offices listed with availability of video conferencing facility. 4. Application Overview As part of the project, London Probation Trust has developed a prototype live on scoping the initial scale development and hosting requirement for the Web based Booking Application and Evaluation Tool. The following sections explain how this would work and what each section would incorporate. 6

7 4.1 Registration The web application will load when a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is accessed through a web browser. The applcation will only be accessible to approved and fully subscribed users. European CJS can register their interest for subscription and using the tool for the purpose booking and evaluating video meetings. Following this subscription request submission, the information provided will be verified and approved by the Maintenance and Managing Authority 2 before arranging access. If the subscription request is approved (the approval criteria will further need to be studied and discussed in detail) then users will be allowed access to the system by the provision of secure user logon details. a. Non Subscribed User View: b. Registration Request Form: Authorised agencies who would like to access the system must provide the following information, which will then be verified by the Maintenance and Managing Authority before the access the information available within the system or use any booking or evaluation functions of the system. 2 Maintenance and Managing Authority A group of users of the system or a single member who will be assigned the authority to approve new users and ensure their details are up to date 7

8 Note* the information requested here is based on priliminary view therefore can be reviewed if necessary. The idea is to keep it to minimum in the initial stage. c. Verification Verified users will receive a username and password to the provided at the time of registration.the verifcation process may include obtain further information additional to the registration form if required to substantiate the use. d. Registered User A registered user can be an employee of any CJS across Europe whose details have been verified and will have a Username and Password from the Managing Authority. A registered user will not have full access to the system, as compared to the user s who have a Subscription. 8

9 4.2 Overview of User Dashboard Post Logon a. Information & Guidance Section: The general information page will hold information about EU CJS where video conferencing can be used, including business purposes. 9

10 b. Video Conferencing End Point Directories: Under the location section there will be a list of all EU member states and within each member state the system will hold a list of all subscribed video end points. This will inculde all agencies that have subscribed with the system and some included by the system administrators during the deployment process. For example if the United Kingdom location is selected then you would see the list of all organisations that have subscribed with the system (eg courts, prisons, probations, immigration departments etc), their video end points (including information such as connection type and business contact). c. Booking Section the booking section on the system will allow direct bookings between any subscribed agency based in any country. For example if the Dutch CIA would like to setup a video meeting with the Latvian State Probation Services the the following process would be adopted: 1) go to the booking section; 2) go to create a new booking; 3) filter countries to Latvia/Netherlands; 4) choose the subscribed organisation would like to setup a meeting with; 5) enter all required details on the booking form; 6) submit the request. This request will then be forwarded to both the Latvian/Netherlands agency and to the system administrator. They will further receive a confirmation on connection possbilities from the system administrator following with a system generated confirming the meeting time and dates to both 10

11 states. A telephone conversation between the business contacts provided within the system will help setting up the booking quickly. d. Subscription Section: In order to use the booking and evaluation function of the system each subscribing agency will be required to pay a mandatory yearly subscription fee which will allow them full funtions of the the system such as booking and evaluation. Non subscribed users of the system will be provided with read only access. Subscription Costs are subject to detailed analysis, this will ideally be looked at when the funding is secured to develop this prototype into a live project. e. Evaluation Section: The evaluation section is an essential aspect of the system. The system will record every meeting booked via this tool, the purpose of the meeting, the duration of the 11

12 meetings, the outcome of the meeting. Obtaining accurate usage statistics for all subscribed end points will eventually substantiate the investment made by businesses locally and also prove time saved in staff travelling including travel cost. For example if there were meetings held between netherlands probation and latvian probation officer there will be considerable saving that can be calculated by obtaining the statistics from the system. f. Service and Support: All users of the system will have 24x7 access via web. The application will be running as a live service which users can access round the clock, although the support procedure will have to be put in place according to the demand. The idea is to maintain a 24 Hour Service Level Agreement (SLA) initially. Any requests raised by the Support Ticketing Service on the system will be logged and submitted to the support team who will then get back to the user with a solution within the decided SLA. 12

13 g. Registration and Subscription Data: The following information will be stored in the booking and evaluation tool database and will be utilized for evaluation and bookings purposes. h. Language Translations: The application will be available in all EU languages with accessibility support functions. The system will accessible to the users with disabilities. 5. Technical Summary Based on the information available at present the following requirements of the solution are anticipated: o Accredited IL3 hosting environment o Accredited application Developed utilising MVC and.net technology Wintel architecture SQL database 13

14 Compliant with DPA (Data Protection Authority) Compliant with W3C standards(web Development Standard) o Back up Capabilities / Disaster Recovery (DR) solution capable of near real time synchronisation to a DR site minimising data loss o Virtualised hosting solution Resilient architecture Scalable hosting for future growth o Application available to: o European Criminal Justice Agencies o Subscribed Services Users only o Full Access via Internet Gateway o Application will not store or process data marked higher than IL3 / RESTRICTED Significant deviation from these assumed requirements would impact initial solution design proposals and associated costs 5.1 Application Design The system will require further information on the below, this would ideally be analysed at the time of commencement of the project or after the funding is secured for the development of this tool: o Application architecture - this is the core software development architecture and the database design which will require sufficient information of all prospective stakeholders, this can be finalised at the time when the funding for this application is secured. o Application stakeholders - these are the actual users of the system, if it is a CJS then whichever agency is a prospective user will be a stakeholder, anyone who is investing in the development of the system, business analysis team, technical team of developers and any external suppliers if required. o Roles and responsibilities the system will be designed using Role based access model, users will have access to the system according to their requirement, users may have restricted access to 14

15 certain areas within the system. Like the system will have System Administrator, Super Administrator, Administrator, User, and Read Only User. o Database fields required for any additional fields that the system may require. o The system will be designed and developed using HTML,ASP.NET, MVC Architecture and SQL Server 2008 Database 6. Financial Summary The proposal is to provide the application as a service via the internet. The application will be based on two categories - the registration category will provide access to information and content as read only. Listing the endpoint will be absolutely free of cost. Full subscription will be requried for a user who would like to book, manage bookings and retrieve data for evaluation purposes. The subscription will have an annual cost and monthly cost ideally. The subscription fees would be studied in detail if the application were developed in full. The maintenance and annual subscription could gain revenue to the funding authority as the system will be used by EU wide justice organisations. There could potentially be additional financial gains from Interpretor Agencies who would like to list their services on the system. 6.1 Indicative Costing One off Costs The Infrastructure in the table below is scoped to provide hosting for: Two servers and licensing at Live site Two servers and licensing at DR site A full costing model can be created only when the full software designs are in place and available to the Technical and Solution Architects for review. 15

16 Item Quantity Cost per item in EUROS Total in EUROS Windows Server 2003 Ent 4 1, , SQL Server , , VMware VSphere 4.1 Ent 8 2, , HP BL460C 4 4, , HW Support , SW Support , TOTAL For the accreditation of the increased Infrastructure and application the following estimates have been made: CLAS 3 consultancy 30 days IT Health Check 8 days Security Accreditor 10 days Cost 38, Euros During the design phase approximately 40 days of high and low level design documentation would need to be created to support the accreditation work. 40 days X = Euros. Application development totalling 140 days is anticipated x per day = Euros During the implementation 20 days of network and windows engineer time is expected to be used i.e. 40 days x = Euros Internal resource costs are anticipated to be in the region of 114, Euros not including any project management time associated with the project. 3 CLAS : Refer 16

17 Ongoing Costs It is anticipated that the booking solution will consume approximately 0.5 FTE of a technical specialist within the In-house team. An allocation in the region of 120, Euros would be feasible to cover this on a yearly basis. A change request process to handle change to the agreed specification will need to be established. Total Cost for Design, Development and Hosting A sum of all the above costs including the 1 year annual support cost is Euros. 7. Support Provision The post deployment and go live support is a mandatory requirement for this web application as it has such a vast prospective user scope. If a supplier is funded to develop this solution, they will also be required to provide on-going support for the below Continual bug fix support for application will cover any technical and coding errors that may arise due to load on the system, and any other unexpected bugs and errors within the system. Management of change control and incident processes will provide support for any changes requested to the system post live. The system changes will be recorded and will be approved by the stakeholders then will be released as an upgrade for the users. The application will be designed to be scalable. Hosting support to ensure the application is live 24x7 with quality of service required and to maintain a 100% up time guarantee. Subscribed agencies will be required to raise a support request on the online ticketing system which will then be received by the support team The support provider should provide a full extensive list of exclusions, which they do not cover under the standard support contract 17

18 8. Recommendations A central european justice authority to fund the development of this project because this tool will not only require the funding but will also require additional formal directives to regional and other national justice organisations to subscribe and to maintain their information up to date on this system The Central authority to influence and promote EU member states to subscribe to the booking and evaluation tool realising the benefits Setting up a European Video Conference Solutions & Service Delivery Board including Courts, Prison & Police teams,for the development of the use of the video technology across the eurpoean justice organisations it will be a realistic approach to form a Board with bussines contacts from influential authorities at state level and other members who work in their local areas to promote the use of video conferencing. Assign a lead organization within each member state to act as subcentral administrator to the system Encourage interpretor agencies to register with the booking and evaluation tool as this will be very useful while arranging video meetings which require presence of an interpretor. The interpretor contact details could then be made available on the system for the users to contact them directly. 18