The software firm Littoralis has announced its new App for DISC, the secure information-sharing system for crime reduction partnerships.
The App is for users of DISC systems, and for existing DISC-enabled crime reduction partnerships it will help grow membership, and open new opportunities for revenue generation, according to the developers.
DISC (Database & Intranet for Safer Communities) is a UK online information-sharing system for shopwatches, pubwatches, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and a number of shopping centres. There are over 140 DISC uses throughout the country, covering more than 250 towns, city centres and rural areas, accounting for in excess of 25,000 actively participating businesses.
Littoralis director Charlie Newman, pictured, says: “We know that DISC must deliver benefits to every kind of participant: businesses that use it, the local Administrators of partnerships and watch groups that manage DISC systems, and the police who are using local DISC systems more and more themselves.
“But simply making these benefits available isn’t enough. It’s absolutely essential that every aspect of DISC is truly easy and quick to use, and must be readily available, where and when needed. We have always offered a ‘responsive’ version of the DISC system for smartphones, and that’s been good. But the App now really takes this to another level.”
For the businesses, large and small, that are members of partnerships that use DISC, the App makes the system easier to use the developers say. Newman says: “But now all this is right there, on members’ smartphones – exactly where and when they need it, and without the need to log into a computer which may not always be to hand.”
Littoralis plans to integrate a Push-to-Talk system into the App so members can communicate urgent important messages among themselves at a fraction of the cost of conventional local radio networks with dedicated walkie-talkie handsets. This could provide a source of additional revenue for DISC administrators, the developers suggest.
In pre-launch trialling Administrators have told how the App makes updating offline members about new additions to their mugshot galleries easier; it can be used by administrators to send emailed memos back to themselves when out and about; and it really does encourage under-participating members to log into their DISC system more often.
Charlie Newman says: “Administrators must constantly reinforce the value-for-money of the services they provide to their members, and the App will reinforce that, but the App is also a massive marketing tool for Administrators too. It isn’t always easy to explain to potential new members how crime reduction partnerships work, and how they deliver bottom-line benefits to subscribers or levy-payers. But put the App in their hands and suddenly everything is so much clearer and easier to comprehend; suddenly people ‘get it’.
”And just as DISC makes it fast, simple and very, very low-cost to set up brand new partnerships in new areas, the App makes it easier than ever to promote the benefits of any new partnership to potential new members.
“We believe that the new App will deliver real, tangible benefits to members and Administrators of existing DISC implementations – and to support the development of even more such partnerships around the UK.”
