Within local authorities, police forces and NHS trusts, handheld computers are being used to provide operational staff with access to information whenever they do not have access to a desktop computer.

Beyond basic text messages and mobile calls, with devices like the BlackBerry anyone who needs access to email can have it, wherever they are. As an example,  in February Surrey and Sussex health authority began trialling a mobile email system supplied by OpenHand which promises to improve staff productivity by up to two hours a day.

In Lancashire, 250 police officers will be able to access the police national crime database while on patrol, receive briefings and fill in electronic forms required to report an incident directly into a suitably equipped handheld computer, saving considerable paperwork and repeated effort.

Another example is Westminster City Council, which has developed a system that allows field-based street environmental managers (SEMs) and noise officers to collect and access data through handheld computers.

These mobile officers are responsible for monitoring, reporting and acting on the full range of environmental problems, including waste collection, litter, noise and vandalism.

In the past, this process would have been carried out using written reports, with information transferred into IT systems and subsequently analysed in the office. With their new system, each officer carries a handheld computer from which they access the council’s core database via a web browser.

SEMs can record all types of environmental hazard data, such as litter complaints for a particular address, and then alert waste management contractors to effect a rapid clean-up via a mobile application which has been developed using a geographic information system (GIS) from ESRI. The GIS system provides a map which allows SEMs to specify the location where the contractor is needed. All this can be done without needing to return to the office.

The technology also allows them to access a range of information such as waste collection schedules, property details and noise or litter complaints.

Westminster is now expanding its use of wireless communications across the city. Andrew Snellgrove, network manager for information services at Westminster council, said that with 1,300 council workers who have street duties, the council is looking at giving these staff mobile devices to allow them to fulfil multiple duties while on site visits. Someone checking licensing at a bar could also check hygiene or access planning permission information.

Mobile technology need not be limited to providing staff with handheld or laptop computers. Portsmouth’s Online Real Time Traveller Portal project is an example of how mobile technology can be used across a city. In this case, Portsmouth is providing real-time information at bus stops in a project regarded as the largest intelligent transportation system in the world.

The information displays at 36 bus stops are kept up to date with bus arrival times in a bid to encourage greater public use of the city’s buses. Elsewhere, the London congestion charge scheme provides a simple way for drivers to pay the daily tariff via their mobile phones.

As Tony Riding of the Society of Information Technology Management’s Insight programme has argued, mobile technology offers big savings and efficiencies for local authorities. It is more productive to use the power of mobile devices in the field than accessing IT systems only within council offices.