Greater Manchester means business, with mobile working

The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) are now live with a new mobile working solution for Business Compliance visits. 

Kirona's Job Manager  solution is used to provide AGMA's business compliance officers with their daily workloads. They not only get their appointments and inspection history data for each premise, they also use the solution to capture inspection data and record the outcomes of their visit.

What is really impressive about the solution is that is utilises a shared service approach. The solution provides officers with premise information that may be coming from several different authorities, but insulating the end user from this complexity so that they neither know or care where the information comes from. 

As the visit outcome information can be sent to several authorities at once, it reduces the number of visits to that premise and therefore the cost to the AGMA organisations. For example, an officer can carry out an inspection on a premise serving food, the food hygiene information can sent to one council, and the fire safety information will go to the Fire Service. In this way only one inspection is needed where before there were two. This not only reduces costs, but also helps the authorities to carry out more business compliance visits and reduce rogue traders and fraudsters.

For more information about the project and how it is helping AGMA, read the AGMA press release below, or email info@kirona.com.

 UPDATE: See how business's have performed under the business compliance project here - http://www.businesscomplianceservice.org.uk/statistics.htm

Greater Manchester means business

Local authorities are set to boost the region’s economy with a radical new approach to regulation – one that reduces the burden on business and the taxpayer too.

More than 65, 000 businesses in Greater Manchester are currently regulated by 10 individual councils, plus the county’s fire and rescue service, for consumer protection, food hygiene, alcohol and entertainment licensing, weights and measures, fire safety and health and safety. Authorities work together to ensure that consumers are protected and good businesses can thrive by competing on a level playing field. But businesses can receive multiple visits, reflecting the wide range of regulation.

Greater Manchester’s Public Protection Partnership is about to change all that.
The sub-region has been a pioneer of partnership work for many years, but we’ve taken this to a new level with a new shared Business Compliance service working across participating authorities.

The new joined-up way of working is extremely efficient and has received national support and funding to bring the shared service into being. The arrangements are fully funded through Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) partnership arrangements, which include the GM Fire & Rescue Service.

Tameside Council Chief Executive Steven Pleasant, who has helped to get the scheme off the ground, explains: “Small businesses create a huge proportion of Greater Manchester’s wealth – we need to support them, not stifle them with red tape.

“By seeing businesses as partners, understanding their activities and working harder to enable and support self-regulation, we can encourage economic growth and employment.

“The changes also mean we can use shared intelligence to target our enforcement activities at the small minority who continue to put people at risk. The rogue traders and fraudsters out there can in future expect faster, more effective sanctions.”

Wigan Council Chief Executive and Secretary to AGMA Joyce Redfearn adds: “Our new approach is recognised nationally. As we deal with reducing budgets for public services, it will help us to concentrate our specialist officers on the highest risk areas and the most serious problems facing consumers and businesses. Together, we’ll be more efficient and more effective.”

For more information, visit www.businesscomplianceservice.org.uk