Business Case Leads to Funding Approval

Police need to store and access huge volumes of images such as mug shots, crime scene photos and fingerprints – often for nearly a century.

The Police force is a large organisation that is gradually changing to meet increasing social pressures for security and stability in our society. This continual organisational change in many units was placing increased demands on morale and performance.

SMS was engaged to produce a business case for replacement of analogue cameras used by the forensics police with digital cameras. SMS was required to understand both the business needs and the organisational culture issues involved as there were organisational change management requirements that needed to be addressed to ensure the success of the project. There were also complex technical, operational and procedural requirements in assembling a business case, together with a risk register, benefits register and benefits realisation management plan. All had to be compliant with the state’s Department of Commerce guidelines.

The business case required the inclusion of an overview of infrastructure and application architectures for an image capture, storage and retrieval capability. A major part of the business case was the assessment of the organisational impact and training needs to successfully roll-out new technology (digital cameras and supporting capture applications) to more than 400 forensic police officers across the state.

SMS also prepared a presentation to assist the Police in making a case to the state Treasury for approval of funding of some $7 million for this project – covering high-end digital cameras and IT infrastructure to support forensic imaging needs, as well as the roll-out and change management needs.

SMS employed a consultative approach in this project, encouraging active participation of the key stakeholders during workshops and individual discussions.

SMS engaged in discussions with the owner of the project and other business units - Business & Technology Services, Archiving and Corporate Services.

SMS delivered a detailed business case that included an overview of infrastructure and application architectures for an image capture, storage and retrieval capability over extended timeframes.

The business case recommended the replacement of analogue cameras with digital cameras and the introduction of associated backend storage systems and applications for processing digital forensic images.

SMS delivered the completed business case for Forensic Services Group (FSG) and assisted in its presentation to the state’s commerce review as part of the state’s Treasury business case approval process.

Approval of funding and project implementation.

Despite a very tight timeframe of six weeks, the business case completed and delivered to the client on time.

The business case was approved for funding by the state’s Treasury in early 2006.