For futher information please contact:psmarketing@gb.unisys.comwww.holmes2.com

HOLMES 2Case Study

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BackgroundIn 1986, UK Police Forces started to employ the

original Home Office Large Major Enquiry

System (HOLMES) in all major incidents

including serial murders, multi-million pound

fraud cases and major disasters.

56 Police Forces and policing organisations

had HOLMES. HOLMES 2, the replacement for

HOLMES, was required to provide;

• One system for major investigations and

major disasters;

• One system to be used by all Police Forces

and policing organisations throughout

the UK;

• The ability to link systems together within

different Police Forces in a real-time secure

environment; this would assist in

investigations which are across county-

boundaries and allow the provision of

mutual aid to a Force in a major disaster

situation.

In December 1996, Unisys was awarded the

contract for the sole supply of HOLMES 2.

In July 1999, HOLMES 2 was partially accredited

by PITO to enable the Police Forces with Y2K

problems to use the system. This version of

HOLMES 2 was fully functional and led to the

first murder conviction, through the use of

HOLMES 2, being successfully achieved before

the new millennium.

In September 2001, HOLMES 2 was fully

accredited and formally handed over from

PITO to the Police Forces. Unisys was

subsequently awarded a five-year support and

maintenance contract, incorporating a funded

Enhancement program.

The SolutionThe server side of the application comprises of

an Oracle database, located on a Unix system.

The application was developed using the USoft

Rapid Application Development suite,

integrated with a number of third party

products and other Unisys developments.

The client is Windows NT or 2000, using either

MS Office 97 or MS Office 2000.

The HOLMES 2 solution provides both ease

of use and flexibility for the end-user. It also

utilises the technical skills that already existed

within the Police Forces and Organisations to

reduce the technical training requirements.

Additionally, the system configuration provides

a reliable platform upon which to operate.

The application offers greater and more

flexible functionality than the original

HOLMES. It offers both Incident Room for

major investigations and Casualty Bureau for

major disasters. Major investigation information

can be automatically transferred from HOLMES

to HOLMES 2. Facilities exist to easily manage

both documents and actions. Through

integration with i2 and Autonomy software, the

application provides complex searching tools

such as a provision to enable automatic

notification when particular information is

entered and the graphical representation of

sequence of events or information within

a document.

The PresentThe success of HOLMES 2 continues to

be proved:-

• A number of unresolved murders, originally

entered on HOLMES, have been transferred

to HOLMES 2. The use of HOLMES 2 has

led to some of these cases reaching court.

• Successful use of Casualty Bureau by the

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), on

behalf of the Foreign & Commonwealth

Office, for identifying British citizens

involved in the disaster of 11 September.

• Positive feedback from Police Officers with

regard to the HOLMES 2 Support Centre,

the model of which has now been adopted

throughout Unisys Public Sector, and the

HOLMES 2 website, www.holmes2.com.

Since accreditation, HOLMES 2 has been

enhanced as a thin client application, H2C.

H2C uses Citrix, an agent widely utilised

throughout the Police Market. H2C offers the

same functionality as the original product, but

offers many additional advantages, for example;

• Greatly reduced network traffic;

• Faster response times;

• Use of remote access, e.g. in a Court Room

or a remote Incident Room;

• A new client can be produced very quickly;

• Simplifies the process of applying upgrades

to client software;

• Reduced risk of applications being unable

to sit on the same client;

• Enhanced security through Citrix.

The FutureUnisys will continue to build its relationship with

PITO, the Police Forces, policing organisations

and third party suppliers to continue to enhance

HOLMES 2. It aims to provide greater versatility,

ease of use and further deployment through;

• The development of Disaster Victim

Identification (DVI) to help manage vital

aspects of major disasters through the

breakdown of the roles and responsibilities

of different agencies;

• Modularising the application, in order that

parts can be operated separately, together

or transferred back into HOLMES 2.

Examples include exhibits or evidence

management, action management and

document management;

• Use of mobile data to enable Police Officers to

enter information directly into a handheld

device at the Scene of Crime or Scene of

Disaster, and that information to be

automatically transferred to the main system;

• Wider use of HOLMES 2 for lower level crimes;

• Introduction of rich media, from scanning

documents and image recognition through to

audio and video, and beyond;

• Integration of i2 v6.0 and Blue8 products.

Additionally, based on its success to date, Unisys

will continue to promote the use of HOLMES 2

outside the UK.

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