The final version (first full release) of the TAIS mobile phone ticket issuing application was made after extensive in-house testing, U.A.T by the Civica technical team and feedback from the London borough Haringey enforcement team who kindly participated in a usability and fit for purpose review of the application. This first release included cumulative bug fixes, general enhancements to the application and improvements to optimise battery usage ready for the Pilot phase.
The pilot was designed to test and review the TES TAIS Mobile Phone notice issuing application in a real-world environment. TES provided the configuration and set-up of the mobile phone device(s) in use for the trial, the configuration of the TAIS middleware; which included a purpose-built interface with the back-office supplier (Civica CE) and the TES Compliance Display Map set-up, configuration and training. Training workshops were held with the parking enforcement team prior to commencement of the pilot, with Civil Enforcement Officers in particular encouraged to share feedback (good and bad) in order to allow the Pilot reference group to properly evaluate the pilot scheme.
The pilot was carried out in conjunction with Gravesham Borough Council which is a local government district in north-west Kent, England. The council itself is a based in the largest town and residential area which is Gravesend. The pilot was a complete success, after a post-pilot review process TES addressed several recommendations for refinements to the app and some minor bug fixes, and subsequently Gravesham placed an order for a permanent implementation which went live in October 2017. TES now have another firm order for TAIS from the London borough of Redbridge (due to go live in November 2017) with London Borough of Haringey and several other councils currently in negotiation to buy the product.
As with the first year of the project particular attention has been given to the dissemination of the project. The TAIS website has been continually updated with the latest news from the project (
https://www.etais.eu(si apre in una nuova finestra)) which gives an overview of the technology to interested parties. A schedule of dissemination at conferences and in relevant trade journals has been produced and updated. Press releases and articles have been made in relevant trade journals and the relevant technical sales literature regularly updated to reflect the latest specifications.
The project has been presented at several major trade shows including Parkex (twice) the Emergency Services Show, Parking World and Healthy Streets in London and most recently the GITEX 2017 Trade Fair as part of the EU Pavilion with significant interest shown by potential end-users from both the public and private sector. In addition, TES have pitched TES and TAIS in the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa as well as discussing the potential use of ANPR and TAIS for decriminalised parking enforcement with organisations in France, Portugal, Costa Rica and the Middle East.