From my previous 19 years in law enforcement, I’ve spent a lot of time in courtrooms. When I think about all the courtrooms I’ve seen, they’re more or less the same as they were 200 years ago, except for the addition of computers and monitors. 

Court systems around the world have traditionally run on paper-based processes – and the vast majority still do – yet that’s beginning to change. Judicial systems in the United Kingdom generated a million pages of documents a day before moving to a Microsoft cloud-based digital justice platform. In addition to significant cost savings in terms of producing, transporting and storing large quantities of paper, the best outcome of going digital is that the data becomes easily accessible, free from paper silos, and available for analysis and interrogation to find relevant judicial hearings and decisions, case law, legal trends and more. (See more details in my blog on e-justice.)

Digital justice—a trend around the globe

I’m pleased to see digital transformation is a growing trend in courts around the globe – and producing results. After just 12 months, the UK’s digital justice platform has reduced the number of paper documents from more than 18 million, which were related to 100,000-plus cases involving 18,500 registered users. In addition to moving from paper to a digital environment, courts also are innovating with other modern technologies: 

• Courthouses in Portugal have check-in kiosks enabling all parties associated with a case to use their IDs to alert court administrators of their arrival. 
• Technology is also improving the transparency and efficiency of scheduling courtrooms so that witnesses, victims, suspects, lawyers and judges can see when and where they’re needed instead of having to wait for a courtroom to become available. 
• Remote hearings, trials and testimony, made possible by our secure Skype for Business, are making the physical location of courthouses less important. This technology is especially useful to: 
  • Enable a panel of judges to hear cases virtually 
  • Avoid the expense and danger of transporting violent defendants from jail 
  • Record a victim’s statement once and then reuse that video for any following hearings so the victim doesn’t have to keep reliving the event. 
• The Supreme Court of Buenos Aires upgraded to the Windows 10 operating system for better security, manageability, performance and cost reduction. The court is also processing cases more quickly through a customised media portal built on Microsoft Azure, enabling citizens to access cases that have been registered electronically and view video recordings through an integration with Azure Media Services. 
• The State Court of Justice of Sao Paulo has undertaken a digital transformation that serves citizens up to 70% faster – with the initial 2.5 million digitised processes saving 850,000 working hours or nearly 100 years.

Cybersecurity: the foundation of Microsoft court solutions

Court IT systems and legal records need to be protected from cyber-attacks just like court buildings, staff, lawyers, case participants and visitors need physical protection. Microsoft takes cybersecurity very seriously, investing a billion dollars each year to make sure our cloud ecosystem is secure. Our cybersecurity experts in the Digital Crimes Unit and the Cyber Defense Operations Center monitor information to identify real threats, and they also develop tools and techniques to track and catch cybercriminals, and share information with law enforcement agencies from around the world. 

Microsoft is enabling digital transformation across government priorities while helping to ensure that organisations such as the courts have the trust, security and compliance they need for sensitive data. We build security into Microsoft products and services from the start. Here are a few examples:

• Microsoft Azure is the global, trusted, hyper-scale cloud, providing the most comprehensive compliance coverage of any cloud provider. 
• Office 365, which is widely used by courts for scheduling and communications, provides control over data security and compliance with privacy, transparency and refined user controls built right in. Advanced Security Management also offers enhanced visibility and control. 
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM helps manage and visualise the judicial process work flow – one of the biggest workloads for courts. 
• Azure Media Services, which is part of the Buenos Aires solution, delivers content more securely.

It’s exciting to see courts around the world embracing digital transformation to become more efficient, productive and cost-effective while delivering a better experience to citizens.  Please learn how Microsoft and our partners are working to streamline and improve court processes by requesting a trial of Microsoft Azure or Azure Government and Office 365, and visiting:

• How Digital Justice is Transforming the Justice System
• Microsoft for Public Safety and Justice
• Microsoft in Government
• Public Safety Digital Transformation
• Microsoft Trust Center
• Microsoft Cybersecurity
• Microsoft CityNext: Safer Cities.

The post Order in the court: digital justice appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

When it comes to e-justice—using technology to improve access to justice and strengthen the legal system—a great example is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The court wanted to digitize its processes so justices could work remotely and staff members could handle their rapidly growing caseload more efficiently.

By moving to a cloud model based on Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Intune for mobile device management, and a new case management system based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Supreme Court processes now run more smoothly and adjournments occur less often. Moreover, the court is now on track to reduce its overall IT budget by up to 60 percent, while empowering staff to work more efficiently.

This example demonstrates the power of cloud technology to improve how courts operate. Using Microsoft technology, courts around the globe can dramatically increase their efficiency—speeding up trials, reducing costs, and enhancing the transparency of judicial proceedings. Consider the following:

Digitizing court records

By digitizing and indexing court files, judges, prosecutors, and defence attorneys can quickly search for and obtain the specific cases they need, right when they need them. Staff members no longer need to search among thousands of paper-based court records kept in storage. And they don’t need to worry about lost or damaged files. By migrating these files to the cloud on Microsoft Azure, courts obtain the failover needed to make sure court records are always available—complete with the most recent decisions and developments.

Find out more about law enforcement and the cloud

Court scheduling

By implementing technologies such as Microsoft Office 365, judges, clerks, stenographers, court clerks, prosecutors and defense attorneys have access to a transparent and dynamic scheduling system. With access to others’ calendars, they can easily schedule court dates. And with the capabilities of Skype for Business, they can quickly handle administrative procedures via video conferences—without the need for all parties to physically appear in the court room.

Case management

Using technologies like Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, courts can more easily manage cases from beginning to end. Take a criminal case, for example. By digitizing paper processes, information about the case can be seamlessly transferred from the police department to the prosecutor and defence attorney and then to the judge at the start of the trial. If the defendant is convicted, the file can then be digitally transferred to the prison or parole office, with each relevant official obtaining the real-time information needed to keep the case moving forward.

Remote testimony

For many proceedings, courts can let police and citizens appear remotely using Skype for Business, expediting judicial processes as well as saving time and money by keeping police on the streets. In addition, Skype for Business can be used to enable people who are in custody to testify from jail, reducing the expense of securely transporting defendants to the courtroom.

Find out more about remote testimony

Data analytics

Today’s advanced data analytics tools give courts the opportunity to improve their efficiency. For example, administrative officials can tap into the Cortana Analytics Suite to analyse how quickly the court system is processing cases from arrest to sentencing, identifying bottlenecks that need to be addressed. They can also compare how different judges sentence similar crimes, with the goal of achieving greater consistency and transparency in sentencing.

These are just some of the ways that Microsoft technology can dramatically improve the judicial operations.

Learn more about the Supreme Court and the Cloud

The post E-justice: Digitizing today’s courts appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

As the government continues to transform public services and increase cross-sector collaboration to reduce costs, fire services across the country are having to re-think how they balance service delivery and safety.

Today’s advanced technology—including sensors, video cameras, drones, and mobile devices—can help keep firefighters safe on the job, while enabling them to perform their work more effectively. And by storing and analyzing all of their data on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform, fire departments can securely and cost-effectively scale up and down to obtain the information they need before, during, and after the fire.

Developing a strategy while en route to the fire

With today’s technology, responding fire personnel can get detailed information on the way to the fire, helping them plan their approach and how best to allocate their resources. With links to CCTV systems inside buildings and cameras deployed on firefighter’s helmets, incident commanders can see real-time feeds of the fire using mobile devices. They can overlay this data onto the structure’s floor plan to better understand where in the building the fire is concentrated and in which direction it may flow. They can also deploy video-enabled drones over the structure to obtain an aerial view and gain better operational oversight.

While responding to the scene, incident commanders can also access real-time traffic data to calculate the fastest approach and identify the location of fire hydrants and other resources. They can also calculate the volume of water or foam needed based on the size and type of the fire, helping them to determine if they need to request additional resources. By the time they arrive at the scene, emergency personnel will have all available information, providing them with a better overall picture of the scene and how best to approach it.

Improving firefighter safety and efficiency at the scene

To enhance their safety, every firefighter entering the building can be equipped with wearable technology. Helmet video cameras with wireless feeds connected to the firetruck enable incident commanders to see what their firefighters are viewing inside the structure, helping them to chart the best response. Using GPS technology, incident commanders can see where each firefighter is located inside, making sure their teams are strategically positioned to fight the fire. In the future, wearable technology built into firefighters’ gear will allow for real-time monitoring of oxygen levels, body heat, hydration, heart rate, and other vital signs—so they can provide assistance immediately when it’s needed.

Learning from the response after the incident

After the fire has been safely extinguished, emergency personnel can review all of the video footage and other data, discussing areas of concern to help their teams improve both their future response and their safety. Moreover, all of this information can be integrated with data from past fires to better understand how best to respond when the next fire occurs.

This isn’t some futuristic scenario. The advanced technology already exists to make firefighting safer and more effective. I believe putting it to use is just a matter of time.

Find out more about how technology is helping the public sector deliver smarter, more efficient services.

Register for our Collaboration in a Modern Public Sector workshop

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