Creativity Software - FamilyWise Case Study: TfL launches child finder services

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FamilyWise Case Study

Transport Service Provider in the UK launches child finder service

Challenge:

The government authority that regulates the transportation services for the city of London (Transport for London) has the task of increasing the use of public transport. This not only helps address congestion problems in the city, but also contributes towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions by reducing the number of unnecessary car journeys.

Special emphasis is given to encouraging parents to send their children to school using public transport. The proposed idea is to launch a service that allows parents to know the whereabouts of their children, which should give them more confidence to send their children to school on public transport – rather than taking them by car.

One major issue that is raised is the concern for child safety, and the protection of the system from abuse.

Solution:

Creativity Software’s FamilyWise white label solution is chosen to address the challenges and issues raised.

The issues of security and privacy are covered by compliance with the Code of Practice for Location Based Services in the UK. Creativity Software employees served on the Steering Committee to define this world leading initiative, in conjunction with the Home Office, ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers), the UK Mobile Operators and Children’s Charities.

Meanwhile, TfL dramatically reduced their Time-To-Market. This was by using the FamilyWise white label format, which allows the service provider to offer the service with its own branding, and Creativity Software’s LBS hosting service.

FamilyWise provides a web-based interface that enables parents to create and manage a user account. To be able to locate their children, parents need to register to the service by entering personal details in the system. A letter is sent by postal service to their home address with the user account id and password. Only then are parents allowed to enter the mobile phones of their children, which triggers a permissioning dialogue via SMS with the child’s mobile. After the approval has been received from the child’s phone by sms parents can start locating their children, either online or by sms.

FamilyWise uses Cell-Id as a location positioning method. To get access to the location data from the mobile operators, Creativity Software connects its FamilyWise platform to a 3rd party (LBS mobile aggregator) instead of having to connect directly to each of the MNOs in the country.