Development of PSSUltimate
“PSSUltimate has moved us towards being a virtually paperless service that has two-way real time communication with frontline staff in the field. We now have accurate records of completed works histories for each site we manage and an ever growing database of management information that will help us ensure we can improve the efficiency of the service going forward.”
Barry Emmerson, Grounds Maintenance Service Manager
Islington Borough Council
Ultimate
Company
Islington Borough Council
Services Provided
Grounds maintenance, parks management, equipment inventory and training management
Challenge
Day-to-day reliance on a combination of paper and electronic systems causing duplicated effort, information loss, communication breakdowns and increased accident risk
How PSS Helped
Custom software development, paperless operations, two-way real-time field communications, equipment qualification tracking, Zoho custom reporting
About the company
Islington Borough Council is an inner London council. PSS won a tender in 2015 and co-developed PSSUltimate with Islington and Agile Orange over 18 months. The system is now live with 100+ staff across the Parks Management Service.
Grounds maintenance
Digital transformation
Islington Borough Council's Parks Service manages grounds maintenance across the Borough, with over 100 staff spanning team leaders, ground operatives and supervisors. In 2015, PSS won a tender to develop a fully integrated online software system to move the entire parks service management online.
Challenge
Islington's Parks Service was operating day-to-day using a combination of paper and electronic systems across different platforms. This led to duplicated effort, loss of information, and breakdowns in communication between teams. Coordinating staff and dealing with urgent issues in real time was difficult — resulting in a higher risk of poor workmanship and accidents.
Solution
PSS worked closely with Barry Emmerson (Grounds Maintenance Service Manager) and software developers over 18 months to build PSSUltimate — a fully integrated system with both mobile and web applications giving team leaders, operatives and supervisors a live view into their database.
Team Management & Scheduling
Supervisors and Technical Officers can track their team's progress through work programmes in real time. Urgent ad hoc tasks can be created and sent directly to the appropriate site for immediate action.
Health, Safety & Equipment
PSSUltimate records machinery checks and notifies mechanics of failed items. Management can see which operative used which piece of equipment and when. Critically, the system prevents staff from signing out equipment they are not qualified to use.
Training Records
Staff training records and session attendance are tracked within the system — ensuring compliance and visibility across the entire workforce.
Reporting
All data is fully interrogable, with Zoho reporting enabling fully customisable reports across any aspect of the data.
Onboarding & Development
PSSUltimate was built collaboratively between PSS, Agile Orange and Islington's team over 18 months — with the system designed from the ground up to encompass each job role within the departments. A successful trial was completed in 2017 before full rollout. RFID technology was integrated for secure mobile login, replacing standard username and password access.
Results
- Fully paperless parks management service
- Real-time two-way communication with frontline staff in the field
- Accurate completed works histories for every managed site
- Equipment access controlled by qualification status
- Training records and attendance tracked system-wide
- Rolled out to 100+ staff across the Parks Management Service
