Transport

Through our technical consulting and solution engineering services, IPL is leading the advancement of technologies that improve the safety, security and efficiency of the nation's transportation systems. We provide deep subject matter expertise in software solutions, telecoms, ip networking and project management, advising our clients on technical and commercial aspects of both new and existing systems. We also develop and support business and safety critical systems.

Currently, IPL is involved in managing, designing, developing and supporting a wide range of intelligent transport projects including public information systems, network management, mobile communications and geographic information systems. Most notably, IPL supports the Highways Agency on all major technology enhancements, including the M25 Controlled Motorway and M42 Active Traffic Management. Systems developed by IPL have also been deployed across the UK rail network, on London Underground and Channel Tunnel shuttle trains. We have also provided our specialist consultancy services to the maritime and aviation sectors.

Our clients rely on IPL to provide the vital elements needed to successfully bring technology enhancement to all types of transport networks. IPL has high value domain experience (road, rail, air and sea) and established quality and safety credentials (ISO 9001:2000 and TickIT). We also provide project management expertise (PRINCE2) along with industry proven consultancy and software development capability. Above all, IPL's technical excellence and professional execution sets us apart.

National Road Technology Specialists

IPL's intelligent transport systems specialists are called upon regularly by the Highways Agency to ensure maximum value is derived from existing technology. We also advise on and implement future developments relating to both control office and the roadside. If you are designing software or systems which interface to, use data from, or are based on the technology used by the Highways Agency, then IPL has all the expertise and experience you will require.

GeoSpatial Visualisation

Data visualisation is the established key to unlock the full potential of your data assets. Tools such as spreadsheets, web portals and desktop search are readily available to capture, analyse and present most types of data. The dominance of these technologies illustrates the importance of data visualisation.

Until recently Geospatial data had been confined to the science lab. Tools used to visualise geo data were highly specialised, cumbersome to use and prohibitively expensive. This is beginning to change and today's lightweight geospatial tools are more readily deployed throughout an organisation.

This explosion in geo-data has been accompanied by the re-emergence of web-based solutions to short cut application deployment and data dissemination. Also open source, community driven solutions are being more favourably adopted in non critical environments such as visualisation and presentation applications.

IPL has recognised these trends and forged a low cost but highly versatile solution. Our consultants and developers have worked with existing open source components, commercial tools and mapping providers to deploy innovative solutions for a range of clients.

Asset Management

IPL has in-depth expertise in developments that maximize system performance, improve customer satisfaction, and minimize life-cycle costs of electronic road-side assets distributed across the nation’s motorway network. Asset management is a strategic approach that identifies the optimal allocation of resources for the management, operation, preservation and enhancement of the highway infrastructure to meet the needs of current and future customers. Our expertise draws on our work in other fields such as data management, telecoms and software.

Network Management

It is the Highways Agency's aim to deliver a high quality service to all of its customers by making journeys more reliable through better network management, providing information to road users, and improving road safety. Through involvement in key projects as network management consultants, IPL has assisted the Highways Agency in realising this aim.

GeoSpatial Data (INSPIRE)

Effective information sharing is the mantra of modern government. Throughout IPL's 30 year history we have enjoyed the benefit of working with many public sector organisations to analyse, facilitate and improve information sharing through both consultancy and systems development activities.

The importance of Geospatial data in many government activities is understood. However the geospatial world is based on immature, emerging technologies with significant data interpolation challenges. The EU is working to address this issue through the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) initiative. This was launched by the European Commission during 2002 and developed in collaboration with Member States and accession countries. It aims at making available relevant, harmonised and quality geographic information to support formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Community policies. Parts of this legislation will become UK law in May 2009 and will directly impact the business requirements of public sector organisations who work with Geospatial Data.

IPL, with its established brand of quality assurance and data expertise, is ideally placed to help you address the challenges that INSPIRE will present at both business and technical levels.

Telematics and Mobile Computing

With IPL's pedigree in telecoms and expertise in transport systems, geographic information and embedded technologies, we are well placed to provide Telematics consultancy and development expertise. Another closely related technology area is the enabling of mobile applications through the use of portable devices. IPL has deployed mobile workforce solutions for telecoms operators, police forces and transport operators.

Traveller Information

Technological, data and user requirements must be combined in order to provide effective traveller information systems. IPL has a unique understanding of all three strands and holds the potential to significantly improve your traveller information systems. We have experience of extracting full value from all types of data using an appropriate selection of skills from our portfolio including data warehousing (products, consultancy and design), data modelling, and system integration. Our technical expertise in telecoms and information processing is renowned. In addition, our experienced systems analysts are able to quickly capture sometimes complex requirements in efficient but comprehensive requirements specifications.