A three-year national framework agreement has been awarded to APD Communications allowing it to supply its Artemis telematics solution to police forces in England and Wales.

The framework agreement follows Northamptonshire Police’s decision to implement Artemis.

With a £20 million reduction in operating expenditure required over a five year period following the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, Northamptonshire Police needed to find new and innovative ways to reduce costs while maintaining and improving services.

The force anticipated that the acquisition of advanced telematics and process management technology would lead to substantial savings for its police vehicle operations, at the same time as improving frontline services and overall efficiency.

Having completed the initial round of tendering, the competing solutions were required to demonstrate their ability to improve fuel economy, adhere to servicing intervals, provide more detailed reporting of incidents and offer real-time feedback about driver behaviour.

Following an intensive evaluation process, APD’s solution was judged to be the most compliant and scored the highest marks of all 12 rival bids across the selected criteria.

As a result, APD was awarded the contract to supply the telematics solution to Northamptonshire Police, and to any other police force under the terms of the framework agreement.

Artemis will initially be installed in Northamptonshire’s test and training vehicles.

The force’s fleet of 370 police vehicles - used by around 1,000 officers – will be fitted with the Artemis solution by March 2013.

The system is compatible with the most popular police applications including those used by Northamptonshire Police: Civica’s Tranman Fleet Management application, Steria’s STORM command and control and Northgate’s mapping software.