Chronicle 4 Update
Published 16th September 2020
Chairman (Luis Ponte) gives update on the Chronicle 4 project
Chronicle 4 Update from the Chairman, Luis Ponte (Download PDF)
I do hope you have been enjoying this great summer as best as possible in the current circumstances we all find ourselves in. I am writing this letter as I want to provide you with an update about our Chronicle 4 (C4) product. Our current Chronicle 3 (C3) product has served forces well since 2009 and is now used by every police force in Great Britain as well as a number of enforcement agencies. However, technology advances at a pace and some of the functionality we would like to deliver to our customers cannot be achieved with the C3 technology stack which is where C4 comes in.
C4 is not just a lick of paint on the user interface or a few enhancement tweaks to the current technology stack. In terms of technology, it is a complete re-engineering of C3 with modern technologies to enable us to provide you with the latest technological advances available. C4 will increase security, enhance usability and provide in-depth management reporting. It will also enable Chronicle to be device agnostic and allow us to provide services such as push notifications onto mobile devices for items such as Chronicle Dashboards.
Totally re-engineering Chronicle from scratch, whilst keeping its must-have features such as the invaluable audit trail, has not been an easy task for JML engineers. We must remember in this modern world that we are not simply writing an App. We are producing an industry leading technology product which must be robust and defensible in a court of law. Many products and technologies claim to have the ability to do this, but, if you scratch below the surface, their claims of audit and security capability soon fall apart and are not remotely robust enough for your purposes.
As well as the new technology stack for C4, we have also been adding many of the enhancements which you have been asking us for, but which were not possible in C3. To date JML engineers, product managers and UI designers have spent over 1,800 days in C4 development. Whilst the current pandemic has had an impact on C4 deliverables, our team has been working extensive overtime to minimise this impact.
As with all our upgrades, C4 will be free to all our customers on current contracts and there will be comprehensive user manuals to aid the transition from C3. Due to the complete rewrite of Chronicle, the deployment of C4 will be phased in gradually to allow users the time to master elements of C4 whilst still having certain C3 elements live.
I am very excited about the development of C4 and the opportunities it will bring to you. As we have always done, C4 will follow our continuous improvement principles with updates following user feedback. With the new technology stack, updates will be much easier to install and significantly less time consuming.
I, like you, want to see C4 released as soon as possible. Whilst our team has been working extensive overtime to get to product release, we must remember that we cannot release the product until such time as it has been properly tested and we are confident it will perform as expected. The police areas Chronicle deals with are too high risk to deploy anything other than auditable robust software.
Our Product Manager, Sam Moore, is working with our customer base to ensure we get C4 right for you. He is holding ‘Show and tell’ webinars to demonstrate the exciting new look and functionality of C4 and also obtain your feedback. If you would like to take part in one of these ‘Show and tells’ please contact Sam by email at sam.moore@jmlsoftware.co.uk.