Radius Computer Services, a UK IT services firm based in Feltham, Middlesex, is in a strong position to provide, with Microsoft’s architecture, software that will enable UK local government authorities (LGAs) to cut benefit fraud. Microsoft has responded to Radius’ decision last year to run its products on the NT operating system with a vote of confidence in the UK firm.
Benefits fraud in the UK totaled over $1.3bn last year, so the market in which the two companies are operating is not a small one, explains Microsoft UK’s industry manager for government Peter Deane. Even if LGAs save 10%, it’s still a significant sum in a potentially lucrative market which Microsoft is intent on dominating.
Radius’ products include a data warehouse to collate information and verification tools to show whether the data is matched correctly, or whether someone is trying to cheat the system. It solves the problem faced by LGAs of having data in different locations and not being able to analyze it all simultaneously.
Radius’ LGWarehouse uses Microsoft’s SQL Server 7.0 to pull information such as housing information and benefits data. This enables fraud investigators using RadiusVICS (verification information checking system) to check whether someone who applies for housing benefit has already registered, or whether someone who is claiming unemployment benefits is already employed by the LGA.
The deal sees Radius grabbing Microsoft’s coattails, just as software juggernaut is setting out to dominate the UK local government sector with NT. Radius started to run its products on the Microsoft platform 18 months ago, having previously offered only ICL mainframes and various flavors of Unix. In 1998, says managing director Phil Benton, 80% of all new applications were on NT. Microsoft offers a one-stop shop for Radius, with a tool set including repository engine, programming language, relational database as well as a client/server operating system.
