One of the main points to come out of the SOCITM Better Connected 2011 Report was for all councils to 'Go Mobile' to ensure efficient front line service delivery, by encouraging self-service and thus savings.

"As people are using the internet more and more 'on the move', mobile devices are ideally suited to responding to a consumer wanting to complete a simple task. Yet our survey shows that only 4% of all council websites were rated 'very good' when accessed on an iPhone."

Their marketing guidance specifically pushes local authorities and partners towards developing services for smartphone and it says that 'fault reporting in particular lends itself to smartphones, as potentially communication can be made easier and more effective using the automatic location detection and camera integration. It goes on: 'Review the council related apps available and ensure support and development for mobile and other non-desktop devices form part of your web strategy.

With 39% of council sites rendering poorly on the iPhone, 57% being rated 'satisfactory' and only 4% well, there is work to be done. However with budgets being squeezed and few councils having dedicated technical resource to manage the different smartphone platforms, Looking Local's iPhone app ? which is in the process of being launched on Android as well ? is a very real option.

Already available for free in the iTunes Store, Looking Local's app allows customers across the UK to report local issues such as fly tipping, graffiti, road repairs and anti-social behaviour in just five easy pages. The ability to attach a photo and plot the issue on the map are part of the app and with 12% of the population owning an iPhone, many of our partners are actively promoting the app successfully reaching out to their mobile customers.

The launch on Android will closely be followed by the ability to take any partner service that is plugged in to Looking Local and deliver it as a stand alone app. This will mean that any plug-in (ie: an end to end transactional service provided by a partner such as payments, GP appointments, school closures) would be delivered on SKY, Virgin, Wii and mobile web as well as an App for both iOS and Android.

Within the report there is also reference to the digitally excluded and we feel the freshly coined catchphrase 'Digital by Default' in terms of council delivery can quite reasonably apply to web, mobile, smartphones and TV.

New stats show that there are still 10 million adults who have never used the internet, and that as one might expect usage of the web decreases with age, with only 50% of 65-74 years olds online. Nearly 50% of households earning less that £11,500 are not online, compared to only 4% of households with an income of £30,000 or more. 48% of disabled people are offline and the highest concentrations of working age people offline are in northern England, urban Scotland and South Wales.

When one looks at the six categories SOCITM investigated in terms of information and transactions available on local authority websites, all of the services and features could be delivered via Looking Local on both TV and mobile/smartphones. Whilst the 'business' category is not that suited to TV delivery, all the requirements looked for in leisure, council tax, social care, car parking and highways were possible, including payments, account management, use of social media applications and general information. They guidance to use syndicated content from DirectGov and NHS Choices is already in place on Looking Local, as both are partners delivering national content.

Read more on our smartphone solution here