Norfolk fire and rescue

FireWatch helps Norfolk FRS to increase operational efficiency and improve collaboration across departments and organisational boundaries.

Background

The UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is facing challenging times, making it essential for Services to achieve more with fewer resources, and to improve collaboration between teams and re-engineer business processes  as a way of driving further efficiencies whilst maintaining high standards.

This has necessitated new ways of working, requiring the deployment of powerful enabling technologies and an integrated approach which can support the real-time coordinated management, planning and utilisation of staff and resources throughout the organisation.

FloSuite, working in harmony with the FireWatch product, places Norfolk in a strong position to achieve business efficiencies

The challenge

Over a period of time, Norfolk FRS has been incrementally reducing the number of ‘back office’ systems required to meet the business needs of the organisation. Managers have also been keen to invest in effective and efficient mechanisms by which they can share data across internal departments and with external partners as part of joint mobilisation projects, for example.

The Service required solutions which could support the organisational processes and IT strategy, and do so within a framework that would meet the very specialised needs of running a large-scale emergency services operation.

The results

FireWatch, Infographics’ market-leading Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) solution, has formed an integral part of Norfolk’s transformation process, with its integrated suite of modules replacing a number of stand-alone legacy departmental systems and paper-based processes.

Using FireWatch, senior staff now have the ability to support the integrated management, planning and utilisation of staff across multiple areas of the FRS, including: availability planning and management, IPDS and training, retained payments & salary calculation, health & safety, occupational health, asset management, and Government reporting.

Norfolk also chose to deploy Infographics’ FloSuite product, which is used in public and commercial sectors in the UK and overseas to rapidly integrate systems and automate business processes.

FloSuite has been deployed to deliver complementary business processes management solutions, automating procedures for management of hydrants, PPE and medical appointment reminders.

Requirements and selection process

The key reasons for the selection and continued use of FireWatch and FloSuite are:

• FireWatch enables the effective, efficient and coordinated management of the FRS across multiple functional and departmental areas, and can deliver an organisation-wide view of future and real-time operational resources
• FireWatch has a proven track record in delivering administrative savings of up to 40% when deployed as an integrated suite of modules (as illustrated within client case studies)
• FireWatch provides the ability to help deliver a step-change in the strategic approach taken in managing a FRS environment
• FloSuite, which integrates with FireWatch, enables further automation of paper-based processes and systems to achieve additional efficiencies
• Infographics has a strong track record in working with the UK FRS and in-depth specialist skills and knowledge of this sector

Chris Ferris, ICT Manager, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, believes that Infographics’ FireWatch and FloSuite products provide a suitable platform for the future.

She said: “FloSuite, working in harmony with the FireWatch product, places Norfolk in a strong position to achieve business efficiencies through the automation of many manual processes, and to seamlessly pass data to and from external systems in near ‘real time’.”

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