Editor's note: Industry Insights are sponsored blogs submitted by manufacturers and suppliers serving the fire service industry.
The ability to collect and analyze accurate data has long been a need for the fire service, but modern tools and integrations are now making it easier than ever before. Emergency Reporting (ER), a leader in cloud-based Fire and EMS records management software, was featured in a blog post published by Microsoft on this subject. You can view the complete blog post here.
In the interview featured on the blog, Chief Andrew Olesen from Cedar Rapids Fire Department in Iowa was asked what challenges led his agency to switch to ER. He stated: “We’ve always been a data-driven organization, but the data collected wasn’t always at the level we would have liked due to the legacy reporting system we had used for the past 15 years or so.”
The system he was using was hosted on-premises and needed to be installed and maintained on each machine. Like many other software programs, it was limited with the number of users who could access the system at one time. The software was inaccurate and caused issues with data quality and integrity. They had to spend a lot of valuable time doing QA to ensure it was accurate.
Chief Olsen went on to say: “We were the complete opposite of cloud-based. We needed a stronger Records Management System (RMS) that would also enable us to share data and analysis across organizations, with the City Council and other agencies, as well as with the public. We want the community to be able to track what’s going on in their neighborhoods and engage with the fire department.”
The blog post also discusses the importance of using information from your RMS to justify your services and make data-driven decisions, now and for the future. “The City Council constantly wants us to talk about why and how we do things and make reportable, data-driven decisions. It is an integral responsibility of government to communicate to the public how they run operations and leverage technology to be more effective. Leveraging Emergency Reporting and Microsoft Power BI, we’re planning to develop a customer facing dashboard next. Our time, incident, and medical data is now really tight, and we want to be able to share that,” stated Chief Olesen.
“Emergency Reporting is excited to announce the kickoff of a new project that will empower our 6,500+ fire departments with a powerful data visualization tool,” said David Nokes, Chief Executive Officer of Emergency Reporting. “In collaboration with both Microsoft and several key beta customers, we are excited to show how your data can be utilized in Microsoft Power BI. This is a great step forward in our ongoing relationship with Microsoft Public Safety and the municipalities we proudly serve.”
To learn more about Emergency Reporting, or how ER data can be imported to Power BI, click here.
About Emergency Reporting
Emergency Reporting (ER) offers a powerful, cloud-based records management software (RMS) solution to Fire/EMS agencies worldwide. Founded in 2003, ER empowers first responders with secure, easy-to-use station management tools that offer one-report filing of NFIRS and NEMSIS data. ER’s affordable SaaS solution allows Fire/EMS departments to run their entire operations efficiently and effectively, enhancing both firefighter and citizen safety. ER is proud to support more than 460,000 first responders at thousands of civilian Fire/Rescue and EMS agencies and DoD/military installations, as well as large entities with self-contained Fire/EMS services such as NASA, nuclear power plants, hospitals, and oil refineries. For more information, visit www.emergencyreporting.com.
