PORTFOLIO

To accelerate its response to local emergencies, the City of Anaheim needed to improve information-sharing among police, fire and other departments. EDS helped Anaheim to launch an unprecedented virtual emergency management solution that enabled the city to make effective, timely decisions and save lives.

The business issue
In a world where attacks and major natural disasters have become front-page news, local governments are focusing intently on how best to deploy their public safety resources to ensure emergency preparedness. They are finding protocol and procedures that worked well in the past may no longer be adequate. City officials in Anaheim, California knew that protecting its citizens against both large-scale crises and everyday emergencies required an innovative, proactive approach to emergency management using technology as the driving force.

Until now, Anaheim's public safety agencies operated relatively autonomously. Fire, police and other departments in a city are traditionally organized as separate entities with separate systems, making collaboration difficult. Most incidents are reported directly to the police or fire department. If that agency needs additional resources, officers often have to contact the other departments by phone, radio or e-mail to coordinate activities, often leading to unacceptable delays in response to the crisis.

Anaheim needed a solution that would provide an integrated view of critical city-wide operations within a robust, user-friendly and scalable emergency management system. To minimise additional costs, the city wanted to use its current IT investment as part of the solution. EDS turned that vision into reality.

Our approach
EDS assembled a team of experts to define, develop and deliver a state-of-the-art Virtual Operations Centre to deal with the effective management of emergencies. Although virtual technology was available in the corporate and retail arena, no one had used it to manage emergency response. Rather than building a costly and complex new centralized database, EDS used a single Web-based interface to connect all the departments' databases, as well as existing data warehouses, thus fulfilling Anaheim's mission to create the most cost-effective system. This live, online system reduces dependence on a central, brick-and-mortar emergency operations centre.

Here's how it works. Anaheim's cutting-edge Enterprise Virtual Operations Center (EVOC) draws together critical information from the city's fire, police and other departments into a modern, interactive portal, using an open architecture foundation. Authorised decision-makers have anytime, anywhere access to this virtual solution,which is designed to scale quickly to handle increased volumes of critical information during emergencies. EVOC even allows city officials to tap into blueprints, utility plans and video cameras throughout the city to obtain a live feed of what is happening at the scene.

Ultimately, the city intends to expand EVOC beyond emergency management to serve as a platform for day to day operational collaboration. For instance, Anaheim officials believe this tool could be used to promote community policing and even be integrated into criminal information systems, as well as systems in other jurisdictions.

The results
Implemented in just six months, Anaheim's new best-of-breed Enterprise Virtual Operations Centre makes it possible for city officials to see what is happening on all of the city's critical response fronts with just one click. For the first time, decision-makers can ascertain how many police units are on scene, how many fire units are on the way and even what an emergency line caller said about a particular incident - all in real time,using any secure Internet connection.

By making critical information readily accessible, EVOC has accelerated proactive, knowledge-based decision-making, especially in rapidly changing situations. Resources can be optimised across organizations and systems, enhancing collaboration and allowing the city to exploit its existing IT investments. Since EVOC operates in a secure, Web-based virtual environment, it has eliminated the risk of single-point failure should a brick-and-mortar command post be damaged or destroyed.

As a result of the success of the EVOC system, the City of Anaheim is looking to extend this capability to surrounding jurisdictions in Southern California. The solution's scalable architecture will help facilitate this expanded implementation, for the first time enabling regional governments to collaborate effectively.

This innovative and unique solution sets a new standard for emergency responsiveness." Anyone who has managed a major incident knows the value of this software," says John Welter, Anaheim's chief of police.