Use the cloud to lower sky-high costs

Unlike previous downturns, this recent recession has been different in many ways, especially in how it has impacted those who serve in public safety. In earlier economic cycles, municipalities did everything possible to retain public safety services and personnel at all costs. Although this still may be the overall objective, with scarce resources now exhausted, the ongoing economic crises facing cities and counties across the country have spared few police, fire and paramedics entirely from the budget ax. Although public safety remains the last area where cities and counties want to cut budgets, many have regrettably reached the point where they have no viable alternative but to reduce funding.

In fact, 79 percent of cities surveyed by the League of Cities indicated that budget constraints had forced them to lay off staff, and 25 percent said they were implementing outright reductions in public safety personnel. The city of Camden, NJ – ranked as the second most dangerous city in America – laid off 45 percent of its police department and one third of its firefighters in January, reported by "Financial Times" on February 6, 2011. Such draconian – and shortsighted - steps that reduce both the numbers and effectiveness of public safety personnel serve as a stark example of the severe tradeoffs communities have made to address radically reduced funding.

But that’s not all. Communities throughout the country have also looked to public safety as a new source of revenue – often focusing on services provided by first responders. According to an article in the NY Times on December 16, 2010, the New York Fire Department may begin charging motorists involved in accidents requiring a service call up to $500 beginning July 1, 2011. The new plan proposes to assess the highest fee of $490 for car accidents or car fires in which people suffered injuries. In addition to raising fees, the City of New York may also close up to 20 fire companies each evening between 9 pm and 6 am. On the other side of the country, from "Cities Implement First Responders' Fee for Nonresidents to Fill Budget Gap" by Emergency Management, the City of Garden Grove, Calif. implemented a Non-Resident First Responder Fee in 2009 that seeks to collect $350 fee from non-residents involved in accidents. Although these fees may not ever raise sufficient funds to fully cover the cost of services provided, they raise the potentially troubling dynamic of pitting those who serve in public safety against the public, rather than part of a common community.

The wisdom of attempting to raise revenue through such fees remains an open question. But the message is unequivocal. Public safety agencies will now be held even more accountable not just for their efforts, but also for their efficacy. Such radical budget pressures may not be uncommon in other areas, but it is a new dynamic for public safety agencies that have historically enjoyed being at least somewhat “recession-resistant,” if not “recession-proof.” Along with the rest of America, public safety agencies are expected to tighten belts and work harder and smarter. Without funding to hire additional personnel to deal with the challenges of growing populations, public safety has become increasingly dependent on technology to fill the gaps.

At the same time, public safety agencies have been increasingly challenged in protecting their communities due to aging legacy technology systems. Although the case of Camden, NJ and the others cited above may (thankfully) serve as extreme examples, many Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) have been increasingly operating with outdated and failing systems that further hinder their ability to protect citizens and officers. In addition to trying to adapt to waning and constrained resources, nationwide budget cuts have depleted staff and forced public safety officials to make tough choices that have begun to threaten the overall safety of communities they serve.

Technological advances

Fortunately, there have been significant technology advances that have enabled public safety personnel to do more with less - and to deploy these solutions quickly, easily and at low overall cost. To fill this technolological need sophisticated and affordable public safety CAD and mobile integrated solutions are needed, including an ability to host SaaS (software as a service) delivery option, for example Tiburon's recently launched DispatchNow. This type of solution offers a complete public safety platform for dispatch and mobile communications that scales for agencies, jurisdictions and environments of any size or complexity. Tiburon included a unique deployment technology to save time, money and resources while also offering seamless integration with Next Generation 911 systems.

Many jurisdictions have been looking to hosted solutions to provide state-of-the art technology without a substantial upfront investment along with ongoing maintenance costs. Available hosted delivery options further offer even faster, more cost-effective implementation and state-of-the-art remote system monitoring. The SaaS solution also offers the full functionality at a price that can be easily accommodated even by the constrained operating budgets of the current environment – and requires no need to tap into capital expenditure budgets. And because the servers are hosted offsite, and not installed at facilities, hosted options like Tiburon’s DispatchNow do not require agencies to purchase or maintain any additional hardware.

Hosted “cloud computing” offers the added benefits of increased availability and resilience, while also maintaining the absolute security and integrity of mission-critical data. Fault-tolerant architecture with multiple redundancies helps make such technology as secure and reliable as it is cost-effective. Customers also enjoy cost-effective system implementation and operation and a streamlined backup center solution.

Solutions like Tiburon’s DispatchNow should also dynamically allocates computer resources to ensure that customers always experience maximum availability and performance – even during peak hours. Dynamic load balancing and intelligent resource allocation moreover allow hardware maintenance to be performed without any application downtime. Should one hosted server fail, other servers in the resource pool can take over to ensure that PSAP operations continue uninterrupted. 

The DispatchNow solution allows agencies to maintain a mission-critical level of service to the community while transitioning to a newer and better system. Fast and seamless to deploy, DispatchNow can be up and fully operational in under three months and offers hardware maintenance and add-ons with no downtime. Colorado County, TX implemented its DispatchNow system in under 90 days from the time the County Commission approved the switchover to full product deployment.

Significantly, the transition from Colorado County’s legacy system to DispatchNow was virtually painless. "Like many other agencies across the country, we are balancing stressed budgets with the obligation to modernize outdated public safety technologies that help our dispatchers and front line effectively respond to the needs of our communities,” said Colorado County Sheriff, R.H. Wied. "But beyond affordability, being able to deploy a full-featured DispatchNow system in weeks, rather than months is what mattered most to us in Colorado County."

Funding the implementation

The cities of Columbus and Weimar, TX also implemented DispatchNow Mobile units through the Colorado County program. As demonstrated in Colorado County, DispatchNow’s hosted solution allows smaller communities to enjoy a higher level of protection without the need for big city budgets and resources. With a subscription model, agencies like Colorado County can pay for DispatchNow using their operating budget, thereby eliminating the need to secure approval for a capital expenditure budget. DispatchNow hosted solution also cuts out other expenses, including IT support staff, ongoing maintenance and upgrade. By leveraging virtualization technology, secure networks, hardened hosting facilities and advanced monitoring capabilities, the hosted DispatchNow solution reduces implementation time, maximizes system availability and lowers total cost of ownership.

In fact, because the hosted model of DispatchNow delivers market-leading technology benefits efficiently and affordably, it can realize savings of up to 40 perfect on the total cost of ownership in the first five years. Many agencies can even completely avoided costly RFP and procurement processes by foregoing large upfront capital and service expenditures. Agencies realize additional savings through reduced IT workload with Tiburon monitoring and maintaining all servers and databases.

In addition to cost savings, DispatchNow offers significant enhancements to help public safety agencies save more lives and mitigate the effects of disasters. With an elevated level of system availability, dispatchers and first responders can log in to servers and immediately enter and obtain the most up-to-date data available. In the event of emergencies or disasters, command centers can be set up from multiple locations, and the systems make dispatch information, including incident type, names, addresses, built-in maps, GPS directions, license information and caller information and locations, readily available online and also deliver it to laptops and mobile devices.

DispatchNow’s unique architecture also ensures that agencies can meet the impending challenges of Next Generation 911 (NG911) DispatchNow CAD will integrate with NG911 voice and data services through established industry standards. These standards enable the transition from today’s outdated legacy telecommunications systems to IP-based NG911 services throughout the United States.

Because NG911 will become available at different times to different jurisdictions, agencies must be able to configure, test and implement NG911 solutions and services at their own pace according to the best use of agency resources while assuring the continued safety of the public. DispatchNow solutions and services are fully modular and customizable to meet the unique requirements of individual agencies, and can scale to support the full range feature-rich multimedia content available with NG911. DispatchNow’s NG911 system will moreover deliver voice, text and multimedia content through fully secure and redundant networks with the goal of allowing agencies to enhance the safety and services they provide to their communities.

“DispatchNow Mobile arms our officers with more of the critical data they need to safely and efficiently respond to calls in the field," said Weimar Police Department Chief Bill Livingston. "Not only are manual tasks automated now with the technology of the mobile system, but our officers can file required reporting instantly from their squad cars. The automatic vehicle location (AVL) capabilities also greatly improve our officer safety and response effectiveness.” With more information at hand, officers are not only better able to protect themselves and their communities, but they are freed up to perform their primary and critical responsibility of saving lives, not scribing.

Regardless of the economic environment or budgetary pressures, harnessing new developments in technology that save time and money represents a real step forward that will serve as a model for communities throughout the country as they seek to adapt to the “new normal” facing those who serve in public safety.