Current Challenges in Meeting Requirements
It’s no secret that local governments need to accomplish a lot with limited budgets and resources. Even with the best intentions, sometimes processes can fail, and mistakes are made or tasks overlooked. Often merely an inconvenience or source of frustration, mistakes in departments like fire prevention and enforcement can harm workers and the public.
Many departments are still manually processing inspections and enforcement, leading to delayed occupancy inspections with an elevated risk of catastrophic events. A recent story in the Chicago Tribune highlighting the fatal fires linked to issues with their inspection system illustrates what can happen when systems don’t work as intended. The reality is that delayed inspections can lead to fires where lives are lost. Another inescapable reality is that manual systems can no longer keep up with rising demands for fire prevention and efficient emergency response planning.
Moving to Digital Systems from Paper
There are understandable reasons why Fire Departments delay moving from an antiquated paper system to a more streamlined digital process. The evolution from manual systems can have its share of growing pains if not managed efficiently, as evidenced in the ongoing investigation into the Nova Scotian Fire Marshall’s office building inspection policy detailed in this article in Saltwire.
It’s one thing to switch to a digital system and yet another to effectively weave old systems into new ones. Without proper support from digital system creators, the end result can be as risky as not having a digital system.
It’s important to note traditional paper-based systems are prone to loss, damage, and inefficiency. More specifically, manually storing and retrieving documents consume valuable time and resources — like storage space, paper, microfiche and office supplies — not to mention exponentially increased dedicated crew hours.
Adopting a digital document management system allows for easy retrieval and heightened security. Efficient filing, version control, and access controls ensure the accuracy and availability of necessary documents. Digital document management systems can also help lower the operating costs paper-based systems are notorious for.
While administration may see the need for change, crew are sometimes less than keen on the idea. People naturally resist change, and some can create costly roadblocks moving forward. Organizations constantly face the need to adapt and evolve. Implementing new technologies or restructuring processes can challenge morale and team dynamics. Effective change management is key to successful shifts in any process. The retraining of crew members by people who know what they’re doing and who have the skills to achieve complete buy-in from the crew can make or break a Fire Department’s evolution. Finding the right kind of support should factor large in any decision on operating software.
The Solution?
Finding a software company that understands your needs is of the utmost importance. Noratek Solutions’ CityReporter™ software helps organizations move from ineffective and potentially dangerous systems to one that saves lives, time, and money. In fact, the software can reduce inefficiencies by at least 50%.
CityReporter™ was developed by IT professionals and Noratak’s talented software developers. The company worked with experienced fire prevention personnel, focus groups, attorneys, and risk management personnel to create an intuitive, responsive, user-friendly tool that seamlessly moves cumbersome analog systems to a sleek and efficient digital process.
The software is leading-edge for fire department, emergency planning and code enforcement staff for a reason. The code enforcement software simplifies, organizes and harmonizes fire prevention inspections, emergency management and emergency response planning processes.
Optimized Workflows
CityReporter™ optimizes workflow, allowing crew and administrators to spend less time reading reports and keeping track of them. The software automatically assigns work reports, schedules automatic recurring inspection frequencies and assigns low, medium and high code violations to properties under inspection. This takes the stress and time-consuming responsibilities off crew and managers by systematizing previously unwieldy tasks.
The software streamlines crew member output without having to add additional members. Enhancing your team's performance optimizes profitability, while code enforcement helps organizations deliver services with higher quality outcomes and far fewer concerns about potential liability. Crew are freed up to focus more efficiently on clearing backlogs and ensuring the safety of the people and properties in their community.
“Since we implemented CityReporter, we’ve been very impressed with our results for our Occupancy inspections and platoon crews in-company inspections. The software is very flexible, so we were able to customize our areas and forms to best fit our workflow. We are now able to easily pull up information on any location with all the previous data clearly available.
Moving away from our old process gave us control over our forms and provided us with a more streamlined process so we don’t miss any valuable information or inspections. This new process also has [allowed] our department to find valuable efficiencies in the form of data management as well as streamlining our inspection report resulting in overall time efficiencies related to the inspections, follow-up re-inspections and calculated scheduling for both our Inspection Division as well as our crew inspections.”
- Deputy Fire Chief Mike Russell, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
CityReporter contains a Library of Fire Inspection Forms Based on the National Fire Codes
For accuracy and efficiency, CityReporter has created easily updated National Fire Code fire inspection forms allowing teams to start inspections immediately after implementing properties in the software. This saves much time and resources for better utilization in increasing inspection metrics.
A new release of the NFC is developed every five years in Canada, and the National Fire Protection Association code in the U.S. is updated every three to five years.
CityReporter allows for updates, additions and revisions to forms, creating a flexible solution to ever-changing circumstances. Once changes are made to a form, all inspections will include the most recently updated form ensuring your inspections are current with the latest code changes.
The software also allows you to create a customized database for all your fire prevention and emergency planning needs, improving efficiency and conformity.
Are you Ready to Go Digital?
Speed and accuracy are an integral part of keeping the public safe. Manual systems suffer in both speed and accuracy and leave a lot of room for human error that could result in loss of life, potential liability and unnecessary cost overruns. Paper systems create backlogs in workflow management and inspections, prolonging the time between when a hazard is identified and when it is resolved. There is a better way.