How will purchasing CAD Analyst and ADAM save money for our department?
The cost of maintaining an apparatus in a station, twenty-four hours, seven days a week can cost in the order of one and a half million dollars or more an year. Placing that station or apparatus at the wrong location involves a lot of money being spent ineffectively. CAD Analyst and ADAM can help you evaluate the most optimal location for your new station and enable you to get the maximum benefit of the money spent on maintaining the station. CAD Analyst and ADAM can also help you save costs by avoiding having to hire expensive consultants. When you hire a consultant, you have the disadvantage of a person who has to get fully up to speed on your operation in a matter short period of time and prepare a report based on the short learning curve. In contrast, CAD Analyst and ADAM can tap into the extensive years of experience and knowledge that already exists in your department to help you identify the most effective course of action. In this manner you can save money on hiring a consultant and also not get delays when you need immediate answers. Of special note also as new challenges from budget cuts, consolidation or expansion arise, having the all important current service performance data on hand year in year out allows for better planned defense with legislative authorities and educational programs with community groups. It has occurred over the years numerous times that on account of the publics or legislative bodies perception etc that the fire departments senior management is not able to present a highly informative data supported presentations in a compelling manner and easy to grasp manner that its problems are not serious enough to grab their serious lets fix this attention.
We have been told that our fire departments’ budget has been reduced and that we may have to explore closing down stations, how can CAD Analyst and ADAM help us address this issue?
CAD Analyst and ADAM help identify the areas of strength and weakness in your area of coverage. By using ADAM the Chief can do the “what if” analysis and determine the effects of closing down a station. In some cases the software has shown that the area of the proposed station closure would have left that area vulnerable and determined that closing the station was not a good idea.
The results of the analysis can then be printed out in color-coded maps and presented to the council, thus enabling the Chief to possibly make a very compelling argument defending his/her budget.
What is so great about the analysis provided by CAD Analyst and ADAM of our CAD data? Why can’t we use any old analysis software to analyze our CAD data?
CAD Analyst and ADAM have behind them over 15 years of experience in data and analysis specifically for fire departments. Our years of experience working with senior Fire Chiefs has shown us that it is very easy to make flawed analysis if one does not pay attention to detail. Simply put garbage in could result in garbage out. As a result, when we get CAD data from you, we do a lot of vetting of the data in house to ensure that accuracy of the applications. So that in the end when we deliver CAD Analyst and ADAM to you, you can be confident you can directly use the analysis and present it to the council without being embarrassed by incorrect, questionable or poor analysis.
We have been burnt purchasing software where in the end we have been dissatisfied with the services of the software. Why should we believe that CAD Analyst, ADAM or your other software’s will not disappoint us and in fact will deliver what you claim it will do?
While we are a software company, we also provide support for the data our software processes. We have a lot of experience and commitment to the fire-fighting profession. We have been in business for over 9 years and we have over 95 satisfied fire departments across the U.S. , Canada and the U.K. You are more than welcome to talk to any one of our clients and verify that they have been satisfied with the software and are glad that they purchased it. For prospective clients, we are happy to furnish the phone numbers of our clients who have purchased the software of interest.
Have your applications made a significant impact in areas which are experiencing high growth?
Absolutely. Some of our clients experiencing high growth are the Las Vegas area, which includes Clark County and the City of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, and Orange County, Florida, which includes Orlando, as well as Spokane, Sacramento, Denver, Howard County, San Jose and a few others.
In fast growing areas, the way our application helps is in identifying the best location, the timing and location of new stations as well as the need for special types of apparatus like advanced life support units and paramedic engines, as well as taking into account the additional work load that comes along with high growth.
The applications also assist in checking that the existing stations are correctly located based on accurate growth projections of how the city was expected to expand before adding more stations.
With consolidation the same analysis is pertinent but just in a reverse situation. We have several clients who have used the software to go to public hearings on annexations and to move fire stations within the city.
Will your applications help determine if we are meeting the NFPA 1710 criteria?
We have separate applications called the 1710 Analyst and 1710 ADAM, and these can be used to see if the department is meeting the 1710 criteria. Fort Lauderdale Fire as well as Seattle Fire are using these applications.
Will your applications help in the area of Homeland Defense?
The chief requirement for homeland defense is being able to use ones facilities in an optimum capacity for any extreme test of the department’s capabilities.
The software that has been designed for this exact scenario is the Move Up Module software.
Most Fire departments do not have a real time computer based analytical tool to observe check and validate that deployment of resources is being done in an optimal manner weather under extreme or usual emergency incident demands.
This is a highly critical situation that we believe needs to be addressed intelligently across America.
Move up Module software when evaluating of the thousands of combinations and permutations of the CAD data in real time, can balance the communications criteria for effective optimal dispatch, which is the aim of every communications center.
Move up Module software uses real time data as it enters the CAD (LiveMUM) and lessens the strain of the –irrational, unmeasured, disorganized manner in which an exceptionally capable communications center manager has to receive these challenges. Being given excessive data that is just too complex to equate and react to efficiently in a real time situation is extremely unsatisfactory, life threatening, expensive and potentially applicable with many of today’s larger departments. As we go into the 21st century we need to leave the some 20th century management thinking behind. Let the computers do what they can do and let us scrutinize and evaluate them!!
But first discover what they can do and study our very unique applications. We only build to innovate not to copy!
Our different software tools apply to different parts of the crisis management scenario and when the fire department is being stretched at its most critical moments is the time that it needs to have the best balance of deployment already in place and avoid as much as possible the all to often flying by the seat on ones pants manner.
Move Up Module in particular is an essential tool for high-level stress emergency dispatch situations that call for immediate analysis in situations that are unusual and that the dispatcher will have had little or no experience with. The extensive CAD data is a goldmine of information that must be used and be made quickly intelligible and guiding for optimal dispatch solutions; this is what Move Up Module does. BARB for disaster's is also a homeland defense software tool.
Please call if you would like to get more information on this extensive subject and how our creative and user friendly tools can solve the critical performance equations homeland defense scenarios will demand. We also are happy to do live demonstrations of Move Up Module at your communications center.
Is there a discount if I purchase the whole suite of your applications at the same time?
Yes and it can be determined based on your requirements.
How long do your demonstrations last? Do we need to provide you with anything to facilitate the demo? Can you demo our site, if we were to give you sample CAD data?
All the demonstrations last about 2 hours and are done by web conference or on site. We would like to be provided with a projector that can be connected to our laptop. Demonstrations are particularly informative and can answer many of the varying yet pertinent questions that will arise from a selection of your department’s professionals. We recommend that the Operations Chief, Planning Chief, IT person, and their assistants attend the demonstration and as many as you can involve in this critical process of discovery on how beneficial this software could be to you.
Unfortunately we will not be able to demo the applications using a sample data from your site. The reason is that we would have to build the applications to do so. It is an especially good idea to also review the summarized streaming video demonstrations that we have on site by clicking here.
Do you have any unhappy users?
We do not have any unhappy customers. All of our clients are productively using our applications. It reflects when they all come and attend our user group conferences and are glad to recommend us to other colleague fire departments. A big reason for this is because not only do we deliver the software on time and make sure that the software correctly reflects their operations, but we are only a phone call away to help them address any changes and do any tweaks that are needed to make sure that the application is completely fully usable by them, so that in the end after making all the necessary changes, the client is left with a satisfied feeling that they’ll have productive use of the application.
Please feel welcome to read the testimonial survey response section from our users on their experience with the software as well as the client video testimonials on the web site.
What trade shows/conferences do you participate in annually?
APCO, NENA, I Chiefs, Metro Fire Chiefs Conference, International CAD Consortium, Canadian EMS Director’s Association, and different CAD vendors User’s Conferences as well as some occasional regional APCO and NENA conferences.
Do you have in-depth demo models?
We have streaming demos of our four main applications ADAM, CAD Analyst, Live MUM, and BARB. However, we encourage interested parties to contact us for a web based demonstration. This is a great way for us to answer your detailed and often demanding questions specific to your department's requirements. In the last two years apart from doing demos at trade shows we have found it much more convenient for many prospective clients to use our web conferencing tool and give live demos over the internet allowing the participants to ask as many questions as they like and without forcing them to leave their office.
Do I need AVL for you to use the applications?
No, We do not need AVL. However, we can make use of AVL information for calibrating ADAM. For those kinds of AVL information, we can use the location of where the unit is responded from in order to derive more data on time distance relationships using historical data using the AVL information.
Can you tell me the advantages of attending your annual users conference?
There are several advantages. You can observe how the applications are being used and speak directly with our clients who have been using it.
We model our User’s Conference after the Metro Fire Chiefs Conference, so basically all you have to pay for is your hotel (at a discount via our web site registration) and travel and we take care of the food and entertainment. To quote one of our attendees and their wives, “ It was not only very informative, but also a lot of fun!”
Will Cad Analyst or Adam create a monthly peak staffing recommendation report via a keystroke that indicates when and where supplemental staffing will reduce response times?
CAD Analyst maps will show you, on your own laptop, scenarios of response performance by time-of-day, day-of-week and -month as well as spatially across your service area. Areas of poor coverage will be shown in shades of red while areas of adequate coverage will be shown in shades of green. Using different time-of-day scenarios, you can quickly hone in on the times-of-day and specific areas where additional units would be needed. Once you have identified the times and areas of staffing deficiency, you can use ADAM to locate the precise locations where the additional units would be best positioned.
Can CAD Analyst and ADAM demonstrate a statistical correlation and identify degrees of probability that past random fire and medical events will recur in the future in a predictable enough pattern to allow for future staffing decisions to be effective?
CAD Analyst lets you view the spatial distribution of fire and EMS workloads and view how they change over time by running different time based scenarios. Typically, our clients use the most recent 1 years work of data as a reasonable predictor of future workloads. This one year data is updated every six months to reflect changes over the past six months. From our experience of over 7 years worth of data across our many clients, the changes over 6 months are not dramatic enough to warrant more effort in this area. However, for making 5- and 10- year projections, we have assisted our clients in using census data to calculate "incident generation rates" and make as-best-as possible 5- and 10- year incident volume projections. We are happy to build CAD Analyst with however many years of data the client wishes to provide. To date this has not been at any extra cost. This way the department can decide how much historical data it may want to scrutinize and evaluate. The software makes it easy analyze the degrees of probability from fire and medical events in a specific area.
Will ADAM indicate specifically when and where to place supplemental staffing that will justify the expense against the actual and direct benefit of reducing response times during those selected periods?
ADAM's color-coded coverage maps enable you to quickly identify areas of poor coverage. You can then drag units into that area, press the Analysis button and view the impact of additional units as it would directly relate to your recent historical data. Response performance changes by structure fire and medical incidents are displayed in the ADAM score sheet. Thus, while ADAM does not directly make recommendations, With your fire departments expertise, you can easily use it to quickly identify the optimal units and location of additional units needed. Using the years of professional experience with your department will lead you to ask ADAM to produce the best answers. ADAM uses the powerful data processing capacities of modern day computers and presents it in a way that is user friendly, logical and intuitive for fire department management. It is what we call "man-machine interaction"
Allow changes to current staffing levels and adjust recommendations accordingly?
With the changes in staffing levels, you can easily calculate how many more or less units you have at your disposal. You can then use ADAM to add/drop units, view the impact within minutes and come up with your own recommendations. While ADAM doesn't make recommendations, you can come up with recommendations that you know you will be comfortable with, all this within 1/2 hour or so. ADAM is also used as an objective data based tool showing the negative impact immediately of staff cuts based on historical data. It is thus imperative to have a simple to grasp map-based tool with easy rapid access to its adjoining supportive incident data that allows city budget officials to quickly grasp the negative impact of staff cuts and realize the probable impact may be too negative compared to other budget considerations. Thus it has also proven itself to be a robust information tool for defending the fire departments budget.
We are in the stages of constructing a Master Plan. Has anyone used the applications to build a Master Plan for their area? If so who are they? Can we get copies of the Master Plan? What were the results of using the applications in the Master Plan?
CAD Analyst and ADAM can help you in the Master Plan by helping you run future scenarios for 5, 10, 15 and 20 years ahead based on projected call volume growth and planned growth. In this manner you can have coverage analysis for the future and have more details behind your planned locations for the future. An example of a master plan that one of our clients built using our applications would be the Master Plan of the Calgary Fire Department, which can be accessed from our client’s page.
Will CAD Analyst and Adam applications help me to prove one way or the other if my Communications Center is doing a satisfactory job of dispatch and presentation of CAD data?
One of the problems Fire departments face is interpreting data from a CAD when the department is dispatched by other agencies, such as Police departments, county communications centers, or by another Fire department's communications center. The typical result in such cases is that a Fire department will often find itself disenfranchised from their own data- a Chief may want to analyze a department's performance, but he or she may have to wait for a long time to get data from the communications center and when it does arrive, it is either unusable, difficult to use effectively, or presented in the form of un intuitive"data dumps" or tables of reports, and not in the easy-to-grasp manner in which they need it. As a result, very little of that very useful data is intelligently used by the Fire department who is dispatched by another agency.
The communications center may not understand how essential this data is in order to keep the Fire Chief informed about his or her department, and it is the Fire Chief in turn that needs to be able to answer the demanding questions asked by city officials. It is hard to establish a culture of accountability if the Chief is not able to rapidly evaluate the impact of proposed decisions based on recent historical data with both performance and costs CAD Analyst is a tool that can help overcome this untenable situation. The technical staff at Deccan International overcomes this hurdle by requesting the communications center to export data in any number of common formats, simplifying the task of obtaining raw data.
CAD Analyst helps the Fire Chief to eliminate the excuses from the communications center. With our experienced Fire-knowledgeable technicians handling your information, communications centers are no longer able to use the favorite excuse that data processing takes up too much of their time. It has been our experience that the Fire Chief is always successful in getting the communications center to reliably pass the essential data to us, as unlike many Fire Chiefs we know what to ask for and how to make it an easy task for any communications center.
Once obtained, our CAD Analyst software builders use your data to set up information management tools in a turnkey fashion that allows the Fire Chief to draw a large variety of decision making insights that he or she would not find otherwise. Additionally, once the communications center understands that the data is a valuable asset to the Chief when presented in a more clear and conclusive manner, they also come to appreciate the responsibility more and more. Fire Chiefs often experience battles in trying to get to the bottom of their department's performance. In their frustration and through lack of time, they are often forced to consider hiring consultants.
However, without the use of CAD Analyst, even a consultant's report can often not be verified as objectively accurate and comprehensively supported by all the available data. Additionally, even when accurate, consultant's reports are still frozen in time and start going out of date the day they are printed. CAD Analyst and ADAM allow for the Fire Chief to know his department so well that he or she effectively becomes an ongoing consultant, with all the information presented to him in easy to grasp, data-supported maps.
With ADAM, he or she can drill down to make numerous questions, suggestions, and changes to his field, supported by accurate historical data such that he or she can create the most optimized service possible with the resources available. Such optimization helps departments make extremely efficient use of their resources while saving the budget for expanding the department where it is most needed.
My department is being dispatched by a Comm. Center that is not in my control. How can CAD Analyst and ADAM help me in this situation?
With the data available from the CAD, CAD Analyst and Adam can greatly help and specify exact levels of performance to allow for a the Chief to accurately evaluate the level of service of any communications center and objectively conclude how it may need improving .
CAD Analyst and ADAM allow for the Fire Chief to know his department so well that he or she effectively becomes an ongoing consultant, with all the information presented to him in easy to grasp, data-supported maps.
With ADAM, he or she can drill down to make numerous questions, suggestions, and changes to his field, supported by accurate historical data such that he or she can create the most optimized service possible with the resources available. Such optimization helps departments make extremely efficient use of their resources while saving the budget for expanding the department where it is most needed.
How many licenses are included in your price for the software? What are the hardware specifications for use of the applications on the desktop as well as the laptop?
For Move Up Module, BARB we give you up to two licenses. You may purchase additional licenses at an additional cost.
Since all the applications are tailored to your data in your service area, they will only be usable by your department. However, as of now, the applications run on top of a mapping software called MapInfo. Whenever you install CAD Analyst and ADAM on a machine, you would have to have MapInfo installed on that machine also. Please contact MapInfo Corporation to find out pricing information. We are in the process of porting our applications from MapInfo to the ESRI platform. We have been advised by ESRI that when the porting is completed, for all those clients who have purchased MapInfo, their copies will be replaced by ESRI equivalent at no additional cost to the department.
The hardware specs are as follows:
Desktop PC:
800 Mhz Pentium III processor or better.
512 Megs of RAM
Minimal 20G Hard Drive
21" Monitor
Laptop:
500 Mhz processor or better.
256 Megs of RAM
Display capable of 1024 by 768 resolution.
We are assuming that the Desktop PC will be used to do the analysis and the Laptop will be used to make presentations from the scenarios run generated on the Desktop PC.
The processor and 512MB RAM is needed for ensuring that re-deployment analysis can be completed quickly for any new scenario. Typically, a deployment analysis session could generate over 40 scenarios. The 21" Super VGA monitor is needed to display the entire response area without scrolling. These applications are for Modeling and Analysis and require significant amount of processing power as well as RAM.
Will this work with my CAD?
CAD Analyst and Fire/EMS ADAM are currently used by about 80 departments across the US, Canada and the UK. These clients span a variety of CADs including nine of the prominent CAD vendors of the industry. We accomplish these by taking ownership of doing whatever conversion is needed from the raw CAD data provided by the CAD to the format usable by the applications. In addition the data is uploaded into the apps in batch modes, which permits us to verify and ensure data and analysis integrity and be satisfied that the end user, i.e. fire chief, is obtaining as accurate an analysis as possible.
Here are some CAD's we have worked with:
1. PRC
2. Tiburon
3. Intergraph
4. TriTech
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5. GEAC
6. Home grown
7. PSSI
8. Printrak
9. Systems House
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