Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - RFP - 7396 PFA FIRE SERVICE RESPONSE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS SOFTWARE & RUN CARD BUILDER SOFTWARE (3)- 1ft , , ,I DECCAN INTERNATIONAL 5935 cornerstone court west, suite 23C k .VA Save Money, Save Lives son diego, ca 921n � 888.dcaan.'. www✓.deccanintleorr Turnkey software solutions for public safety strategic and tactical deployment planning October 16, 20i2 Tom DeMint Fire Chief Poudre Fire Authority 102 Remington Fort Collins, CO 8o524 Chief DeMint, I am writing in response to Poudre Fire Authority's decision to move forward with The Omega Group's FireView application. I recently learned that the dashboard feature was/is a fundamental requirement for the department, and that the RFP was awarded in part due to FireView's ability to meet this requirement. Chief, I would like to respectfully bring to your attention that Deccan Intl. was unaware of the importance of this feature for the department. Had this requirement been listed in RFP 7396, we most certainly would have addressed how Deccan International's CAD Analyst and ADAM applications are configured to meet this requirement. As you may know, we are actively porting our applications to the Esri platform. In doing so, a key component of our next generation application will indeed be a dashboard feature. Please allow me to provide you with a brief summary of events that have transpired with regard to this topic. When Addendum No. i was released following Deccan's RFP submission, I emailed Ed Bonnette to inquire about PFA's response to io.Q. For your reference, I have copied and pasted the Addendum question and answer here: Q.1o.: In addition to the incident performance Key Performance Indicator, what other relevant KPIs would like to see on your dashboards and reports? io.A.: PFA has a few performance benchmarks that the organization would like to use to further evaluate the department's performance. These include these goals: a. Intercede before fire extends beyond the room of origin in 8SO16 of structure fires. b. Limit civilian fire deaths to o five year average of.s deaths per ioo,000 population. c. Minimize civilian fire injuries by limiting them to a yearly average of 6.5 civilian injuries per aoo,000 population. d. Number of Plan Reviews completed e. Number of Inspections/Re-Inspections- New construction f. Number of Inspections/Re-Inspections- General Fire Safety/Systems g. We have a hospital based ALS provider (our engine and trucks are BLS only) and we would be interested in understanding the amount of time we are on scene first and how long we wait for an ALS unit to arrive on scene. How do we view the gap between our arrival and theirs? How are we improving patient outcomes and what can we do to be better? Memo to Fire Chief Tom DeMint of PFA These measures will change and adapt as we move further into the Accreditation process and continue to work on outcome based measures. To recap, in an email sent to Ed Bonnette on June 25, 2012, 1 specifically asked "Are these goals new requirements for RFP 7396?", and stated that: "If these are new requirements, then 1 would have to withdraw our current response and re -submit". I received the following response from Captain Ron Simms: "Ed asked me to answer your question. No, you don't need to re -submit. The answer I provided to question io of the Addendum is a sort of'wish list'for the future and should not be viewed as a requirement for the RFP. The RFP is really centered on performance analysis in the written RFP. " Finally, to confirm that we correctly understood the requirements of the RFP, during our oral interview with the PFA, Raj specifically asked: "Are the features listed in ao.A. in Addendum i a requirement for the applications?" The response we received from PFA was a resounding "no." Chief, we want to ensure that you have all the information necessary to make an informed decision with respect to obtaining response performance analysis software for the Poudre Fire Authority. For the reasons documented above, we would kindly like to request that you reconsider your decision to enter into a contract with The Omega Group. Additionally, after speaking with Captain Simms, we learned that the department may not be aware of a few other primary benefits of Deccan International's CAD Analyst and ADAM applications that I believe you will find to be quite valuable. As such, we have taken the liberty of outlining these key points in the paragraphs below. First, we are excited to inform you that we have created a beta version of our CAD Analyst application on the Esri platform. We showcased the application at our zoiz Users' Group Conference and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our clients. Please allow me to share with you our primary motivations behind porting the application: i. Move from the Mapinfo platform to the Esri platform. We understand that the Mapinfo platform is outdated, and can be clunky and complicated to use. Meanwhile, the popularity of Esri continues to increase, largely due to its ease of use and flexibility. As the majority of our clients are Esri shops, the transition to the Esri platform will be an easy(and welcome) transition. z. Make the application web -based and user-friendly. Our ported application resides on an ArcGIS Server, allowing multiple users (Chiefs, Analysts, Captains) at any given department, or station, to access it at any given time. The graphic user interface is more intuitive, making it easier for clients to navigate and utilize. 3. Enhance the reporting capabilities of the application. Historically, CAD Analyst's focus has been on incident -based performance. We know that clients have a need to provide reports based on other factors, as well (e.g., unit -based reports). As such, we are significantly enhancing the reporting capabilities of the application, so that clients can generate analyses such as unit - based reports, and travel time polygons around each station. y. Add a dashboard component. Equally important to expanding on the reporting capabilities is the addition of a dashboard. Our customizable dashboard will allow clients to select and monitor those performance indicators deemed significant to their departments. Fire Chiefs will have the ability to monitor system -wide performance, while Battalion Chiefs can hone in on turnout Memo to Fire Chief Tom DeMint of PFA times or travel times for their respective stations. As noted above, had we been aware of PFA's need to utilize a dashboard feature, we would have been thrilled at the opportunity to share this information with you during the RFP evaluation process. Secondly, we wanted to speak to the capabilities of our CAD Analyst and ADAM applications as compared to FireView. We are acutely aware of FireView, and would like to assure you that CAD Analyst and ADAM are in a different league in terms of capability, strength, and rigor of analysis. The utility of Deccan's software suite lies in CAD Analyst's ability to assist a department with analyzing historical CAD data to view response performance, and ADAM's ability to perform 'what if' analysis on the impact of field deployment changes. As such, the suite is vital for minimizing the impact of station closures, brown -outs, etc. For this, it is key that the models reflect actual drive times based on historical data and not posted speed limits on a digital road network. In addition, for a department that has even a few busy units, it is critical that the models account for unit absences from a station when they are out on calls. That is, they should not assume that units are always available at a station. Finally, if the department needs to find the optimal deployment changes that minimize the impact of a given budget reduction, an optimization tool that explores all possible deployment combinations and comes up with the optimal deployment options will be very useful. ADAM has an optimization component. These are precisely the key strengths of CAD Analyst/ADAM when compared with FireView, which I have elaborated on below. To begin, FireView does not consider the difference between a road network's posted speed limits and the actual travel time historically taken by units on the road network. FireView only considers the theoretical travel time based on the road network (speed limits and distance). ADAM is a more realistic model that derives actual time distance relationships from the previous year's run data. ADAM is calibrated to match your actual field performance, and increases the accuracy of projections made. Without realistic and quality data input, there is little credibility in the output. Realistic travel times provide accurate projections of how response times will be affected by deployment changes, allowing you to confidently present your analysis with the assurance that it can withstand challenges to its credibility. In addition, ADAM is the only application that takes into account unit unavailability in areas where call volume is high. We are aware that many department units can be busy due to high call volume, and therefore it is impossible to assume that a given unit is always available. This leads to the need for analysis to take into consideration that farther away second or third due units will often respond instead. For example, if two engines are housed in the same station and one engine is removed from service, ADAM will calculate the impact of the number of runs on the remaining engine, as well as how the response performance would decrease in the surrounding area. This is a critical aspect of modeling deployment changes where the FireView application falls short in terms of depth and expertise. Further, with ADAM's optimization component, a department can specify a number of units and select a criterion, then order ADAM to produce the optimal deployment of these units so as to minimize l Memo to Fire Chief Tom DeMint of PFA response times. This way a department can be reassured that field units are delivering the maximum "bang forthe buck" using the field units it has at its disposal. FireView cannot optimize performance in this way. Finally, CAD Analyst and ADAM are capable of supporting hazard and risk analysis of zones. This is especially important when considering Effective Fire Force performance, as ADAM can account for different sets of units being dispatched based on the risk level of a given location. In closing, I would like to stress that no other strategic planning software application on the market today offers a more comprehensive and rigorous analysis of your department's performance than CAD Analyst and ADAM. Many of our clients have undergone the process of evaluating CAD Analyst and ADAM against FireView, and would be happy to attest to their decision to join the Deccan family of clients. LAFD was considering FireView, but ultimately decided upon CAD Analyst and ADAM; Kauai Fire actually used FireView, but due to its inability to meet their deployment planning needs, discarded the application in favor of CAD Analyst and ADAM. We would be happy to share with you contact information for Fire Chief Robert Westerman of Kauai Fire if you would like to speak with him directly on this topic. I do hope this information is helpful to you. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at 858.764.8324. Thank you Chief. Warmest Regards, Latha Nagaraj President Deccan International 858.764.8324