Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service

Transforming emergency response reports to boost efficiency Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service leads the way with FME 

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service is the largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service in England with 83 fire stations and more than 1,800 employees. 

New automated processes developed by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) have significantly improved the efficiency, accuracy and timeliness of recording information on the ambulance driver support in the pandemic, which:

• Contributes to and supports organisational digital transformation.
• Enables migration of data from siloes to a centralised data location.
• Gains buy-in by demonstrating value in a visual, intuitive way that does not require technical expertise.
• Provides a low-code platform for data transformation scheduling.
• Inspires organisation to consider what is possible through new ways of working.

Challenge

Accurately recording information of how they are supporting the ambulance service is vital for monitoring performance and reporting to stakeholders, particularly during increased demand in the pandemic. After each shift, the driver needs to provide details such as the incident’s category, whether it included attending a Nightingale hospital and the personnel involved.

For a complete regional operational picture, information must be collected and collated across the SWASFT area. The original system relied on a manual process which involved crews emailing information over to be included in reports. This was time-consuming and had the potential to introduce errors. 

The solution

DSFRS introduced a new process that uses FME to automate and integrate their data. By configuring their FME server to receive, read and scan the individual emails and extract the pertinent information to the centrally-stored database, the time taken to integrate the data into a region-wide report was significantly reduced.

1Spatial have supplied components from the FME Platform to DSFRS since 2019, and have also provided the team with the complete range of formal FME Desktop and Server Authoring training sessions. In addition, we have supplied services to deploy FME Server for high availability and resilience, and technical support to ensure the day-to-day support needed to keep their data flowing freely between systems.

Key benefits

• Improves efficiency by removing the need for any manual involvement.
• Ensures consistency and quality of data within this collaboration project.
• Reduces risk of errors being introduced into the data.
• Enhances accountability, transparency and visibility of partnership members. 
• Improves data governance.
• Demonstrated value and effectiveness of emergency response in the pandemic.