IC4W Product Overview
donaldlloyd
in Climate Change, COVID-19, Crisis and Emergency Management, Emergency Management, Events, Government, Indigenous, Industry News, NGO
General Description
IC4W is a next generation SaaS software solution designed for crisis and emergency management. The product assists in providing emergency managers and incident commanders with answers to critical questions (Who? What? Where? When?), offering the essential insights needed when preparing for and responding to any emergency, case, or incident type.
IC4W is cloud-based allowing government and industry users to access and utilize the software from anywhere including in an EOC, the field, or at home. The product enables interoperability and communications among organizations, as well as with the public, during multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional crises, and disasters. From a mobility perspective, IC4W operates on any Android or iOS device.
IC4W is highly configurable out-of-the-box making it very adaptable to any emergency type, organizational mission and workflow in government or industry. IC4W helps emergency managers and incident commanders to reduce risk to people, property, the economy, and the environment.
Integrated Solution Approach
As an application of Microsoft Dynamics 365, which utilizes SQL Server, IC4W integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office 365 applications and SharePoint to enable incident management workflows to extend through multiple organizations to emergency operations centres and mobile command posts as well as to staff and volunteers working from anywhere. Bing Maps also forms an integrated part of the IC4W solution out-of-the-box.
In addition, by implementing Microsoft Power Apps as well as standard application programming interfaces (APIs) and plugins, IC4W’s capabilities can be extended through integration to a whole range of add-ons and applicable software environments such as Esri’s ArcGIS.
Practical and Flexible Solution Framework
IC4W provides organizations in government and industry with a practical and flexible framework for integrating critical data (including geospatial data), plans, procedures, workflows, forms, templates, and a knowledge base within an operational database environment for managing emergencies, cases, and incidents of any kind – from pandemics and floods to wildfires and terrorism incidents, etc.
IC4W is highly configurable making it adaptable to a wide range of operational requirements and concepts of operation, such as Incident Command System (ICS), no matter how simple or complex, in support of the four pillars of emergency management.
Common Data Model
IC4W applies Microsoft Dynamics 365’s common data model (CDM), which helps to solve the critical problem of interoperability among organizations with respect to sharing and communicating actionable data and information for managing incidents. This means departments and organizations with IC4W authorization can access and manage data within a common environment thereby eliminating the age-old issue of data silos.
Incident-Centric Design
IC4W is incident-centric by design offering emergency managers and incident commanders a structured workflow platform for accessing, assessing, and managing critical data, information, and a knowledge base. This integrated software solution also offers the collaboration, alerting, and communications capabilities needed to assign tasks and resources, and to manage and resolve incidents effectively in a timely manner. IC4W can be applied at all emergency management levels – strategic, operational, and tactical.
High Level Out-of-the-Box Functionality
Comms Logs – This feature enables incidents to be reported by the public or any organization via a designated website. Communications can be logged, verified, and converted into Cases or Incidents.
Cases/Incidents – Cases or Incidents can be opened and managed to resolution using configurable workflows. Multiple ‘child’ Incidents can be related to a ‘parent’ Incident.
Staff, Facilities, Volunteers – Data related to these categories can be managed across organizations. The Facilities category includes configurable dropdown menus everything from Airports and Hospitals to Shelters and Warehouses. Staff and Volunteers can be assigned to Incidents, and Tasks can be assigned to Staff and Volunteers.
Resources – Resource information can be managed in a multi-agency environment. Resources can be related to specific Facilities and assigned to Incidents.
Contacts and Organizations – Data related to internal and external Contacts and Organizations can be managed and mapped within Bing Maps.
Bing Maps – Locational information related to Incidents, Staff, Facilities, Volunteers, Contacts, and Organizations can be displayed within IC4W’s integrated Bing Maps environment. Bing Maps also enables users to obtain transit/walking/driving directions, view live traffic conditions, plan routes, and view satellite, aerial and street-side imagery.
Dashboards – IC4W’s Dashboards functionality can be configured to view a variety of Incident status and Situation Reports in numerous formats.
Activities – A summary of ongoing Activities status can be viewed by users, including Incident and Task assignments.
Knowledge Base – IC4W’s knowledge base capability is virtually unlimited. It can include plans, procedures, articles, and documents related to lessons learned, etc. Knowledge articles and documents can be validated by their respective authors and attached to Incidents. This functionality can be encyclopedic in scope.
Functionality through Configuration – Additional functionality through configuration is virtually unlimited including but not limited to Analytics, Collaboration, Document Sharing, Email Alerts, Image and Video Capture and Storage, Initial Action Reports, Online Meetings, Requests for Information, Situation Reports, etc.
