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Q2 2008
IN THIS ISSUE


FEATURE
Readiness '08 Meets Attendee's Expectations

SITUATIONAL READINESS SPOTLIGHT
NC4 selects a best-of-breed technology for its business services delivery platform

E TEAM PRODUCT STEERING COMMITTEE (PSC) UPDATE
Jaclyn Barcroft, PSC Chairperson

PRODUCT NEWS & TIPS

ESA Release 5.0


ESA Product Tip: Creating Alert Criteria for User-selected States and/or Counties

E Team Release 6.4  


READER_CONTRIBUTIONS
Do you have an interesting tip on how to best use ESA, ESP or E Team? What about input on an aspect of emergency or security management? We welcome contributions to the Readiness Quarterly, so please contact us at info@nc4.us if you have a story idea.

FEEDBACK

Is there something else you'd like to see in this newsletter? Contact us at info@nc4.us.

NC4 Customer Survey

Time is running out to complete your customer survey! Surveys close June 30th. If you have received a survey from us, please take one minute to let us know what you think. If you already have given us your feedback, thank you.

Customer feedback helps to guide us in improving our products and services for you. We value your insights tremendously.

EXECUTIVE CORNER



 NC4 President, Jim Montagnino

 

Within the past 18 months, Missouri’s 5.8 million residents have experienced 14 presidentially-declared disasters, more incidents than the preceding 10 years combined. Because Missouri can experience a natural disaster trifecta each year – ice storms, winter storms, and floods – Missouri Department of Public Safety (DPS) is acutely aware of the importance of coordinated, multi-agency response throughout the state. To improve the existing methods for responding to and managing emergencies statewide, Missouri DPS decided to implement NC4’s most recent version of E Team in late 2007 as a cornerstone of its Missouri Emergency Response Information System (MERIS) project. The MERIS project aims to streamline and integrate emergency response efforts throughout the state.

During a disaster, emergency managers need access to real-time information in order to make the most informed decisions possible. E Team has helped to improve Missouri’s situational awareness, taking the guesswork out of these decisions. At our core, NC4 aims to assist our customers through stressful times, and we are pleased that Missouri could leverage E Team to manage this incident efficiently.

Read the full press release

MARK YOUR CALENDAR


E Team Customer Call
Thursday, Sept. 18
11am PDT / 2pm EDT

 

5th ANNUAL
USERS CONFERENCE
NC4 READINESS '09

April 6-8, 2009
Dallas, TX
The Westin Resort
 

SITUATIONAL READINESS SPOTLIGHT

 

Following a rigorous evaluation, NC4 has selected a best-of-breed technology as the foundation for its new Software as a Service (SaaS) business services delivery platform. NC4 will leverage commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) to deliver standard business collaboration tools such as,

  • instant messaging
  • document sharing and management
  • calendaring
  • project management
  • discussion groups
  • search and team workspaces
  • support for emerging social networking applications

NC4 will combine these desktop tools with NC4 business services and applications to deliver highly secure solutions to both government and private sector customers in new ways.

NC4’s business services delivery platform will give customers the ability to customize a solution to support complex business processes and meet the specific objectives of their organizations. NC4 will work side-by-side with customers to understand their unique business and technology needs and address their challenges, in order to provide the right mix of tools, business services and applications. Applications could include NC4 application services, as well as third party and Internet application components. The underlying technology enables NC4 to build customer-driven, mission-focused solutions without the need for additional development or programming, helping to minimize costs.

This state-of-the-art technology will initially be implemented in support of NC4’s Secure Collaboration solution, ESP, but will ultimately be incorporated across NC4’s entire product suite, further enhancing our new generation of Situational Readiness Network offerings.

For additional information, please contact info@nc4.us

 


FEATURE

Readiness '08 Meets Attendee's Expectations


by Christine Grist
Ministry of Health
British Columbia, Canada


Each year NC4 hosts a User’s Conference with the intent of providing a program that is “productive, informative and enjoyable”. This year’s user conference, held at Hilton Head, SC, was no exception!

As the pre-conference activities kicked off Monday morning, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining and the beach was calling. I must admit, these enticements were difficult to ignore, but participating in the conference was worth it! The morning started with a number of E Team training sessions, followed by an afternoon packed with activities. The annual NC4 Golf Tournament was held at Port Royal Golf Course. Alligators on the course were a highlight for many! For those, like me, who chose not to participate in the golf tournament, NC4 hosted a beach walk and a Harbour Town Tour and Dolphin Watching excursion, where we saw lots of dolphins and other wildlife. The dolphins riding in the boats bow wave was definitely a highlight of this excursion. The Welcome Reception on Monday evening really kicked off the conference, with NC4 staff and delegates from across the United States and Canada networking and socializing. Everyone works very hard all year, so being able to relax and enjoy each others company was very rewarding.

The conference officially started with an engaging keynote address by Joel Bagnal, the Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. Mr. Bagnal's talk set the stage for a wonderful conference. The conference continued with various E Team, Incident Monitoring System, and Infotrak training sessions. There were also informative user presentations by Dun & Bradstreet, the State of Missouri, eBay, OnStar, NetApp, BC Ministry of Health, and Michigan State Police Emergency Management. Each of these presentations acted as an information sharing session, allowing others to hear how the NC4 solutions are being used.

The training sessions, product updates, and user presentations were invaluable as a source of new information as well as a confirmation and encouragement that our project is moving in the right direction. The highlight of this conference for me each year is the networking and socializing opportunities, and this year was no exception. Being able to speak one-on-one with other users of the E Team application has been invaluable. Having informal access to the NC4 team, those we know and of course some of those we do not get to meet or even talk with normally, was not only useful but enjoyable.

At this year’s conference, NC4 provided a very valuable venue for the Canadian E Team User Group to meet face-to-face for the first time. The number of E Team customers is growing quickly within Canada and it is important for this group to have the opportunity to meet face-to-face, promoting the exchange of ideas, experiences, best practices and lessons learned. Thank you to NC4 for providing this opportunity!

I look forward to seeing everyone next April in Dallas, TX!

 

   

E TEAM PRODUCT STEERING COMMITTEE UPDATE

by Jaclyn Barcroft, PSC Chairperson



I welcome the chance to address everyone in my first E Team Product Steering Committee update as the new Chairperson. I would like to send a sincere thank you to the previous Chairperson Lou Vargo for the nomination and I look forward to serving in this capacity for the next couple years.


Thank you to all of the NC4 customers who made it to the Users Conference on Hilton Head Island in April. I know there were some competing commitments scheduled for the same time period. It was another great conference with ample opportunities to make new contacts and meet old friends. The presentations showcasing the upcoming enhancements to the E Team 6.0 platform -- including customizable forms & tabs, ARE Plus with Dashboards and E Team User Presentations -- were some of the highlights. I recommend each of you to check out support.nc4.us to view the presentations and photos from the conference.

I encourage you to consider planning for the Users Conference next April in Dallas, TX. It is a great opportunity to network with other NC4 customers and employees and to learn from each other. In the interim, I welcome each of you to continue to share your ideas with the Product Steering Committee by emailing me or one of the other members listed below. Have a great summer!
 

________________________

E Team PSC Members:

 

   

ESA PRODUCT NEWS

ESA 5.0 and Upcoming Enhancements


NC4 released its upgraded External Situation Awareness application (ESA) on May 17th. The upgrade is based on a completely new infrastructure using Oracle 11g with state-of-the-art replication and security features (like Virtual Private Database and Oracle Label Security). This advanced technology provides major improvements in performance and security and is the foundation for significant future advancements in functionality and scalability.

Although there were major changes in the architecture of the application, the look and feel changed very little so that it is the same familiar product users have come to know. Some new features were added and some areas of the application were enhanced. The most significant improvement is the self-administration capability which now allows Admins to manage other users. This is accessed on the menu under User Management, as shown here. Admins can view and edit user personal information, change passwords, delegate administrative authority, manage groups, and much more. Admins can also divide their account into discrete sub-organizations so that they can better structure their users, locations, and alert profiles. This structure can improve usability and security, and is especially effective for large-scale deployments of the ESA system.

Additional new ESA features and alert content are planned for the remainder of the year. Just released, a periodic reporting feature will be available free of charge. Users will be able to download six different reports which summarize the incidents they were notified about over the period of a month, quarter, or year. An example of the reporting feature is shown in the image below.

Admins will have the added benefit of being able to receive the reports for the entire organization. The reports can be used to analyze incidents by location, to optimize alert profiles, and to review the overall security posture of your organization. In Q3, an additional reporting feature will be available which will allow you to generate ad hoc reports based on location, incident type, or other criteria you specify. This fee-based feature will generate reports from NC4’s entire database – not just from the alerts you have received. It can be used to augment the information in the periodic reports, and for other purposes, such as assessing the local conditions where you are considering opening a new facility.

Later in the year we will also be introducing enhanced mapping using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth satellite maps. In addition, our partnership with WeatherBug will generate new alert content. Users will be able to define a new set of weather alert profiles for receiving alerts for severe weather, flash flood warnings, and more.

Please keep an eye out for these and other new features!  

 

  
 

ESA PRODUCT TIP


Creating Alert Criteria for User-selected States and /or Counties

The recently released ESA v5.0 allows you to create Regional Alert criteria for states and counties. Why is this useful?

  • Alerts can go to those responsible for specific regions or areas within the U.S.

  • You have a number of locations in a single county and want to be alerted to more significant incidents in that county without having to define each location

  • You want or need incident awareness for specific states or specific counties, or both
     

It's easy to set up Regional Alert criteria in the Alert Profile:

NOTE: An Alert Profile can be a combination of Regions, Countries, States and Counties if desired.
 

  1. From the left navigation menu, click on Alert Profiles under "Profile Management".
     

  2. Click the "Create A Profile" tab.
     

    3.


 

  1. Click the "Overall Setting" sub-tab, and select Region for the Profile Type. Complete the remaining options on this sub-tab as appropriate.
     

  2. Click on the "Location/Region" sub-tab. Select the level(s) of Severity you want to be alerted on for this profile.
     


 

  1. Next to the fields for Region, Country, State and/or County, click the drop-down arrows to make your selection(s) from the list.
     

  2. The selected items will display in the Selected Region(s) and Country(ies) box. To make changes, click the region or country you wish to remove, then click the Remove button at the bottom. To remove multiple items all at once, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on selections to be removed.
     

  3. When you are done making your selections, click the Save button at the top.
     

Please contact NC4 Support if you need assistance on setting up Alert Profiles: 888-624-4411 or support@nc4.us

 

   
 

E TEAM PRODUCT NEWS

 Release 6.4 for E Team Enterprise Upgrade,  E Team Enterprise and E Team Standard

E Team Release 6.4 contains the latest fixes and enhancements, including performance enhancements affecting both forms and views within the application. In addition, E Team-to-E Team data sharing in this release includes the latest support for backward compatibility and Release 6.4 includes ESRI's ArcIMS 9.2 supporting services and geocoding.


ESA Incident Monitor (EIM) is a virtual watch command center that provides situational awareness of all-hazards incidents worldwide that may affect government or business operations. Integrated into E Team, EIM is ideal for agencies that want to keep abreast of events at the local and even global level, providing a real-time view of all active incidents worldwide.

Hospital/Medical Facility Form: E Team’s Hospital/Medical Facility form is now HAvBED compliant. HAvBED fields are located by clicking on the Additional Info tab and scrolling down to the Bed Status section.

Personal Profile: Targeted Alerts is now checked by default on all new user profiles.

Targeted Alerts: A new Targeted Alerts icon has been added to the upper right of the main screen to provide notification of new targeted alerts as well as easy access to the Targeted Alerts frame when the user has closed the right frame to increase horizontal view.

Group Distribution limitations are now recognized when data sharing partners set up and share distribution groups by Group Name. Users choosing to limit distribution in this manner MUST coordinate the naming of their shared distribution groups with their Data Sharing partners.

Web Services updates and NEW data import utility: Additional support has been implemented for the following E Team forms Call Center, Case Management, Critical Assets, Hospital, Incident, Personnel, Rapid Damage Assessment, Windshield Damage Assessment, and Site.

This release also includes the ability to import data into the following forms: Critical Assets, Hospital, and Sites with additional forms planned over the next year.

Beginning in the third quarter, bring the displays within your EOC to life with E Team Dashboards.

Dashboards will be available to select customers on the 6.4 platform. Dashboards provide customers with the ability to view sophisticated visual representations of real-time operational information. Displays of information can be consolidated into key performance indicators (KPI) to measure and display progress against goals and monitor operations. KPI's provide operational focus to Emergency Management information, allowing organizations to visualize key success factors. KPI's can be viewed across multi-jurisdictional emergency services organizations to communicate status efficiently and effectively.

For questions pertaining to these new releases or the dashboard capability, please contact support@nc4.us

 

   
NC4, 100 N. Sepulveda Blvd., El Segundo, CA 90245, 877.624.4999 
www.nc4.us | www.eteam.com | www.espgroup.net

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