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WINTER '08 - '09
IN THIS ISSUE |
FEATURE
NC4 Participates in DHS Initiative
SITUATIONAL READINESS SPOTLIGHT
ESP Enhancements Bring New Look and Faster Response Times
E TEAM PRODUCT STEERING COMMITTEE (PSC) UPDATE
Jaclyn Barcroft, PSC Chairperson
PRODUCT NEWS & TIPS
ISA Release
ESA
Product Tip: Faster response capabilities built into ESA Map
E Team Custom Forms
E Team Product Tip:
Easy-to-use forms speed COOP reporting
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 Report, 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.
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EXECUTIVE CORNER |
NC4 President,
Jim Montagnino
In these difficult economic times,
when managers are doing everything in their power to streamline operations, we
may in fact be exposing our supply chains to increased risks. As
companies look overseas for additional cost savings, this can open us up to
geopolitical issues, pandemics, natural disasters and terror activity.
A case in point was the 7.9
earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province in May. For companies that
rely on products from overseas, the ability to mitigate risks in the supply chain
is vital. When bad things happen, getting timely information is critical to
making informed decisions when executing the business
continuity plan. Moving quickly towards recovery makes
all the difference when the company’s financial well-being is at risk.
Every day, NC4 customers are confronted with risks - risks that could threaten
continuity of operations. ESA provides customers with the tools they need to
help manage the risk and impact of physical threats to their employees, corporate
assets, as well as their supply chain operations. Implementing ESA as a best
practice component
of your risk management program optimizes preparedness, which just makes good business sense.
Click
here to learn more about how ESA is being used in supply chain management.
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READINESS '09 |
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We are pleased to announce that registration is now open
for this year's Readiness '09 User's Conference.
As with all prior year's
Readiness Conferences, there is no registration fee for current NC4
customers to attend.
Click here to register.
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SITUATIONAL READINESS SPOTLIGHT |
NC4 is committed to our customers success. To that end, we have been
working on a series of enhancements to our ESP secure information
sharing tool.
The first of these enhancements improves the end-user experience by
increasing the speed of display response times. Users will experience
faster response times as they navigate through the portal pages and
access information on the system. In addition, users will enjoy a new
graphical user interface making navigation even more intuitive and
easier to transition between features.
These releases are scheduled to begin in early 2009 and will continue
throughout the year as each collaboration tool on the portal receives
a design face lift. ESP looks forward to sharing these and other
enhancements in the upcoming year.
For additional information, please contact
info@nc4.us
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SUPPORT CORNER |
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Tips
from Rhonda
for E Team users
We have received
isolated reports of E Team R6 going to white screen and crashing.
Should this occur, please have your user restart their browser and log
back into E Team. If login is successful, the issue is NOT with
your E Team server.
Please advise your E
Team users to update java and their video driver to the latest
version. There are issues with some older versions of java that cause
this white screen. To update java to the latest version go to:
http://java.com/en/
download/index.jsp
For video driver
updates, please refer to each user's computer systems guide.
If you have further questions, please contact us at:
Email: support@nc4.us
Call: 1-800-209-2312
Support Website:
https://support.nc4.us
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FEATURE
NC4 Participates in Department of Homeland Security Initiative
 In
December, NC4 participated in a Proof of Concept interoperability
demonstration for a new DHS program called UICDS, Unified Incident Command and
Decision Support. UICDS is being developed by SAIC as a “middleware foundation”
that will enable a broad array of technology vendors to share emergency
management information across jurisdictions. The architecture of UICDS is based
on design criteria taken from the National Response Framework, National Incident
Management System and the Incident Command System. The initiative is sponsored
by the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.
The Proof of Concept demonstration scenario involved a Hazmat incident in the
Washington D.C. area. NC4 demonstrated a beta version of its new mapping client
called Atlas, adapted to support the UICDS framework which leverages an Open
Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard called Web Mapping Service. A chlorine
spill plume model was displayed on top of an ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 base map along with
live ESA incidents and weather radar.
NC4 has been actively participating in UICDS activities for the past several
weeks including attending five technical workshops conducted by SAIC. In
addition to leveraging OGC standards, UICDS also utilizes the CAP and EDXL
standards as well as the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM).
UICDS is deliberately not intended to replace the functionality of existing
incident management applications from commercial vendors. Rather, it is focused
on enabling UICDS-compliant applications to selectively interoperate across
jurisdictions. There are indications that UICDS compliance could become a future
requirement for grant programs of the Federal Government.
NC4 plans on continuing participation in UICDS including an upcoming Reference
Implementation demonstration in March 2009.
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E TEAM PRODUCT STEERING COMMITTEE UPDATE
by Jaclyn Barcroft, PSC Chairperson
 Happy
New Year from the E Team PSC!
The beginning of a New Year is traditionally a time for
retrospective thinking and contemplating actions for the future. I suggest that
organizations do this with respect to their E Team applications as well. What
has worked well for folks, what could use some improvements? Whether it is a
procedural adaptation or a software change, now is the time to put together a
game plan for 2009.
The PSC continues to have input in prioritizing the recommended changes for
future product updates. I encourage you to share your ideas with a PSC member so
that we can work together to identify the enhancements that would provide the
greatest benefit for the entire E Team community.
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E Team PSC Members:
Jaclyn Barcroft, Michigan Department of State Police,
barcrofj@michigan.gov
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Canadian User Group, represented by Lynn Menard,
lynn_menard@phac-aspc.gc.ca
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Coleen Bell, Oakland Fire Department Office of Emergency Services, cabell@oaklandnet.com
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Joe Casey, Federal Communications Commission,
joseph.casey@fcc.gov
Preston Cook, Orange County OEM, preston.cook@co.orange.fl.us
Jacob Cooper, NYC Office of Emergency Management,
jcooper@OEM.NYC.GOV
John Dosh, Escambia County, john_dosh@co.escambia.fl.us
Diane Fernandez, Arizona State Division of Emergency Management, diane.fernandez@azdema.gov
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David Finch, State of Missouri Department of Public Safety, david.finch@dps.mo.gov
Shirley K. Ono, Macy's, sono@fds.com
Lou Vargo, Ohio County, WV, Emergency Management Agency,
lvargo@wocema.com
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ISA PRODUCT NEWS
Internal Situational
Awareness (ISA)
In January, NC4 will be launching its
Internal Situational Awareness (ISA) solution. ISA is an easy to use, yet
powerful, internal incident tracking application. ISA improves awareness by
providing the necessary tools for your staff to enter, track and manage any type
of incident that occurs within your realm of responsibility, whether it’s a
parking lot theft, a suspicious person, or something more serious. Like NC4’s
External Situational Awareness solution, all incidents are geo-located to a map,
and user-defined alert profiles control delivery of incident details to key
staff with the need to know.
Recipients can view the information
online and via mobile device in a variety of styles such as overlaid on a map or
in a report interface. Different levels of authorization give some users an
alert-only capability, but gives others the ability to actually log, track, and
distribute incident information to stakeholders – whether individuals, groups,
or the entire organization. A customizable reference library lets users with
appropriate access levels view key documents, such as facility evacuation plans
or MSDS documents, so operators can communicate key business continuity or other
directives more effectively.
ISA can also be customized to adapt to
your terminology and processes, rather than you needing to adapt to the
application. Administrators can customize incident types and sub-types, location
types, icons, library and reference documents, and many other parts of the
system. An Administrator level user also can manage user profiles, group
membership and overall account settings.
Like ESA, ISA requires no
dedicated server or other IT costs. It employs the Software as a Service model (SaaS)
and can therefore be run on any average desktop or laptop computer with an
Internet connection. Furthermore, ISA is integrated with ESA so there is a
single-sign on, shared maps, shared user and location databases, and linkages
between ESA and ISA incident data which can provide a more complete
understanding of a situation. Ultimately, ISA further improves your awareness
and facilitates company-wide coordination.
For more information on how ISA can help your organization, please contact
an NC4 sales representative at
info@nc4.us.
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ESA PRODUCT TIP
NEW! Faster response capabilities built into ESA Map
NC4's ESA map now empowers you
with even faster response capabilities. In just 2 clicks, you can quickly alert anyone that needs to
know with important information.
The NC4 ESA Incident Map makes
alerting key individuals extremely easy. The map is auto-refreshed every
few minutes, displaying all incidents NC4 is tracking at that moment. The map
also pinpoints your locations of concern.
If an incident might have affected one
of your locations:
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Click on the location you are concerned about.
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A pop-up window will display, showing general information about the location.
Click the More button to drill down to additional detailed information for
the location.
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Click on the email address for the point of contact at that location.
ESA automatically launches your email client with an email already addressed to
the individual you've selected. Append any additional information, comments, procedures, etc. that you would
like to include in the email. Add any additional recipients to the email distribution.
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You can copy (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v) information from an incident directly
into the body of the email.
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Click Send.
Enlarge image
The map also provides a time-savings method for updating important location
information.
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Click on any location from the map.
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Click the More button, then click the Edit/View button.
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Enter the information into any of the designated available fields.
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Use the Description field to enter any other important information pertaining to
the location.
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Click Save.
NC4's ESA map provides tools to help you save time when it counts.
Please contact NC4 Support if you
have any questions on setting up or updating your location profiles, 888-624-4411 or
support@nc4.us
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E TEAM PRODUCT NEWS
E Team Custom Forms
The Custom Forms feature provides
administrators with the ability to create custom forms, define data elements
within the forms, and deploy the forms to E Team users. Unlike other products in
the market, the E Team Forms Builder Manager includes a real GUI for form
design, and the ability to recreate comprehensive paper forms, not just lists. Forms can be quickly
created to handle any type of dynamic data requirements that may occur during
large events and disasters.
The Forms Builder Manager's user-friendly GUI palette allows you to easily
create forms,
with the ability to define and validate data elements such as text boxes,
dropdown lists, and dates. In the later part of 2009, you will be able to make
your Custom Form(s) available as a tab element on an existing E Team form, which
will dynamically enable the use of the core components of the application such
as geo-location, notification, access control, data sharing and targeted alerts.
Enlarge image
The basic Custom Forms capability will be available in the first half of 2009
and is planned only for the R6 platform and won’t be available on Domino.
For questions pertaining to
this new feature, please contact
support@nc4.us
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E TEAM PRODUCT TIP
Easy-to-use forms speed COOP
reporting
You can use E Team when activating
your COOP Plans. While these capabilities are typically outside the normal
incident management functionality, the COOP
functionality simplifies operational status, staffing levels and communications
status reporting.
E Team’s COOP functionality is
achieved using the following forms:
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The Corporate Facilities report
gives you an in-depth overview of the availability and damage to the various
infrastructure within your facilities. This can assist you in getting the proper
resources to your key facilities to recover sooner.
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The Organization SITREP gives
you an in-depth review of the actual organizations and how they are impacted
within each facility. This is especially useful where multiple organizations are
staffed in one facility.
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The Personnel Report provides
status of critical personnel and identifies the ability to replace them as the
situation dictates to ensure continued operations of critical functions.
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The COOP Report is a
standardized reporting form that contains all DHS-required fields, including
COGCON levels, giving you a synopsis of the current COOP status of all your
organizations.
E Team is a strong and reliable
solution for reporting critical infrastructure preparedness, providing
organizations with an easy way to quickly assess and report COOP status to
support federal homeland security directives and ensures continuity of essential
functions.
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NC4, 100 N. Sepulveda Blvd., El Segundo, CA 90245,
877.624.4999
www.nc4.us
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