24/7 Software Blog

“It takes too long for us to respond to incidents on the other side of the property,” you mumble to yourself.

You’re struggling with your operation’s response times to incidents.

But, you don’t know how to resolve it.

You’re open to asking for help – but, you don’t know who to ask.

You know for a fact that there’s a problem but can’t seem to put your finger on a solution.

“Why are we taking so long to get from incident to issue to another incident?” you ask yourself.

This problem is exhausting.

You’re ready to walk off a cliff in frustration but aren’t going to give up so easily.

You just want a way to answer the equation for response times, right?

Everyone would see you as the proactive leader you know you are.

But, where do you even start?

This part is where we can help.

There is one solution that contains the requisites for faster response times to incidents that occur throughout your property.

The solution is an incident management system (IMS).

It’ll help you better manage your operation, so you can understand what it takes to reduce response times.

Keep reading; in today’s article, we’re going to show you how to cut your response times with purpose and results you’ll notice.

You gaze into the distance.

For a moment, you’re thoughtless.

You stare out of the operations center window into the adjacent parking lot.

Shouting relays throughout the room.

But, you remain quiet.

The overwhelming sensation of helplessness has reached its peak.

You’re stressed.

You’re tired – exhausted.

Your operation is always chasing the next incident, and you need a solution to get you out of this mess.

You’re running a reactive operation, and you know it.

Then, as soon as your thoughts leave your mind, they and the background noise crescendo.

It’s back to the reality in front of you.

“We’ve got to triage and handle the high priority incidents right now,” you tell your team.

“We’ve got to choose the most important at this point,” you continue.

Incidents are coming in but at a delayed rate.

Your team responds to an incident, and then another higher priority one is reported.

Your staff sees or hears of an incident several minutes after it has occurred.

This shortfall makes it challenging to respond efficiently.

You’re at a disadvantage.

Your teams are arriving on scene to incidents several minutes too late.

It’s leading to plenty of complaints.

You’re already expecting Monday morning to be a nightmare.

You’re struggling.

But, you’ve got to figure something out before your whole operation crumbles.

You don’t have a choice.

This is your responsibility.

You must fix it.

What are you going to do?

You need an increase in awareness, better resource management, and to gain operational insight to reduce your response times to incidents.

We’re going to show you how incident management systems can help you accomplish this challenge.

We’re going to show you how to be proactive.

Are you ready?

“I’ll be right behind you guys,” you shout to your operations team as they make their way out of the office.

It’s 1 AM, and you’re finishing up the final report on tonight’s event.

There’s only one last item on your to-do list.

You’ll review the incident reports from tonight, tally everything on your spreadsheet, record the information on your Monday morning report, and be on your way home.

You take the final swig of your water and begin reviewing the numbers from tonight.

“Here we go,” you whisper to yourself.

“Only one record of vomit,” you continue.

“That's pretty good,” you think to yourself.

“One fight,” you read aloud.

You continue reviewing the reports.

But, after three more minutes of review, you stop in your tracks.

“Wait a minute,” you shout.

Something is not right here.

All personnel and departments record incident types differently.

You begin listing the variations.

• “1 vomit.”
• “1 puke.”
• “2 throw up.”

The list goes on and on.

Your report for Monday will be inaccurate if you don’t fix this error.

You must fix it.

It’s now 1:12 AM.

You call Jack from security and tell him that you’re going to be a little longer.

It looks like another night that you won’t get to say goodnight to your husband and children.

But, you must ensure your numbers are accurate, and not only for Monday but all future analysis of your property’s incidents.

You need standardization.

And, you need it now.

“Police have always relied on data — whether push pins tracking crimes on a map, mug shot cards, or intelligence files on repeat offenders. The problem with all that information is that it has traditionally been slow and hard to use,” writes Martin Kaste in their recent NPR article entitled “How Data Analysis Is Driving Policing.”

"I would have to log into 19 different databases. I'd log in, print out all the tickets that were written to you, and lay them on my desk. Then I'd go and run your criminal history on another database, and print that out. And then another database to see how many times your name was associated with crime reports," says Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Dennis Kato in Kaste’s article.

Later in the article, Kaste also shares that “At the Olympic Division station, Officer Jennifer Ramirez reviews her daily mission sheet printout. She eyes the areas she'll target, ‘because these are the hot spots, these are where the crimes tend to happen, this day, this time, based on the crime mapping that we do."

Hot Spots, ok, now we’re talking.

That’s right up your alley.

Agree?

And the longer we spent reading this article, the more we realized its alignment with how Proactive Operations are handling ‘incidents’ to maximize performance.

Do you see the similarities here?

If not, we recommend reading Kaste’s article – after this one of course.

It’s an informative read with lots of facts about how policing is evolving, much like 21^st-century operations.

We’d argue that many things are congruent between policing and running a proactive operation.

So, keep reading; we’re going to share the insight we took from Kaste’s article that might help you enhance your incident management initiatives.

Ready?

You strive to be a proactive leader.

You spend countless hours recruiting and developing your staff.

It's your top priority to train the best team members in the world.

You want to be the best.

You want them to be the best.

But, that's not always easy.

The operations environment changes all the time.

No matter how well you train them, you always feel like you're behind the eight ball.

You struggle to get your team where they should be because criminals and technology evolve at a fast pace.

Faster than you.

Are you overwhelmed by the demands of your role?

We'd be surprised if you don't have any sort of anxiety.

You have many responsibilities, and the pressure to perform is high.

But, what if you could ignite the potential of your employees?

What if the inefficiency isn't a result of their abilities but a mere indication that you need to recognize a significant deficiency?

Keep reading; we're going to discuss a fundamental principle that could change everything about your operation: data.

Then, we're going to explain why you need operations management software to incite your understanding of your operation.

Last night’s event had you scrambling.

Your team responded to one incident call after another.

No one had any downtime.

About 100,000 people attended this year’s motocross show. Dirt, ramps, and professionals flying in the air on dirt bikes.

Who wouldn’t want to participate, right?

For your customers, it was a night they will never forget.

You’re just glad it’s over.

Now, it’s 5 AM Monday morning.

You always get to your office early these days to prepare for the Monday morning calls.

You start scouring through your office.

You’re looking for the stack of incident files from last night’s event.

The executives always want a snapshot of the previous week’s events.

It’s not too bad, but it’s been a real struggle to get all the information, so you’ve been dropping the ball lately.

You cannot afford to lose it again.

They need the number of incidents, customer requests, injuries, medical evacuations, fights, and ejections.

They’re known to throw some tough questions at you from time to time.

You’re running on empty because of last night, and this might be the final straw for you if you don’t find the files you need.

You already “misplaced” incident reports in the past.

You’re out of excuses.

“Where are last night’s documents,” you scream down the hall.

Everyone looks at you, and your operations coordinator, Tyler, responds, “Everything is in your office.”

But, you only see the remnants of a couple of files from customer services’ reports.

It appears that Housekeeping saw the files stacked near your trash pile.

Everything is gone.

You panic because you know you’re going to be taken out like the trash too.

It is 9 AM.

Time for your call.

You have nothing, and your job is on the line.

How does this make you feel? Could this have been prevented?

Yes.