New Zealand Fire Service(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 84

Senior IS executive: Alma Hong, CIO
Reports to: Brett Warwick, CFO
Size of IS shop: 40

PCs: 750
Mobile PCs: 400
Terminals: 716
Hand-held devices: 104
Total screens: 1970

Industry: Health and community services
PC environment: Acer, HP, Toshiba, Windows XP
Server environment: HP; Windows 2003, 2008
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Level 9, 80 The Terrace, Wellington
Website: www.fire.org.nz
Key IS projects this year: Telecommunications strategy and digital radio network upgrade; mobile solutions including integrated ICT for multiagency command vehicles; knowledge management programme including website and intranet redevelopment; service oriented architecture programme including data source remodelling; core business application enhancements and integration including business intelligence.

Key business objectives for the New Zealand Fire Service (NZFS) include continuous improvement in response rate to incidents, communications during operations, building a knowledge base and fire safety performance. The NZFS is expected to demonstrate continuous gains in the efficient and effective use of its resources.

ICT contributes to these objectives through a robust and agile data, application and infrastructure architecture, says CIO Alma Hong. ICT emphasis is placed on interoperability, data sharing and all-of-government initiatives with partner agencies.

The spatial data and application platform includes layers of internal data and imagery from suppliers and Territorial Authorities. This data is served through the SMART suite of spatial applications and integrated with the core Station Management System.

Mobile computing and unified communications technologies and applications are important strategic elements of the NZFS ICT Strategic Plan. ICT integrated solutions are being implemented in specialist appliances, to enable the access and capture of crucial information anytime, anywhere. Major projects include GPS tracking of vehicles and incident management software to support Incident Ground Command Units.

Intelligent data from fire alarm networks will deliver enhanced location information, and will be available from NZFS fire alarm monitoring partners. Additional data will be channelled to communications centres, further improving response performance.