When it comes to firefighting services, having business intelligence as a part of its operations is key to making informed decisions from the top. In fact, almost half of all executive management teams see cloud-based business intelligence solutions as vital for supporting their operational needs.
There are different approaches when it comes to looking at business intelligence. BI is a set of tools or systems meant to collect data from multiple sources, prepare it for analysis, and present it in reports and actionable dashboards.
This might sound a little dense, so let’s break down business intelligence more and its role in firefighting operations.
Business Intelligence in Firefighting Services
Business intelligence is not only a capability that fire departments can build out—it’s an essential component to get the job done right by making the best decision possible based on data. First, data does not exist by itself. For a fire department, internal data covers all the functional areas and their capacities to serve both internally and externally. This includes human resources, inspections, fire operations, finance, safety, and so on.
Next, these capabilities help your fire department search all available data in a structured way. In this case, it will help empower all the program managers who oversee those functional areas to make the best decisions for success and meet the public’s demands that the operation serves.
If a department doesn’t have a public safety analyst installed, they should consider it. Analysts help form the basis of your operation’s business intelligence capability that brings together tools, knowledge, and innovative ideas to get things done. This critical role includes gathering and analyzing accreditation data and the expanding complexity of technology systems available to fire services
The Benefits of Business Intelligence
A significant benefit of leaning on business intelligence in firefighting services is that it can support a better functionality of all the processes that make a department a successful one. Your fire department’s senior staff can look at data from reports, make the best decisions or simply keep the team informed. A fire safety educator can use this data while teaching and training, using it to their educational advantage.
Information is available to share among the staff as well as other local municipal services.
Business intelligence provides leaders the ability to access data and gain a holistic view of their daily operations. It helps leaders benchmark results against the larger organization, and with a holistic view of the department, they can then identify areas of opportunity. When organizations spend less time on data analysis and compiling reports, business intelligence gives them more time to innovate new programs and take care of what needs to get done in the department.
Ultimately, business intelligence data helps improve a department’s performance in data handling, especially with the automated data processing. This limits the time your employees have to spend looking up data and reporting on it. This opens the door to more time to focus on training and serving the public while also boosting education in the process.
About Provident FirePlus
At Provident FirePlus, we offer custom-tailored packages to best protect firefighters and volunteer firefighters. We understand the risks that emergency response teams are subjected to on a daily basis, and have worked to serve these dedicated professionals for over 87 years. For more information about our products and policies, we invite you to contact our experts today at (855) 201-8880.