Fire and Rescue New South Wales (FRNSW) is Australia’s largest urban fire and rescue service. Last year, the agency responded to more than 130,000 emergency incidents, from fires and natural disasters to counterterrorism and industrial accidents. To save lives, and keep its thousands of employees and volunteers safe in the process, requires tremendous coordination of data and assets.
In 2013, FRNSW along with its sister agencies New South Wales State Emergency Service and New South Wales Rural Fire Service deployed SAP Business Suite on the SAP HANA platform for all operational functions, including finance, HR, maintenance and logistics. They’re already seeing vast improvements, like reports that used to take a day running in seconds. But it’s the predictive possibilities that will be truly transformational for the communities the fire and rescue agencies serve.
FRNSW CIO Richard Host told The Australian newspaper that he wanted to use SAP HANA’s real-time capabilities to “fight the tyranny of death and destruction out there.” FRNSW manages a vast network of resources, including 337 fire stations, a central office, a logistics support center, four operational communication centers, a fleet of 645 firefighting vehicles, 14,000 firefighters and volunteers, and a BK117 helicopter. The agency could analyze real-time information to predict what’s likely to happen in the future and make resource deployment recommendations based on that intelligence. “We’ll be able to dispatch crews to areas where they are most likely to be needed,” says Host, “either to put a quick end to incidents or keep them from happening in the first place.” Arson, for example, tends to occur given certain combinations of locality, weather, and time of year, according to Host. And the presence of a fire crew can prevent it from happening. FRNSW will be able to predict the likelihood of fires and other natural disasters in certain areas, offering citizens protective measures to take to keep themselves and their property safe.
The ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive view of fire and disaster risk throughout the region with the ability to make predictions up to a week in advance of potential problems. And by marrying their real-time and predictive insight with a mobile application, FRNSW will enable residents to access those predictions and recommendations from anywhere in the state.
As population growth and increases in the number and severity of natural disasters raise the demand for emergency services, this real-time transformation will enable FRNSW to respond to the needs of its communities.
To hear from FRNSW’s leaders about their experience with SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA, check out this video.
Si-Mohamed Said, Vice President Enterprise Apps and Industries, SAP
