Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue

Implementing a Streamlined, Powerful Incident Reporting Solution

Overview
Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Authority is the United Kingdoms second largest fire and rescue authority. It employs over 2,500 staff, operating 41 fire stations across ten districts. In total, it covers an area of nearly 500 square miles, with a culturally diverse population of 2.5 million people. During 2007, it attended over 49,000 incidents. The organisation also works in the community, carrying out home fire risk assessments, conducting visits to schools and advising businesses on fire safety.

We selected Manigent because of their evident knowledge and expertise around both Microsoft and CorVu technologies
Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Authoritys Corporate Support department provides performance information to management and borough commanders. This information is obtained by a Management Information System (MIS) from data automatically recorded for call-out incidents. In 2009, the Authority introduced a new Incident Recording System (IRS), and commissioned Manigent to develop a reporting suite. In addition, Manigent was asked to improve the existing MIS reporting suite by making it more robust, flexible and less costly to maintain. Manigent delivered a cost-effective, sustainable, and easy to maintain solution that provides five years of MIS and IRS data in a consistent, easily accessible format for management, statutory and ad-hoc reporting and analysis. Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue selected Manigent because they were able to collectively offer over 25 years experience of implementing and deploying CorVu. In addition, as a Microsoft partner, Manigent has in-depth experience of Microsoft Business Intelligence technology. This unique combination of CorVu and Microsoft expertise and experience meant that Manigent was an ideal partner for Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue. Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue were impressed with Manigents willingness to add value to the project, going beyond the initial remit to put in place small measures that provided significant, long lasting benefits. As an example, a calendar was added to the SQL reporting database. This was then available for use by any other SQL system, thus creating consistency for reporting by period and ensuring that periods in each SQL system were the same. As part of the implementation, Manigent ensured that Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue staff had a thorough understanding of the system and its capabilities, leaving behind a solid foundation of in-house knowledge. Paul Sharples, Head of Corporate Support at the Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Authority said: I found our Manigent contacts exceptional, their knowledge of CorBusiness and SQL Server was excellent, but they also had an exceptional ability to understand our requirements and translate them into easy-to-use technology solutions. Manigent really did an exceptional job for us

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A Complicated Legacy System

Prior to engaging Manigent, Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue had a complex architecture and process for managing and accessing performance information. Manigent redeveloped the organisations data management infrastructure, introduced a new user interface, enhanced report development and deployment, as well as ad-hoc reporting.

For several years, users accessed performance information using a web-based menu to access custom reports generated using corporate reporting tools from CorVu, CorBusiness and HyperVu. While these tools provided accurate information, maintenance of the system was convoluted and time consuming; it couldnt offer the flexibility and usability that was increasingly demanded, and there was limited provision for ad-hoc analysis. Although generally happy with the CorVu products that had provided a solid foundation for reporting, the Corporate Support department felt it needed to improve and significantly expand deployment across the web. With a difficult-to-use interface, hampered by a slow online menu system and sluggish report rending, the legacy Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue reporting system required a complex filing and scheduling system to deploy reports and analytics to the web. The process of adding or editing reports and links sometimes resulted in inconsistent content and presentation: menus and web pages were constructed using a time consuming and cumbersome briefing book tool with limited image management, alignment tools and no convenient style controls. To access valuable organisational information, Corporate Support had to struggle with inconsistent report creation and editing processes. The group developed regular reports by scheduling multiple Oracle database extracts throughout the month. This required a complex date formula and meant that static, historical data had to be rebuilt. There was no option for selecting performance information by variable date ranges, so trend analysis was

limited. Some of the prompts and selection sequences were convoluted, which dissuaded users from exploring the data within the system. Often, users preferred to download portions of data to manipulate with Excel; users regularly made requests that required the reworking of existing reports that led to a mass of development structures. Ultimately, the reporting system grew to over 4,000 files.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue

The underlying data schema was based on an older version of Oracle containing hundreds of tables many of which were simply legacy enteties and no longer accessed. Often, these tables had cryptic names, numerous columns, over 50 code lookup tables and an overwhelming number of fields, which made it difficult to utilise the reporting tools data dictionary. There were huge lists of schema and no search utility in which the report designer had to locate the desired items, and limitations in the schema frequently disallowed the join, necessary for data extractions. Reporting was additionally slowed due to date fields comprising time stamps, which necessitated an entire years worth of data be extracted then filtered for the required periods. In order to develop and deploy performance indicator reports, such as the national fire service performance indicators (NIs) that combined strategic target data with actual

incident data, Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue often accessed records from multiple database sources. These reports were created with complex structures of joins and filters, and were used to cross-reference specific indicators that categorised thousands of incidents over the current and previous years. A data extraction then had to be scheduled, delivering a static report and a chart created on the single indicator data set. This process was repeated for each indicator. A single error would necessitate the rebuilding of an entire pyramid of related extract files. For example, a complete set of indicators for a single report relating to a specific borough meant that each indicator pyramid had to be combined into one massive joined data set of over 50 branches. Upon completion, each indicator report and its associated charts were presented online.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue

Introduction of an Incident Reporting System

In March 2009, the structure of the underlying Oracle data source was changed with the introduction of a new Incident Recording System. Now, two data schemes the organisations old MIS and its new IRS had to be addressed. Both systems contained essential incident data, but the process of reporting had become unmanageable. In order to compare data from the MIS and from the IRS, personnel were limited to specific priority reports that required labour-intensive collation, combining data from mismatched incident recording systems.

Two reporting schema were required to exploit data from the old MIS and new IRS systems, and the overlapping structures made selection of target data very confusing. Because of these limitations, data was extracted in very specific queries to proprietary files. These files were then filtered, joined, appended or merged into a pyramid of related files to make up the desired data combinations. With each update to the system, menus and reports, the collection of files, folders, schedules and menu pages grew more complex. However, the CorBusiness corporate reporting tool still offered powerful and effective reporting features, which the organisation could exploit to improve the end-user experience. Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue engaged Manigent to leverage the power of CorVus CorBusiness, while streamlining the organisations data infrastructure.

Simplified Architecture
Manigent redeveloped the organisations reporting system architecture into one that was simple, robust and flexible. A new incident reporting data layer was put into place, comprising a single database that combines SQL database tables and views, and one multi-dimensional cube. This data layer provides a simpler, faster single source of data that is accessible via Greater Manchester Fire & Rescues existing CorVu corporate reporting tool as well as standard Microsoft Office tools such as Excel. As the organisation moves toward decommissioning the legacy MIS system, historic data is stored in an archive, rather than being reconstructed from the Oracle database with each job. These archived tables are indexed to improve performance. Only data from the new IRS system is extracted live, and the data layer is refreshed each morning using three SQL Server Integration Services packages.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue

Simple, Yet Robust Reporting

The underlying database schema is now simply ten tables, each of which contains only those columns required for statistical reporting; all complex joining of data sources is performed using Microsoft Integration Services.

As well as enabling us to be more productive, Manigents new system has reduced our costs by 20K per year
With this new structure, report designers can develop reports more quickly, using live queries against the data layer. Comprehensive date prompts and current month columns help the report developer automate a number of relative date constraints on the data, such as: current month year-to-date versus last year-to date. This allows a significantly smaller number of records to be retrieved and reports to be displayed more quickly. It is no longer necessary to schedule data in order to create pyramids of scheduled queries. Rather, an IRS cube allows for multi-dimensional analysis and instant aggregation of statistics, which can be presented via Excel charts and pivot tables. All indicator data has been collated into a dedicated data mart, with one view, one actual/target table and a calendar lookup table. As a result, all performance statistics related to over twenty indicators for current and previous year periods are presented instantly in one parameterised report. This master report displays target level comparisons using one view as the source query, greatly simplifying the process, and improving performance and enhancing choice for the end user. Using the functionality of CorBusiness when reporting on a specific indicator, users can simply navigate through one prompt to display that indicator in a template report. This is accompanied by a drill-down chart to allow for ad hoc analysis of the indicator to borough, ward and month levels. Both report and drilldown chart are presented on a dedicated indicator dashboard page within Greater Manchester Fire & Rescues Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 system. Each report has a unique URL in a SharePoint page view, with the parameter defined on the URL options. By introducing true ad-hoc reporting, Manigent has empowered Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue to get specific, actionable information when its needed. Users can download template Excel files containing pivot tables of the incident statistics and then select their own ad-hoc analysis data, choosing various date combinations from five years of current and historical data, seamlessly combined from both the IRS and MIS. Each morning, a businessspecific OLEDB cube is automatically refreshed with new data, from which the Corporate Support team has developed template pivot tables in Excel workbooks to provide a starting point for analysis. These Excel files are uploaded to the SharePoint document library and files are linked within various pages in the performance-reporting web site. When users select the desired Excel file, it opens with a live link to the underlying cube. Users cannot overwrite or alter the original Excel workbooks, but they are able to manipulate the report by changing the rows, columns, filters and layout of pivot tables to suit their data requirements. The resulting file can be printed, copied or saved locally, so users can share their analysis and insights. Because the base data is derived from a controlled source that cannot be altered, the organisation is working from one version of the truth.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue

A Standard, Consistent & User-Friendly Interface

Manigent significantly improved the reporting systems user interface, leveraging Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007. This solution exploits style guides to provide a consistent experience for users. This has improved navigation of Greater Manchester Fire & Rescues reporting system and facilitated rapid response to user demands. Pages can be redesigned quickly, links and explanatory text can be added, and additional reports can be inserted as necessary. Several standard reports have been deployed, built with a consistent, template-based layout and colour scheme. These reports are visually similar to the previous reports, but are much faster to display as navigable web pages with accompanying information that facilitates better understanding of the information presented. For example, additional corporate support reports and documentation can be included alongside the incident reports to create a true portal for the delivery of performance reporting services for Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue.

I found Manigents consultants outstanding. Their knowledge of CorBusiness and SQL Server was excellent but they also had an extraordinary ability to understand our requirements and translate them into easy-to-use technology solutions Manigent really did an exceptional job for us Paul Sharples, Head of Corporate Support

A Powerful Solution
Manigent cost-effectively and sustainably redeveloped Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Authoritys business intelligence system to maximise ease of use, flexibility and the power of data management and ad-hoc reporting. This successful project has allowed Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue to better utilise its performance information in order to plan more effectively and to quickly take action in areas of concern. By simplifying the systems architecture, Manigent has empowered the organisation to easily obtain one version of the truth using base data derived from a controlled source and presented via a versatile online performance reporting portal. During this project, Manigent consultants applied their experience of CorVu products to build on the existing skills of the Corporate Support staff in using CorBusiness and HyperVu to maximise the investment in these products. Each user of the system received in-depth training and understood how to get the most out of the new data layer. Manigent finished the project leaving behind a solid foundation of in-house knowledge. Manigent also utilised its CorVu expertise to provide additional CorVu training, expanding awareness of features and functionality and providing new skills that would help staff to make the most of the system. The system now offers the best of both worlds, using the powerful reporting ability of CorVu with the functionality of Microsoft products to deliver a user-friendly responsive system.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue

About Manigent
Manigent is a different type of consultancy, one that bridges the gap between traditional management consultancies and technology vendors. We are a specialist performance and risk management consultancy delivering integrated business and technology solutions. Through the combination of our thoughtleadership approach, risk-based performance and unique software application StratexPoint, we are able to reduce our clients project costs by, on average 20%, whilst improving the achievement of performance targets, reducing riskrelated losses and improving the cost and allocation of capital. For more information about Manigent, visit www.manigent.com

CorVu, CorBusiness and HyperVu are trademarks of Rocket Software Inc.

117 Waterloo Road London SE1 8UL T: E: W: +44 (0)20 7921 0022 info@manigent.com www.manigent.com

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue