How Emergency Management Can Be Improved With Technology

By Charles Castelly, Analyst

While state and local governments continue to provide resources to address the current pandemic, many will also have to manage emergency response on a second front. Recent natural disasters around the country, such as earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes, are placing even more of a strain on already over-taxed state and local governments.

Technology is a crucial element of emergency response efforts — from the radios and broadband networks employed by first responders to the communications systems used to share information with the public. State and local governments will be even more reliant on technology now, during these natural disasters to quickly administer emergency response – as they continue to lessen the impact of the current pandemic.

Here’s how the vendor community can help government be prepared to respond to any natural disaster.

Ensure systems and applications are mobile-friendly.

Fieldwork is the hallmark of emergency response. Ensuring that state and local systems are available and accessible from mobile devices and tablets will be key. Law enforcement, public health and environmental agencies will all need secure system access. Vendors can work with state and local agencies to upgrade legacy applications, ensuring that they are now mobile friendly – and secure.

Provide real-time data analytics.

Accurate, up-to-the-minute information is critical during emergencies and natural disasters. Decisions need to be made quickly for allocating both personnel and supplies. State and local governments don’t often utilize one consolidated system or set of data — they are often piecing together data sets from multiple government jurisdictions and agencies. Vendors who can provide data integration and analytics solutions that are able to merge the data sets together and provide information to help emergency responders make real-time decisions will be key.

Automate communications.

One of the most important activities emergency responders undertake is communications – with the public and with other emergency responders. Ensuring the public has accurate and the latest official information on things such as the location of emergency shelters or evacuation orders is vital. However, managing communications can be cumbersome. Vendors can help state and local governments automate and streamline communications to help emergency responders simplify and keep information consistent across all channels — TV, radio, web and social media.

Conclusion

Every community must be prepared for the possibility of a natural disaster, so planning for it is crucial. Vendors can help by providing solutions that allow emergency management personnel to be more efficient and respond in record time.

Keep up with the latest trends in the SLED marketplace. Subscribe to immixGroup’s Government Sales Insider blog now!

To learn more about how immixGroup can help vendors expand their businesses in SLED, visit our SLED Support Center webpage.