Fire Control Project Overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Fire Control Project Overview - Essay Example This project arose from a report which the government commissioned having been raised by the management, engineering as well as development consultancy which was published in April 2000. The conclusion from the report was that maximum efficiency could be attained if the number of control rooms could be reduced from current 46 (as at that time) to only 9 regional control rooms. The objective of the project being to ensure community safety by providing strategic framework for the Fire and Rescue services (FRSs) as well as other agencies which would prevent and respond to emergencies as they arose. The benefits that would accrue from the project were increased resilience. In this case by using the resilient networked technology, staff in any RCC would be able to answer calls within any part of the country. Secondly, the project would integrate all services by use of new risk management tools which had the ability to deploy specialist equipments. This would necessitate introduction of a common call handling, process mobilization, technology and training which would guarantee consistency across various regions. The communication system would also be changed to be data based rather that voice which would be readily accessible through the MDTs. This would hence ensure greater fire and rescue services capabilities (Great 2010, p.30). Extent of Failure Originally, each FRS had its own local control room charged with the responsibility of handling its own emergencies. All the 46 control rooms were independent with each using different levels of technology, network capacities and also their own back-up arrangements. The challenge faced by the control rooms was the increased number of calls and levels that exceeded the local control room. This made the calls be transferred to a different FRS or police control room. By using the police control room, information would then be sent back to the local control room using telephone, radio or fax machine. Due to the fact that different control rooms employed different technology levels and variable quality, this made the transfer process difficult for the FRSs to effectively back each other up. This resulted to the local control rooms being flooded hence being hard to cope using the current technology to handle the high volume of calls which then resulted in long queues or even lost calls. This was another example of a Government IT project in which it was absorbing increasing resources but never achieving the objectives initially set. The essential checks and balances done at the early stages of the project were ineffect ive. This was due to the fact that approval of the project was done based on unrealistic cost estimates as well as under-appreciation of the IT complexity that was to be involved. This made the project be implemented in a hurry with poor management. The Communities and Local Government Select Committee after closely examining the project hope that the project should go live by mid-2011 if there is an agreement on a viable project plan. The realization of the above has been put on substantial risk as a result of the following. Reasons for failure Project Environment There are several issues that ultimately led to the downfall of the said project which if they had been handled before would have made the project a complete success and be completed on time. Failure by the Department to sufficiently incentivize Fire and Rescue Services The Fire and Rescue authorities were under no legal obligation to use the regional control centers once completed. Despite this, the department failed in its mandate by not communicating the benefits to be accrued by transferring to the regional structure. The Department charged with the