September 2022

[originally published on Juvare.com; written by Colin Garrison]

The city of Ontario, California, a rising logistics and warehouse hub, wanted to strengthen its emergency response capability. After upgrading to Juvare’s WebEOC 9 emergency management system, the city discovered that the platform’s ease of use resulted in swift adoption by emergency response personnel, enabling access to the platform’s numerous workflow and operational benefits.

An Emerging Shipping and Warehouse Hub

A city of 180,000, Ontario is part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, just east of Los Angeles. Its location at the junction of Interstates 5 and 15 has fueled its emergence as a major shipping and warehouse hub.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management maintains an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in an annex of City Hall. The city uses the Incident Command System (ICS) in responding to emergencies. Location-specific threats to which Ontario is subject include earthquakes, the Santa Ana winds, heat events, and drought.

A Confusing and Inefficient Approach

Ontario first implemented Juvare WebEOC in 2006 but rarely updated the platform. Over the years, acceptance by the intended users was limited, according to Ontario emergency manager Sagar Patel and emergency management coordinator Marissa Currier. Team members used multiple tools to conduct emergency response activities, including paper ICS slips and virtual meeting platforms, a confusing and inefficient approach.

In response to recent growth, Ontario decided to upgrade its emergency response platform. Goals set for the upgrade included: simplifying, centralizing, and streamlining the response process; eliminating the use of paper slips; improving communication; gaining mobile capability; achieving off-the-shelf functionality; and implementing a system that would be embraced by the response team.

The ultimate goal was to make the city’s overall emergency response capability more robust, enhancing the protection provided to the community.

Making the Leap to WebEOC 9

As Ontario moved toward upgrading its platform, Juvare released WebEOC 9, a major improvement of the world’s most widely used emergency response system. After being introduced to the upgrade by Bryan Hovde, their Juvare client success manager, Ontario’s emergency management working committee concluded WebEOC 9 was capable of meeting their goals. The city made the leap to WebEOC 9 and eventually rolled out a citywide training program, holding training sessions and exercises at the city’s EOC, including an active-shooter exercise.

After nine months’ experience with the platform, the emergency management team had a clear idea of whether WebEOC 9 was meeting the goals they had set for the upgrade project.

The answer was a resounding yes.

“It’s brought substantial gains,” says Currier, the emergency management coordinator. “Feedback has been very positive. People say repeatedly how easy and simple the platform is to use.”

In a conversation with Juvare, Currier and emergency manager Patel described the benefits they have achieved by upgrading to WebEOC 9.

WebEOC 9 Gains Swift Acceptance

One of the best parts about WebEOC 9 is that it is attractive and easy to use, say Patel and Currier. This led to its being swiftly understood and embraced by emergency services personnel.

“The response we’ve received from people who went through the trainings has been pretty incredible,” says Currier. “People are saying it’s very user friendly and easy to navigate. You look at it and say, This makes sense.”

“Having that buy-in from the start has been a huge win,” she adds. “People want to use it.”

The New Platform Brings Strong Workflow Improvements

The team’s quick acceptance of WebEOC 9 allowed it to swiftly get the benefit of the platform’s workflow and process improvements. As a result, the city’s emergency management process has been simplified and streamlined.

The team’s goals of having everything centralized, making things simpler, eliminating redundancy, and “eliminating the papers floating around the EOC,” have all been achieved, says Currier.

“Each of the boards has a dashboard connected to it,” she says. “This is an easy way to have the information in one spot,” saving time, reducing stress, and improving communication.

Another workflow improvement is that “customization is unnecessary because off-the-shelf works,” she adds.

One process enhancement that struck Patel involved the EOC’s whiteboards. Unusually, during the training exercises, no one got up to use them.

“There’s no point in going up to a whiteboard when it’s easier to share information in the system,” he says.

Of WebEOC 9’s process improvements over all, Patel adds, “You can see the value of it. Simple things make a big difference.”

WebEOC 9 Delivers Powerful New Operational Capabilities

Critically, WebEOC 9 also provided the team with many powerful new operational capabilities—capabilities users were able to access right away thanks to how easy the platform is to use.

The emergency managers say the following functionalities have been particularly well-received by response personnel: the exceptional situational awareness the platform provides; the ability to ensure fluid communication throughout an incident; the planning and intelligence boards; the resource tracking capability; the boards to facilitate family assistance and reunification; the damage assessment board; the ease of building and assigning new boards; and the tight integration of maps.

The response team was particularly excited about the map functionality, says Patel.

“Our users like the fact that the maps are located directly on each of the boards,” he explains. “Whether it’s shelter locations, road closures—you have a map right there. It’s much better than the old way because you don’t need a GIS person to put all that in independently and create a new map.”

The Next Chapter for Ontario and WebEOC 9

In the future, the two emergency managers look forward to implementing additional aspects of the platform. These include the incident action plan (IAP) board, the Design Studio board design module, the activity and expense tracking functionality that makes it easier to obtain FEMA reimbursements, and the platform’s strong mobile capability.

Currier is confident the WebEOC 9 mobile app and remote logon feature will prove especially valuable for first responders and in the event of another pandemic.

“Now we have flexibility about space,” says Currier. “We don’t have to be sitting in the same room.”

Improved Protection for People and Property

“WebEOC 9 brought us into the 21st century,” says Patel, summing up the outcome of the upgrade.

Adds Currier: “The true test will be when we have a real emergency as opposed to using it in an exercise.”

Both managers are glad their city made the upgrade. Their reasons are simple: The platform’s attractiveness and ease of use quickly won over the intended users, allowing swift access to its many workflow and operational benefits.

WebEOC 9 easily met the goals established for the upgrade project, won the trust of the people who will be using it, increased their confidence in their ability to respond to disasters, and strengthened the city’s emergency response capability. These outcomes have resulted in better protection for Ontario’s people, property, and desirability as a place to live or do business.