Category: News

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Almost any business that implements a new software system faces reluctant staff members who do not want to give up using their tried and true system and transition to a new one. You can make strides in overcoming this reluctance by focusing on a few implementation steps.

Utilize a Collaborative Approach: Emphasize Need for Feedback

Engage new users in the implementation process in the early phases of selecting the system before implementation actually begins. Create an environment of collaboration by establishing a mechanism for feedback beginning from the time you first inform users there will be a new system.

Throughout the process, collect pros and cons from your users. Find out what is and isn’t working with the AMS. Ask the right questions to bring forth relevant information from those who are obviously struggling, but may have trouble articulating their concerns.

Many times what people think isn’t working presents a simple teaching moment. Other times it might be a question for the deployment team. Either way, solution-oriented feedback is a great way to overcome the challenges of using the new tool.

When a focus is on collaboration and concerns of the users are addressed, they feel like they are part of the process and are more willing to cooperate and be enthusiastic about the new system. Continue engaging with personnel throughout the entire implementation process.

Implement the New System in Phases and Keep It Super Simple

Make it simple: Keep in mind the “crawl, then walk, then run” concept as you implement the new system in phases, so those who may be “technophobic” are not intimidated. The easier the new tool is to use and understand, the easier it will be to become accustomed to it, and the fewer problems there will be.

Take the time to train less technical users on how these new tools work and how the tools will improve the ease with which they do their daily job tasks, as well as improve their communication with other crime analysts.

Implement in phases: Implementing the new program in phases is a major part of making it easy. Begin each phase with a discussion of how the software is expected to work and how it will make each user’s specific tasks simpler and more efficient. Emphasize the advantages of the new system over the old.

Provide a way to receive frequent feedback from users so that concerns can be addressed before they become real problems. Consider having periodic brainstorming sessions where users can share their concerns and obtain solutions.

As users learn the benefits of the new system, and as collaboration becomes the norm in your agency, people will want to bring sensitive projects onto the intranet. Using the tools will become common practice and staff will enjoy sharing content only with those to whom they choose to make it accessible.

Best Practices Are Ever-Changing

Processes, policies and procedures change with the times. Annual revisions will keep all employees and staff up-to-date and compliant with new agency policy and keep them current on how the Agency Management System will be used.

Parties interested in the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it improves intelligence and community collaboration, click here. After watching the demo video, you are invited to request a free trial of the agency management system to try for yourselves.

Jared Rose
VP of Sales

When you boil the concept of law enforcement down to its essentials, there is one quality that organizations around the country depend on to do their jobs on a daily basis: intelligence. When something as inherently fluid as a crime situation is developing, police officers and other professionals depend on actionable, accurate and real-time information in order to make the best decisions possible moving forward.

In a classic case of “be careful what you wish for,” agencies are now responsible for dealing with huge volumes of data above and beyond what they had been familiar with in the past. So much data is being generated at any given moment from a nearly limitless number of sources that it’s difficult to keep track of it all. Luckily, as soon as technology asks the question, it seems to have also provided the answer: hyper-scale cloud computing and agency management systems like SmartForce have come along to help further the law enforcement mission and to empower these organizations with a full range of security and operational needs.

Critical Compliance Standards

If keeping track of a huge influx of data is the number one priority of law enforcement agencies, keeping all that information as safe and as secure as possible is definitely priority number two. Built on the Microsoft cloud, SmartForce takes a rigorous approach to cloud-based compliance as an enterprise cloud services provider. The Microsoft cloud in general sets the standard for not only maintaining and exceeding contractual commitments for the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security policy requirements, but was also built with all federal, state and local government requirements in mind.

Enterprise Level Security

We live in an era where the average cost associated with a data breach is increasing all the time – according to the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a single incident rose to $3.5 million dollars during 2015 alone. How many of our law enforcement partners could really withstand that type of financial burden? We understand that for many, this would be a devastating blow that would do little more than get in the way of the hugely important roles that they play in society on a daily basis.

This is another one of the many reasons why SmartForce is built in the Microsoft cloud – for over 25 years, Microsoft has been committed to security, privacy and compliance processes, generating a nearly unheard of experience in terms of both expertise and commitment in terms of delivering the most secure cloud platform possible.

The Comprehensive Solution You’ve Been Waiting For

In terms of hyper-scale cloud computing, law enforcement agencies need to work with a provider that has them covered from every conceivable angle, allowing them to build a true infrastructure that will usher in bold new eras of productivity that will benefit us all. SmartForce and the Microsoft cloud provide law enforcement agencies with all of the cutting-edge capabilities that agency professionals need, from infrastructure as a service to productivity tools like Microsoft Office 365 and more.

This doesn’t just let law enforcement agencies work harder – it lets them work smarter. It creates a situation where law enforcement agencies are no longer required to piece together data from different solutions spread across multiple vendors. They have ONE point of access to distil the capabilities that are already there into one all-powerful force that can act as the trusted partner they need when they need it the most.

The SmartForce Touch

As an agency management system, SmartForce runs on the Microsoft cloud – putting it in the best possible position to allow law enforcement agencies around the country to leverage the power of modern technology and big data to their advantage. It doesn’t matter WHERE your data is coming from – be it standard information-sharing techniques to footage from body camera systems and beyond. All of that mission-critical information is distilled down into one easy-to-manage source, putting the power of data into the hands of the people who work so hard to protect us and our communities.

Never before has it been easier to get the RIGHT data into the hands of the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time, allowing them to glean valuable insight and make the most informed decisions possible moving forward.

Parties interested in the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it improves intelligence and community collaboration, click here. After watching the demo video, you are invited to request a free trial of the agency management system to try for yourselves.

Doug Owens
Director of Implementation

When law enforcement personnel can easily share information across shifts, all officers are more informed about pressing matters to the ultimate benefit of the public. While many police departments have traditionally used email or a pass on book to update officers about events that occurred during previous shifts, SmartForce offers a smart roll-call pass-on and shift briefing feature that improves the process. Learn about the risks of using email and how SmartForce can help.

Why Email Isn’t Great for Roll-Call Pass-On or Shift Briefings

Yes, email is easy and it is what your officers are used to. Unfortunately, email isn’t great for policing and is not CJIS compliant.

Imagine if a Detective distributes an email agency wide about a suspect in a missing person’s case. As time passes on, everyone forgets about the suspect, and then there is a similar incident in the same location. Will your officers remember the email about the suspect? During uncommitted time, will they know to look for the suspect in that location?

When every minute that passes risks the life of a missing person and compromises an investigation, your officers need to have valuable information at their fingertips. Intelligence and information that is buried in an email chain from months past is not an effective way to communicate.

Or how about this scenario? An email is distributed agency wide about a police response for an upcoming community outreach event. It is a low priority, and some officers decide not to read all of the emails.

Flash forward to the event and your officers do not meet their obligations to the community because some of them forgot to (or chose not to) read the emails. Community perception of the police response suffers as a result.

These are just a couple of reasons why email is not optimal for information sharing. And there are many more!

SmartForce’s Shift Briefing Feature

SmartForce comes with a module expressly designed for easy, useful, and mobile information sharing. Our Shift Briefing feature pushes out information and intelligence to officers’ mobile devices so that officers in the field or heading in for their shift will have immediate access to critical information. The Shift Briefing feature allows you to target your intelligence and information to specific audiences like districts, sectors, precincts, beats or patrol areas. Now, police officers can start their shift without having to report to operations or a substation. They will be informed of key issues or agenda items, so decision-making happens faster.

SmartForce allows you to assign items directly to officers or squads, ensuring that tasks are completed. Follow-up is as easy as looking up which tasks have been completed and communicating with teams that haven’t finished their work yet. If a task needs to be passed on to the next shift, it just takes a few clicks.

Choose between sharing information agency-wide or on the district or shift level. Not everyone needs to know about outstanding assigned equipment or team meetings, but all districts may want to know about an officer safety threat or a pending storm. Likewise, a small town police department may wish to push shift briefing information to all staff, while a larger agency may want to send the information to specific district officers.

To learn more about the robust features of SmartForce, or watch a demo video that outlines all of the software’s features and benefits, click here.