Dear Technology Vendors…
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As an emergency manager, I often feel like a target for technology vendors. It seems that if you dabble in the world of emergency communications, seem to know your way around social media, and have a willing ear, you will hear a sales pitch or two about the next greatest technology that will save the lives of millions.
But I often feel misunderstood…
All too often, technology enthusiasts become very enthusiastic about their products and fail to engage me as a consumer. In their effort to pitch the technology, they seem to forget some very basics about emergency management or worse, seem not to understand the pressures that any emergency manager faces in times of crisis.
Here are some key facts:
- Most emergency managers don’t have access to significant funding streams. While grants exist, projects conception usually occurs 1-2 years before actual implementation.
- Most government emergency management programs are tied to county-based legacy infrastructure which means that as excited as I might be about a certain piece of technology, my opinion means little if my information technology (IT) department is not supportive.
- Compliance with technology mandates like P-25 compliance and narrowbanding eat up most of the focus and funding of most emergency communications folks. Following that, transition to iPAWS and common alerting protocol will be next up to bat.
Mix these issues up with work on community notification systems and it should be of no surprise that emergency managers get overwhelmed easily by technology endeavors.
Few emergency managers came into this career field with a significant technology background. We are planners, trainers, military folks, event coordinators and networkers. Sure, some of us are experimenters, intrigued by gadgets and like to be on the forefront of technology initiatives, but in general, technology must be easy, flexible, cheap, cost-effective and sustainable to find it in use in most Emergency Operations Center.
And quite frankly, “nice to have” is not good enough for most emergency managers. Your technology product must be a “need to have” before it will find itself readily adopted.
And beyond the awesome capabilities of your product, it can be dangerous to presume a uniform level of knowledge about technology among emergency managers. It is important to be able to talk about the benefits and value of your technology without relying heavily on tech-specific terms. For some of us, measurements of speed, memory and outputs all start sounding similar after a while.
I don’t mean to paint emergency managers into a technology-agnostic box, but I feel like I dabble a fair amount in some of these spheres and still feel like my world is often misunderstood by vendors. It is important to recognize the challenges that we face as next generation communication technologies and social media become more a part of the everyday landscape of emergency managers.
It is going to take patience and simplicity on the part of technology vendors and a distinct willingness to learn and adapt on the part of the emergency management community. There are still gaps to bridge, but it is an exciting time to watch the evolution of communications.
August 16th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
I work for a technology vendor, and I talk to emergency managers and other non-technical folk all the time.
I’m fully capable and conversant about “speeds and feeds” and what all the blinking lights represent, but when talking to emergency managers and other decision-maker types, I discuss “capabilities” not “features.” It makes the conversation much easier.
From a vendor’s perspective, EMs can do more to ease the technology challenge just by talking to their IT or other technical folks. You can’t believe how many agencies (and I’ve talked to hundreds) where the “operational” people do not talk to the “technical” people in the same organization. They act as ships in the night because technology is seen as necessary, but not strategic. You comment about the uniqueness of the role of emergency management and how vendors are often ignorant of that role … but guess what, in many of your cities, counties and organizations your own technology staff are equally in the dark, and their business cards have the same logo yours does!
A suggestion: please reach out to your own internal IT staff, your own radio staff and other gear-heads within your organization … put ‘em on a ride-along in a fire engine or police car or participate in an EOC exercise (“Urban Shield” is a great exercise program that integrates technology along with Police/Fire/EMS/Emergency Managers). Do the same thing with your information security staff… use these people in your own organizations as enablers, not just the guys/gals who have to drop that laptop on your desk.
Some agencies, such as the Alameda County (CA) SO and Palo Alto CA PD have technical staff that are assigned to the public safety role, who are close to the officer on the beat. They are different than the general county IT staff who support all of the other major county government functions. They’re better able to appreciate the role of emergency managers because they specialize in emergency communications, and will deploy into the field with a command rig, etc.
From a vendor perspective, it’s slow going in Local/State/Federal government sales … in a world where salespeople are graded quarter-to-quarter, my experience has been that the average public safety technology sales cycle is 3-5 years. That fact alone means there’s an inherent tension between a vendor and the customer timelines and levels of urgency.
The last tip I’ll suggest from the vendor’s perspective is get funding not just for hardware but for professional services/implementation too. I was on a major incident last year where the operators of a vehicle came to us and said “Your technology isn’t working and we’re in the middle of a huge incident and we’re going to rip out all your stuff (but would you please come over and take a look at it.” Sure enough, the configuration of the devices in question missed what are (to me) basis config elements… no wonder it wasn’t working! they had gotten the gear through a grant, configured it the best they could with what they knew, and then it broke. That’s not a hardware issue, that’s an implementation one.
August 17th, 2011 at 1:02 am
Awesome comment, Rakesh…thanks for sharing from your view!
August 26th, 2011 at 5:17 am
Having been in EM and now a vendor that created a simple tool to create and IAP, I fully understand your well thoughtful essay. We did exactly the same need to have or nice to have. You should look at our software as it fits your thoughts to a tee. Great work and keep fighting the good fight