Case Study: Essex Fire and Rescue Service achieves county-wide performance visibility and streamlined Best Value reporting with OpenText Analytics

Performance Management Supporting Community Safety

Essex Fire and Rescue Service, a large UK county brigade serving about 1.6 million people from 51 stations and reorganized into seven Community Commands, struggled with fragmented performance data kept in multiple systems and paper files. This lack of access and visibility made it difficult to manage Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI), align local strategic indicators with the brigade’s mission, and communicate performance across headquarters, stations and watches.

In October 2002 Essex deployed Actuate Performancesoft Views to centralize BVPI and local indicators, publishing reports over the internet so all 51 stations and management have live access. The solution introduced transparency and standardized measures, enhanced the Annual Performance Plan with graphics and exports for government reporting, enabled sharing of best practices, and set the foundation for publishing performance information directly to the community.

Essex Fire and Rescue Service

David Turner

Chief Fire Officer, Essex Fire and Rescue Service