Last week, I attended the 17th World Conference on Disaster Management held in Toronto, Canada. There the Guardian Tracer was showcased in JEPRS (Joint Emergency Planning and Response System) which is an emergency management tool as a result of the collaboration between Catalyst Capabilities International, Infusion Development and Microsoft. JEPRS provides a simplified dashboard for emergency management personnel to manage crises, access key information and communicate vital information to emergency management teams. The Tracer provides critical location information of assets such as fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles and updates their position in real-time. Location information is mapped on to Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Platform.

JEPRS was the talk of the show and for good reasons:

• It provides comprehensive disaster management capabilities including communications, coordination and reporting
• Enables ease of adoption and use with intuitive, familiar interfaces and simple Web connectivity
• Leverages already installed Microsoft solutions and utilizes emerging Microsoft technologies.
• Integrates GPS location information of critical assets from the field to the EOC (Emergency Operations Center)

At the tradeshow, JEPRS was officially launched and it showcased the implementation of the product that was deployed for the City of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
JEPRS is also a model of how partnerships between specialized organizations can be used to create highly functional solutions that are designed to meet the needs of the end user.

For more information about JEPRS, please go to http://www.catalystci.com/JEPRS_Info.pdf

-Anu