Learning from other sectors has been a common theme in recent PR19 discussions within the U.K. water industry. Ofwat’s “resilience in the round” provides overlaps with corporate, financial, and operational resilience – from blue light to banking services.
Ofwat’s recent, “Beast from the East,” report provides a clear distillation of complex and interdependent issues. Not surprisingly, the needs and conclusions closely align with established incident command practices used by public safety organization to manage major incidents and events.
At Hexagon, our utilities and communications practice has been working with the U.K. water industry to adopt trusted solutions from our public safety portfolio to impact customer outcomes.
For instance, Intergraph Planning & Response provides the capability to effectively manage the entire lifecycle of major incidents and events. It integrates and coordinates resources, procedures, and communications for individual utility companies, multiple utilities, or tiers of command from other organizations involved in an event or incident.
Intergraph Planning & Response comprehensively fulfils Incident Command System (ICS) requirements. By harnessing the collective capabilities of diverse personnel and providing a single source of information, it provides a common operational picture. Throughout the entire incident life cycle this helps execute safe, efficient, and effective operations.
Traditionally, Intergraph Planning & Response is used by public safety agencies to coordinate,respond to, and manage incidents. If “resilience in the round” principals and learning from other sectors is applied, Intergraph Planning & Response could be used by U.K. water providers to improve their incident management processes, from scheduled maintenance to severe weather events. It can also provide evidence and transparency to regulators that water providers have done so.
How do you plan and prepare for scheduled events or unplanned incidents? How do you manage these incidents throughout the lifecycle?
With the winter season only a few months away, maybe it’s a good time to consider how ICS concepts and tools can be applied internally within water companies to enable robust and agile planning, preparation, response, recovery, and improvement.
