Intterra Blog

When customers send feedback, Intterra listens. Check out our new user interface, inspired by direct feedback from our loyal users. We have always been proud of our software, but when we asked what you loved and hated about it, you gave us very specific and practical advice.

Now that we have many thousands of users, we wanted to make sure we were really hearing what would help you: on the fireline, in ICPs, at Area Commands and Dispatch Centers, and on mobile devices both on and offline. Well, you spoke, and we put our team of User Interface and User Experience people to work. The results launch on January 1st, and we know you will like it. Here is a preview:

Interface domination of your screen is out.  The new version of Intterra's SITUATIONANALYST clears space, provides a moveable legend, and presents menus and windows with higher contrast for ease of use. We have removed clicks and added a quick launch menu of some of your favorite features. We have also made layer management a piece of cake, and powerful control and simplification of editing from any mobile device. Less clutter, more map and analysis. We think you'll agree that this is the easiest interface you've ever had.

The Best Preparation for Tomorrow is Doing Our Best Today

Years ago, a friend and mentor of ours in Colorado Springs loved this community so much and was so concerned about the threat of wildfires in Colorado that he built his career in firefighting around his desire to help our community be better prepared. He figured out where the worst of the threat was and spent time and money to address it.  He and his team focused on fuels assessments, risk mitigation, and educating the community about how to share responsibility for preparedness.

I remember when I first realized that his program was the one that made a wood-chipper available to folks processing limbs and trees downed by a bad wind storm that summer. It was so amazing to see that a fire department could help the community by providing a wood chipper roving from neighborhood to neighborhood and by appointment. Chippers are not cheap but this department-funded service helps reduce fuels and future fire fighting even more than it helps homeowners clean up their property. I cannot imagine how much worse the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest Fires would have been without Colorado Springs' Wildfire Mitigation program.

While I'm the world's biggest fan of SITUATIONANALYST™ (SA), I think it probably falls into the category of "everybody-thinks-their-baby-is-the-cutest"... So I think it's probably important for me to slow down and offer you my top ten reasons SITUATIONANALYST is the best little platform out there.

Sure, you've been on fires or worked in departments where you have seen SA up on a big screen for a briefing, or heard people talking about it. And you may have even played with it a bit yourself—but I'm guessing you are one of those people that says something like, "I really like it, but I don't really know all the things it can do." (TRANSLATION: My Chief likes it, but I'm not sure how I would use it for me.)  

You probably know the basics of how to use SITUATIONANALYST, but it's actually a lot more capable than you might think. From productivity hacks to buried features, I've put together a list of ten things you likely don't know SA can do.

Being Serious About Preplanning Means You’re Serious About Safety

Preplanning is always a tedious process in a fire department. The information collected in the field has to be sent to staff, then fed into databases and maps, then sent back to staff for use in the field. Often, it doesn't happen consistently. Preplanning requires that everyone in the process is equally and actively concerned about the accuracy and timeliness of the data in order to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. With shift and personnel changes there is plenty of opportunity for missteps and disconnects in the process. It can be frustrating, and in the end sometimes the plans don't get updated.

A Better Way

We understand that firefighters want painless processes with as few steps as possible—and in order for meaningful adoption to occur, any new solution must be easy to use with great results.

That’s where SITUATIONANALYST (SA) comes into play. With SA you can use the technology you already have in your pocket or on the engine—almost any phone, tablet,or laptop works. Use it with SA to collect pre-incident plans for structures or for wildlands as easily as you would check the weather.

It is critical that firefighters begin to see technology as an emergency response tool. Choose it with the same care you would an engine or protective gear.

As an experienced Fire Officer you have been exposed to so much. Fires, medical calls that break your heart, funny moments, and heroic actions of your crew that no one else will ever know about. It is certainly a career of experiences.

You have to make the tough decisions, and you care about your team as firefighters, colleagues, numbskulls, and friends. Your legacy is important but the most important thing is that everybody comes back home. So, it matters to you the tools you use: on the apparatus and in the station. You care deeply about your teams being ready for any emergency. You make sure that they work with the best quality and most reliable tools—from halligans to hoses, and everything in between.

It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to field test a new technology even before you launch the company that's building it, but that was indeed the case with SITUATIONANALYST’s Aircraft Intel tool. Initially field tested during Cal Fire's battle with the Southern Fire Seige of 2007 and again in NorCal in 2008, Aircraft Intel—paired with a super high-tech aircraft imagery service from Range and Bearing Corporation—helped provide much-needed aid to those events as firefighters labored to understand what was happening in real time during the firefight. Ventura County Fire Department helped in subsequent years pioneer with Intterra the regular use of live Infrared support to firefighting efforts. The technology has become an everyday tool since then with a permanent home in the SITUATIONANALYST software. 

Fire Teams in Oregon and Washington Receive High Tech Assistance from the Colorado DFPC

Colorado is a state that has a great deal of experience fighting wildfires. It also has some advanced resources for making that challenge more manageable. Colorado's Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) sent one of its two Multi-Mission Aircraft to Oregon and Washington this summer, providing an impressive array of technology to support firefighting efforts.