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Case Study
How One Of North America’s Largest Metros Earned CPSE Accreditation and Built an In-House Analytics Team
One of the largest fire services in North America began working with Darkhorse Emergency in 2016 to incorporate analytics and data-based decision making into its ongoing station planning and Standards of Cover improvement efforts.
2016
Platform implemented
2019
CPSE accreditation earned
80+
Stations optimized
CHALLENGE
Optimizing Resources in a Growing City
The service needed ways to optimize resource coverage to meet increasing service volumes in an evolving city while maintaining service levels and working within budget constraints.
SOLUTION
Evidence-Based Decision Making
Introduced Darkhorse Diagnostics and Deployment tools for data-based decision making
Supported the development of a dedicated analytics team
Supported Standards of Cover assessments and station location optimization
Enabled ongoing collaboration on staffing, critical tasking, and resource coverage
01 — The Need for Confidence
Critical Decisions Demand Data, Not Just Intuition
In a large city with a large fire service, critical budget and service decisions must be made every day. Without analytical resources, decision-makers relied heavily on intuition and experience — while city officials carefully scrutinized every dollar spent.
The fire service knew it needed to become more data savvy to expedite the decision-making process, optimize its resources, and ensure the best possible service while giving city leaders greater confidence in both short and long-term choices.
02 — Laying the Foundation
Launching an Evidence-Based Transformation
The service implemented the Darkhorse Emergency decision analytics platform in 2016, immediately taking advantage of Darkhorse Diagnostics and Deployment tools for identifying performance problems and pinpointing the best deployment decisions.
The platform quickly became the go-to for making service and budget decisions, responding to City Council requests, and informing ongoing dialogue with city leaders. It became the launchpad for a dedicated analytics team in 2017 — a team now engaged in all aspects of decision-making.
03 — Optimizing Station Locations
Putting Stations in the Best Locations
The service used the tools to identify mathematically optimal station and apparatus locations and instantly see the impact of adjustments. With Darkhorse Emergency's help, the analytics department assessed opportunities for substantially improving response performance while adding little to capital expense.
Each year, when older stations reach the point where deferred maintenance exceeds market value, the service uses these opportunities to reassess locations and continually improve response capacity.
04 — Achieving Accreditation
Improving Standards of Cover and Earning CPSE Accreditation
Using the decision analytics platform created consensus and confidence around decisions both small and large. It empowered the service to continually improve performance — an effort that became increasingly critical in light of COVID-19 and its implications for city revenue and budgets.
In 2019, the service earned CPSE accreditation. It continues to leverage the platform to address issues identified during accreditation and to inform ongoing operations deployment reviews.
"Things move much more quickly now, even though decisions continue to be very carefully scrutinized. Our team enjoys greater confidence knowing we are using evidence to make these critical decisions, without bringing in consultants to do the work for us."
A service that keeps getting better.
With its evidence-based culture firmly rooted, the service is well-positioned to respond to emergency needs in its growing city.
Established a dedicated analytics team driving data-based decisions across the service
Achieved and is maintaining CPSE accreditation since 2019
Strives for ongoing continuous improvement through regular operations deployment reviews
Optimized station locations to improve response performance with minimal capital expense
Built consensus and confidence around budget and service decisions with City Council
It has been rewarding to see the changes they've made over the last few years. When we started, they didn't even have Internet access in most of their facilities. Today, their operations group talks about optimizing deployment and uses these sophisticated tools to better inform their decision-making."
Rob Korzan — Director, Darkhorse Emergency