Common Communication and Information Management Systems, Research Paper Example

Common Management Information Systems refer to an integrated and centralized protocol of operations, mostly used by security and law enforcement agencies to standardize actions and information acquisition and storage. The standardization is usually aimed at defining and allocating facilities and manpower efficiently for each an every incident in which response and information is needed, thus enabling efficient management in a group effort (Laudon, 2007).

Advantages of Common Communication and Information Management Systems

From the outlook, common communication and information management systems help many arms of the government, each serving particular interests and jurisdictions, to manage the information gleaned from an incident uniformly (Laudon, 2003). It becomes very easy to make accurate deductions and conclusions since more information is available and harmonized while also ensuring that the centralized information is reliable, accurate and without inconsistencies.

From such well-informed structures, it becomes easy to facilitate the equality of access between government departments and agencies. It also promotes public trust since the public is given a singular account and from a singular source. This single advantage of managing, sharing and optimizing information helps avoid duplication of efforts and even facilitate re-use of the information (Laudon, 2003). Modern electronic and computerized technology makes it even easier to store and retrieve necessary information from a centralized database across all departments and agencies. These advantages are not only featured by law enforcement agencies, but also in organizations with such information systems as part of their operations protocol.

ICS Model

ICS refers to the Incident Command System, a standardized management concept enforced on-scene during any emergency incident. The on-scene incident concept is specifically designed for incident’s responders to ensure that they always employ an integrated and standardized organizational structure that corresponds to the demands and complexity of every singular incident or even multiple incidents, without the hindrance of jurisdictional boundaries and sectional loyalties (New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management).

ICS was originally developed in 1970’s to manage wildfires that were spreading very fast. Nevertheless, after conception, ICS became a standard operation manual for most agencies due to its ability to eliminate many problems in on-scene agent management. For instance, we used to have far too many agents reporting to only one on-scene supervisor; each incident had different organization of emergency response structures and there was lack of reliable information on the incident. Other problems included incompatible and inadequate communication, responders featured unspecified and vague incident objectives; there was no structure in the coordinating and planning between the agencies, lack of clear authority lines and the use of variant and thus confusing terminologies among the responding agencies.

ICS thus enabled integrated planning and communication primarily by establishing the manageable control span. ICS divided the emergency response protocol into five functions based on the related emergency operations. These functions included Planning, Operations, Finance, Logistics, Command and Administration. In an ICS structure, a Commander assumes the command function. The command function can bring together all the commanders from all responding organizations in any incident to help coordinate effective responses simultaneously while also assuming jurisdictional responsibilities. This ensures that there is consensus in decisions among all jurisdictions, agencies and even non-government responders involved in an operation. Instead of being a chaotic scene where everyone is doing their own thing, ICS creates an integrated team or responders fro each incident (Laudon, 2007).

The ICS grants overall management of an incident to the Unified Command such that all incident activities and strategies, planning, implementation of objectives and allocations of resources are done systematically, efficiently and in respect to the overall objectives. Only with an ICS structure can an incident be approached with singular objectives, strategies, information sharing, maximal utility of resources and enhanced efficiency in all response organizations.

NIMS Model

A few years after ICS introduction (around 1980), federal agencies adopted it into a federal, national program. The national program was then called NIMS (National Incident Management System) and was used to link all the agencies responding to an incident to a singular response team. NIMS was thus the pioneer standardized protocol to managing incident response. NIMS was originally developed and advocated for by the US Department of Homeland Security as a presidential directive. Once released in 2004, NIMS established a uniform code of procedures and processes to be followed by all emergency responders from all levels and jurisdictions of the government involved in response operations (New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management).

NIMS finally integrated uniform and effective emergency response practices that comprehensively covered any typical incident management. Responders from all agencies and jurisdictions could effectively work together for efficient management of incidents regardless of cause, casualty number, size or even complexity. Whether the incidence was a terrorist attack or catastrophic natural disasters, response structures became standardized.

Benefits of NIMS and ICS Models to State-Level Homeland Security Procedures

From the above detailed descriptions, it is easy to identify the specific benefits that Incident Command System and National Incident Management System has to federal and state level Homeland Security. The structure for incident management is ideal and very reliable. This becomes very important when the agencies are responding to a large-scale incident or multi-jurisdictional incidents (New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management). Essentially, it is important that such a centralized operations protocol be implemented in federal levels, state levels and local levels since the principles of operations are the same at whatever level it is implemented. All jurisdictions seeking the federal Homeland Security grants are now required to demonstrate their NIMS compliance, and for good reasons.

• The Management of Resources

To begin with, the incident management systems help to standardize planning for future incidents, training the response personnel and in exercising in readiness for such response demands. Each department knows what to train for in their team role as part of responders, secondly, every agency has its own resources. If they use their resources just in any way, there is going to wastage and underutilization (Anderson, 2008).

However, when unified into a team, all responders commit their resources, which are then efficiently deployed to cater for the response operations. This becomes important since all law enforcement agencies and departments, federal representatives in the state, non-governmental organizations and civil bodies can then acquire standardized equipment that is certified as the best to use. What the information management systems help to achieve is a uniform deployment of stet’s resources during emergency response operations such that there is efficiency and effectiveness rather than chaos. The systems architecture helps to incorporate supporting technologies such as date and voice communications systems during the response and afterwards, such that information relay becomes very easy and organized (Anderson, 2008).

Once the state’s agencies are incorporated into a team, they can easily share the communication systems, data display systems and other specialized technologies that are not available to every agency across the board. This in turn amplifies effectiveness. A state also needs to keep the public well informed about emergency incident cases and the information systems help in managing publication processes and publicity activities that are coherent, standard and believable. This is impossible when every agency is dealing with an incident in its own way.

• Multi-Agency Coordination

The information technologies also help in employing the state’s workforce and specialist personnel into an incident in such a way that there is no duplication of tasks and wastage of time. The personnel engaged in the response are usually ranked on qualification and experience in such a way that there is a cohesive structure. Instead of having everyone reporting to a single person, or having a team with an assortment of commanders, the systems help create a structure that is efficient and very harmonious.

The most important point here is that such a system as NIMS always makes interoperable communications procedures, processes and systems possible since all jurisdictions and agencies are represented in the command unit and given a mandate to execute in respect to the overall objectives of the response operations. As in all cases of division of labor and demarcation of responsibility, such a structure yields great efficiency and effectiveness.

Again, there is unity of purpose and a sharing of objectives. In a state, there are so many responders who usually come into play in each and every incident. Some are only interested in criminal investigation of the incident, others in medical services provision, others in assisting evacuation and crowd management, others interested in stopping fires, others interested in accumulating evidence against a suspect who might have perpetrated the incident etc. These examples show how diverse the emergency response teams are in their training and objectives. NIMS helps bring all of them together, allocate each one their specialty area while still retaining the overall objective of the response operations (Laudon, 2003). This creates a state-large team in which members play different parts in the attainment of defined objectives.

References

Anderson, R. (2008). Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management (2010). Emergency Planning Municipalities National Incident Management System. Retrieved 15 February 2010. from http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/hsem/Planning/planning_muni_nims_faq.html

Laudon, K. (2003). Management Information Systems. New York: Prentice Hall.

Laudon, K. & Laudon, J. (2007). Essentials of Management Information Systems. New York: Prentice Hall.