London 2012 Learnings (Part III): Incident Resolution and Logging
PART 3: In the final part of this three-part interview, our CEO and Co-Founder, Peter Ward, talks about his experiences working at the best ever Olympic Games, London 2012. Topics have included everything from LOCOG to WeTrack, Incidents to Risks, and more.
Incident Resolution and Logging
In this final installment, Peter discusses the process of logging and resolving incidents at major events, and how what he experienced at London 2012 led to the creation of WeTrack’s Incident Management System.
What is an Incident Management System (IMS) and why create one?
An Incident Management System, for an event, is designed to capture real time issues that are happening, identify which teams and individuals are responsible for resolving them and track when they are complete. They are vital in managing a large event, yet the systems are often quite complicated, so we just wanted to make one that is easy to use and suitable for everyone working in events.
Surely a system like this needs to be complex?
Complex — yes, but complicated — definitely not. My experience at London 2012 was that having an overly complicated system was prohibitive for user adoption and in the end people would often revert to more traditional methods: radio, pen and paper. This is fine but requires lots of staff and means that when it comes to reporting to stakeholders and auditors, information has to be completely reproduced into the necessary formats. Efficiency and accountability are two areas which suffer most from resorting to these processes.
So what are the main features of WeTrack’s IMS?
WeTrack’s IMS is a mobile and web application that allows users to raise an incident and assign it department(s)/contractor(s), venue(s) and severity, while also logging location (automatically, if desired) and photos of the incident. This then goes up to the Event Control Room/Dashboard where users (if they have the correct permissions) can add further attachments, action owners and other information, as well as verify location. There is an inbuilt notification system so that users are told what they are responsible for and can comment or close out the incident as required. This then completes the loop and all daily/hourly reports can be generated as needed. Every aspect of the system is permissions-controlled and uses geo-location and trending technology to help management make decisions about what’s going on at their event. It is easy to use yet powerful enough to cater for an event’s complex needs.
How does it tie in with project management?
The IMS can be used as a standalone product but it can be an extension of the project management process. It has the same look and feel as WeTrack’s PM system and you can even transfer live issues directly to the IMS register at the click of a button, ensuring minimal downtime in transition from one stage of the planning cycle to another. It’s all part of the excellence in event operations we strive for.
Originally published at www.wetrack.com on September 19, 2017.
