Quantcast
Channel: Decisions [D4H] - Product Blog

5 Reasons Why Responders Should Use LinkedIn

0
0

As a company operating out of Ireland and serving a global market of 16 countries, we use LinkedIn a lot. Whether it’s connecting with people we meet on our travels or with people whom we are doing business, we make full use of this business-focused social media site. 


But what can LinkedIn offer Responders?

1. Job opportunities - If you’re doubting the merits of using LinkedIn for job hunting, don’t. At [D4H] Technologies we have made the majority of our hires through the social network. If you have a strong set of credentials include them in your profile, upload your CV, Search for relevant listings and, finally, describe your previous roles in detail. Too often one can go to a profile where a job title is given but with no explanation of duties performed.

2. Articles - You may feel your interests are too niche for the likes of LinkedIn, but thats not the case. Whether you're an Industrial Fire Chief, Public Service Paramedic or Volunteer Responder, there is a huge variety of responder-relevant information and conversation happening around that content.
LinkedIn acquired Pulse back in April 2013 to improve how they handled content and make the social network a place “where all professionals come to consume content and where publishers come to share their content”. This has definitely greatly improved the quality of content being shared and also the ease of finding content.

3. Reunite - Joining your alma mater group page is a must. Once you’re accepted, see if you can become somebody’s fairy godmother offering advice to new graduates. Oftentimes, students or recent graduates will use group discussion to seek guidance or look for internship opportunities. You can, of course, use the group to ask questions yourself.

4. Download Useful Apps - LinkedIn has a number of third-party apps - used in tandem they can give you the opportunity to add some functionality and personality. SlideShare is a nice example, WordPress is another.
Traveling? TripIt plugin will let your connections know where you’re going. Buffer is a nice way to share links to interesting content with friends or group. Why not experiment with a few apps and see how your LinkedIn experience changes?

5. Join Discussion Groups - Not everyone realizes you can search LinkedIn by interest (note: interests don’t have to be only business related, there are fun groups too. For example, you can join a group to chat about Emergency Management, Hiking, Industrial Fire Protection, Science Fiction or even Tumblr. If you don't like any or can find one specific enough - make your own. We did! [D4H] Professional Emergency Responders Network.

Remember, since LinkedIn is first and foremost a professional community, you never know if your current or future boss is checking out your group memberships. So try not be agitator or ‘troll’ and you’ll be fine.

To learn more about [D4H] download an information pack here  


[D4H] Spotlight: Keeping Track Of Who Is On-Call

0
0

[D4H] Spotlight is a new [D4H] blog series which focuses on a different aspect of Decisions each week.

This week in [D4H] Spotlight, the spotlight is on the On-Call Planner. It's so important that when you have an incident, you know the right people are available to respond. The right skills, the right experience, and the right qualifications. The On-Call Planner helps to manage a team’s On- and Off-Call periods.

The On-Call Planner displays the next 30 days and all the information which has been inputted by members. It also helps to identify and prepare for periods in which they may have a deficiency in a particular required On-Call level. Required On-Call levels can be set through Qualifications and through Groups.

Off-Call periods can be entered by team members through the [+ Add Off-Call] button on the right hand side of the On-Call Planner page. 

It is possible for multiple people to be entered in for a particular Off-Call period, so the function is useful for administrators who are inputting Off-Call information in bulk.

That’s all for this week. Make sure to check out the Knowledge Base to find out more hints and tips on how to use Decisions to its full extent.

We know how important it is to be able to track availability of your team members, this is one of the reasons we built the On-Call Planner function for Decisions [D4H]. For those not already using our products and looking to find out more, please download an information pack.




Release Notes: Equipment Location Improvements and More

0
0

We've made some updates to the product since we returned from the holidays, including better equipment filtering and the ability to add custom fields to more areas of the application.

We're working on some major improvements and features at the moment, including finer grained permissioning and custom logbooks. While those are in the works we have released a number of fixes and usability improvements.

Custom fields received a number of enhancements, including a "units" label (such as kg or feet), new custom fields for activities and weather and the addition of custom field data to the activity PDF reports. The equipment section received a significant usability improvement in the form of a location filter, allowing equipment lists and statistics to be filtered by location. We hope these product updates prove useful and, as always, we look forward to answering any questions you may have.

January 2014 Release Notes:

  • Added incident duration (minutes) and custom timestamps to the Custom Reports spreadsheet export for Incidents.
  • Enhancement to allow for longer titles on the new equipment dashboard.
  • Fixed the organisation activity list not filtering by activity type.
  • Fixed the attendance count CSV exporting dates in GMT instead of local time.
  • Fixed the 12-month calendar loading the current calendar year when "past year" selected.
  • Fixed reporting date durations issue on the List Team Members page.
  • Added the internal equipment bulk import tool to assist new customers with onboarding.
  • Fix to hide smart folders for modules disabled in the team settings.
  • Disabled the ability to change qualification type (e.g. member to handler) if there are qualified members.
  • Added incident weather custom fields.
  • Added the ability to set unit labels (e.g. kg, feet) for custom fields.

February 2014 (to the week ending Friday 7th):

  • Added new weather sub-module for Wind Direction (full compass rose) with wind speed in meters per second.
  • Adjusted "Help" menu so a sign-in is not required to view the knowledge base or community questions.
  • Added a new email template so repairs are not called 'tasks' in emails.
  • Fixed an issue where an equipment's edited title would not show in search results.
  • Added custom fields to the activity PDF reports.
  • Added a location filter to the categories, supplies and other equipment pages.
  • Added the ability to set required supply levels by location.
  • Added the equipment supplies distribution tool.

If you've any questions, a great place for them is in our community forums.

David Doran,
Lead Engineer.

Announcing: Supplies & Consumables Distribution

0
0

It's important to reduce the burden of all administration tasks by using computers to undertake bulk-actions that are either impossible or difficult on paper. Last week we released the consumables and disposable supplies redistribution tool that does just that.


We've got thousands of incident responders who need to quickly distribute (and audit the move of) consumable supplies, replacement parts, manuals, safety memo's, and other once-off items. You're now able to 'Distribute Quantities' in [D4H] Decisions Equipment Manager with ease. After checking your stock levels alerts, you can add new quantities or shift around the existing.


First select the kind of Supply you're going to distribute. Medical Supplies? Manuals? Logbooks? Emergency Cards? Filters? Oil? Fuel? Water? Batteries?

Next, select the source you want to take quantities from. You can either create 'New' quantities in the system if they've just arrived in a shipment, or you can move from an existing batch - lets say from your store room or warehouse. We'll then allow you to distribute those quantities out across all other items of the same kind.


Our dropdowns will automatically calculate how many are left to distribute, and they shift & readjust as your decisions do. Everything will always add up to the correct number, and everything is logged, audited, and referenced.

Hit [Distribute Quantities] to make all those changes in bulk, instantly.

(We're afraid you'll still need humans to actually move the items - but we've made your administration job much easier!)

-Robin Blandford.
CEO

[D4H] Spotlight: Tracking Hours To Avail Of The Search And Rescue Volunteers Tax Credit In Canada

0
0

This week in [D4H] Spotlight, the spotlight is on how to keep track of your hours of attendance at activities. Keeping track of hours can be important for many reasons and, with the recent introduction in Canada of the Search and Rescue Volunteers Tax Credit, some of the benefits of doing so are apparent.


Under the scheme, rescue volunteers are eligible to claim once they have carried out at least two hundred hours of service in ground, air and marine in one year, whilst those whose two hundred hours is a combination between rescue and volunteer firefighting have the option to choose between the Search and Rescue Volunteers Tax Credit and the Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit, which was introduced in 2011.

In our product Decisions, it is possible to keep track of hours  at three types of activities - these are incidents, events and exercises.

When an activity report is entered or modified by a member with the correct permission levels, it is possible to input the amount of hours spent by a team member at an activity. Once the activity report is marked as approved, the hours are added to the member’s attendance records.


A member can view their own attendance records by accessing their profile page and then clicking the ‘View All Attendance’ expansion beside ‘Last Seen’. Here, a breakdown is given of how many incidents, events and exercises have been attended and the overall hours spent. It is possible to modify the date range to capture the relevant data.


It is also possible to track how many hours a team member has spent carrying out a certain role, or at a certain type of incident, using the Tags and Roles drop down options. Therefore, if it is a requirement by a team to see how many hours each member spends in a particular role  or how many hours are spent attending specific types of activities, you can rest assured that by using Decisions, you can track this type of information.

For those not already using our products and looking to find out more, please download an information pack.

[D4H] at the ESRI CIO Summit

0
0

Last month we had the pleasure of visiting our partners at the Esri Campus in Redland, CA to attend the inaugural Esri CIO Summit.


Esri designed the CIO Summit to introduce Public Sector CIOs to Esri solutions for Government and a select group of Esri partners (of which [D4H] was one). The summit kicked off with a talk from the Esri Founder and President, Fortune 500 Jack Dangermond. From talking to the Esri employees before the summit, we expected big things from Jack's talk and he didn't disappoint. 

A landscape architect by training, the Esri employees will tell you every stone and sod of turf in the Esri campus were meticulously laid by Jack, who founded Esri in 1969 with a vision that a mapping and analysis framework could provide a deeper understanding of our world and help us design a better future.


At [D4H], we mainly use Esri mapping for analytics on our Incident Reports. After seeing some of the new technology Esri has to offer we plan to more heavily integrate their products in our future innovations.


We were very proud to share the stage with the other Esri partners CitizinvestorCitySourcedRecovers and MindMixer to name a few. I can happily say they are some of the most innovative solutions available to Government..

Marc Healy - Head of Business Development 

Social Media in Emergency Response

0
0

For good or bad social media is a major part of modern life. My intention for this post is to spark some interesting discussion and showcase some instances of social media directly affecting emergency response.


In June 2013, Congresswoman Susan W. Brooks, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications, led a hearing titled Emergency MGMT 2.0: How #SocialMedia & New Tech are Transforming Preparedness, Response, & Recovery.”  


Full Subcommittee Hearing: Emergency MGMT 2.0. Recently FEMA has also released the Disaster Response for establishing a central repository for disaster related photos.

During Hurricane Sandy
, Twitter hashtags were analyzed to track power outages and areas that were worst hit in the video below Fix news reporters tell us how they used social media information.


US department of Homeland security released a paper in June 2013 that detailed “Lessons Learned - Social Media and Hurricane Sandy: Virtual Social Media Working Group


During typhoon disaster in the Philippines, Sadly 2013 was a year of multiple strong typhoons as well as an earthquake in the country, so the nation’s web users had a lot to worry over on social media.

The #RescuePH hashtag was put to good use on Twitter as a way to crowdsource and coordinate which areas need help the most after a disaster.


For more information about [D4H] download an information pack here  

Marc Healy [D4H] Crew 

Release Notes: The Reduced Incident Report and More

0
0

Here are the changes we made to the product last week (ending Friday 14th February).

Release Notes

  • Added custom field bundle names that allow custom fields to be grouped (for example you may have "Medical" and "Clothing" custom fields for members)
  • Added the reduced incident report (which includes only the information suitable for external dissemination such as timestamps, location, and description)
  • Added the name of the group to "group deleted" audit logs
  • Added the ability to filter unserviceable equipment by location
  • Fixed the daily digest unsubscribe link
  • Fixed allowing the user to enter negative exercise/event durations on mobile devices

If you've any questions, a great place for them is in our community forums.

David Doran,
Lead Engineer.


[D4H] Spotlight: Stay Compliant With Inspections

0
0

This week in [D4H] Spotlight, the spotlight is on inspections. For many emergency response teams, it is imperative that certain items of equipment are inspected to ensure that they comply with regulations. It is also important for teams to carry out regular inspections to utilise the full lifespan of a piece of equipment. The Inspections feature within the Equipment module of Decisions assists in tracking such inspections.

Inspections can be set in a number of different ways, including all items of a particular kind or all items in a particular location.

Inspections can be set to recur at a range of intervals and notification is given by email to selected team members when an inspection is coming up.

The video below outlines how an inspection is set up and carried out. 

The inspection history can be seen at the bottom of the particular inspection’s page, including any missed inspections. Further information that is recorded is which team member carried out the inspection and whether the inspection required a repair. 

The Inspections feature is a useful way of keeping track of your items for audit purposes and for ensuring that your equipment is being well maintained and the full value is being gained from each item.

For further information about our products, please download an information pack.

Natalie Marr,

Head of Customer Success

Our Continuous Delivery Culture & Release Notes

0
0

As part of the [D4H] 2014 game plan we wanted to give a greater insight into our culture through our blog. So as part of this weekly Engineering post, we wanted to give a sneak peak into how we get system updates and the new features mentioned below make their way from a code editor on our development machines to a browser on your chosen device.


One of the first concepts that struck me when I moved to [D4H], was the simplicity of the deployment process; the method by which we push the code containing system enhancements, new features and bug fixes to our live servers. 

In previous engineering roles, a 'deployment' was a feared word. It generally meant you could say goodbye to your weekend, and start dreading the tedious process of manually copying files to live servers, and running various scripts with the fear that a single typo could bring a whole application crashing down.

In [D4H], it's completely different. We use a continuous deployment workflow to automate and improve the process of software delivery, which gives us the ability to rapidly, reliably and repeatedly push updates to our customers through the service Beanstalk (for those curious, Beanstalk offer a free plan and great tutorials to get started with automated deployments). Other benefits of this service are that we can notify the whole team when an update has been made, as to what was deployed and who deployed it.


We are currently working on improving this workflow even further to automate testing as part build process. Before any code is pushed, we will be running a comprehensive test suite on every change before it reaches any live server, which we will continuously update in tandem with new features, adding extra reliability and robustness to our products.


I will write a post further down the line on the design decisions made, technologies used and how integrating this testing step panned out. I hope this insight into our development workflow has proved useful and we look forward to answering any questions you might have.

Release Notes (Week 15th - 21st February):

  • Fixed a display with the critical flag on the equipment items status page.
  • Fixed a timestamp display issue in firefox.
  • Added the ability to soft-delete and hard-delete a member by moving them to 'Trash' first.
  • Added the ability to soft-delete and hard-delete an activity by moving them to 'Trash' first.

If you've any questions, a great place for them is in our community forums where you can answer "what do you think of our continuous integration?" if you'd like to discuss this.

John Brett,
[D4H] Senior Engineer.

We're Hiring: Business Development Representative

0
0

[D4H] Technologies build multi-award winning emergency response team management software and have experienced rapid growth around the world. 

Our international operation has had particular success in Oil & Gas, Coast Guard, Pharmaceutical, Emergency Management, and Local Government - we are firmly committed to growing our team size. We are now looking for another team member to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse. 

We are hiring an exceptional and highly ambitious person to perform proactive outbound prospecting, inbound lead generation, and lead management. This position is based in our Dublin, Ireland office, and will have a direct impact on our success.

In your role as Business Development Representative, your primary responsibility will be identifying potential leads and qualifying them for handover to sales. This includes researching potential new customers, targeting and generating interest from suspects, calling inbound leads, building profiles of customer needs, and handing-over all opportunities with budget and authority as qualified prospects. You will handle all first contact with new prospects and build relationships through inside sales & marketing activities – campaigns, direct mail, email, etc.

This role will give the successful applicant an opportunity to experience all aspects of a fast growing business.

Detailed responsibilities:

  • Work directly with Sales and Marketing to plan, implement, and optimise the lead generation strategy.
  • Sustain a full sales pipeline to achieve and exceed monthly quota.
  • Develop fully integrated campaigns that generate qualified sales leads that directly impact revenue.
  • Create lead scoring models to optimise lead flow and lead-to-opportunity conversion.
  • Profiling potential customers by asking the right questions and documenting the knowledge for our sales department.
  • Developing value propositions which describe the business value of the [D4H] solution.
  • Work in consultation with prospects in a collaborative fashion, identifying the client’s issues and strategies.
  • Work closely with sales and marketing to develop new ways to increase awareness of our solutions and services.
  • Discover potential strong, long-lasting, and profitable customer relationships. 

Requirements:

  • We expect you to be very comfortable working with a lot of technology, as you will be selling a technical product, and using a lot of software tools. 
  • We’d like you to have a technical background or evidence of experience with modern web-based systems.
  • You need to be very analytical, yet display mature interpersonal skills.
  • You need experience with digital marketing solutions for lead generation.
  • Must be able to demonstrate strong research and organizational skills.
  • Demonstrate clear written and verbal communications.
  • Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage many relationships in parallel.
  • Ability and confidence to represent the company at business presentations and events.
  • You’ll need to be flexible and able to independently manage your own time to sometimes allow for calls very late at night (West Coast, North America) or very early morning (New Zealand).
  • Must have an incredible attention to detail.
  • A 3rd Level Business, Marketing, or similar Degree.

Our Values

- Outcomes, not incomes: Success is measured by tangible human outcomes. We ship insanely great stuff and expect it to convert to insanely great outcomes.

- Connections, not transactions: We encourage networking, co-creation, and collaboration. We champion the front-line responder by providing an incredibly deep and engaging technology experience for them.

- Creativity, not productivity: We create new value, not shift around the old. We work out of an actual lighthouse in Dublin Bay - come and see our culture for yourself. Don't forget your camera - the sunrise over the bay is awesome.

- People, not product: We invest in people and always give real responsibility. Our weekly team sit-down is an open forum for sales, engineering, business, and international contacts to review and question the week's activities.

Company Description

[D4H] Technologies have developed a collaborative emergency response team management tool that helps record and analyze operations, members, equipment, and training. It replaces the widely-used paper and spreadsheet formats and automates the entry of information using internet-connected computers, laptops, and consumer smartphone devices.

The tool uses this data algorithmically to deliver reporting, team management and intelligent information to the field, and information on-demand. Where required, outputs can be formatted for passing on to governing and compliance authorities.

Through intelligent collation of the data from the 'front-line', [D4H] facilitates extensive analysis, monitoring and scheduling of training, targeting of resource allocation and cost control.

Applications

The position is now open for interviews and immediate start. Compensation includes base salary plus commission to suit an entry-level position. Applicants should email an introduction to themselves with a link to their completed LinkedIn profile, CV, and any other considerations to robin.blandford@d4h.org using the subject line "Business Development Representative, Q1 2014".

No recruitment agencies required 

Top 5 Things That Make a GREAT Incident Responder

0
0

When it comes to being an incident responder, it is necessary to have certain qualities to be at the top of your field.

Maybe you’re an individual who is considering a career in public safety, emergency services,or search and rescue (just to name a few) and you want to know how to rise above your cohorts? Or, perhaps you are an industry leader who is responsible for hiring the best people for these types of job? Either way there are five key characteristics that you’ll want to keep in mind as being essential to incident responder success.

They are:

1. The Desire to Help Others

First and foremost, a great incident responder has to want to help people who are in need. There is no greater feeling than finding a lost child, helping an accident victim, or squelching a fire before it totally destroys a family’s home or a thriving business, and an incident responder knows this firsthand. If you’re not in this field to improve the quality of life of the people you serve, you will likely burn out rather quickly and not be effective, no matter what position you hold.

2. A Willingness To Do Whatever It Takes To Get The Job Done

Great incident responders don’t just “do their job.” They regularly go above and beyond the call of duty in an effort to protect other people’s lives and property. They aren’t limited by the boundaries of their job specifications and have no problem testing their own mental and physical limits if it means that others will benefit. 

3. A Passion That Cannot Be Extinguished

One distinct characteristic that sets top incident responders apart from their lesser respected counterparts is having a drive that simply cannot be stopped. It is a passion that burns in the pit of their soul; a feeling that is so deeply ingrained in their spirit that they can’t imagine doing anything else.

4. The Ability To Work Alone And As Part Of A Team

Incident responders are in the unique position to both work alone and as part of a team, meaning that they have to be able to adapt based on the specific situation. Working alone means being self-motivated and responsible, whereas being part of a team requires the willingness and ability to take orders from others, setting aside your own personal agenda for the benefit of the team as a whole.

5. The Constant Desire For Improvement

A top incident responder is always looking for ways to improve the people and processes that are in place. Essentially, they think like a leader or manager even if they don’t hold that particular role. They strive to lower the risk of potential issues and look for ways to help themselves and their teams be better prepared. They know that it takes continued training and education in order to stay at the top of their field, and they’re not afraid to get either one.

At [D4H], our goal is to help create incident responders who excel in their field. That is why we’ve created multi-award winning software that makes it easier to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses. Your success is our success and we fully intend to succeed!

Introducing Spike The [D4H] Office Mascot

0
0

This week, we are taking a hiatus from the usual Spotlight blogposts in order to introduce the newest member of our team, Spike the (orange) Goldfish. Because every response software company needs a mascot.


Our Head of Customer Success, Natalie Marr, had the honor of conducting a Q and A session with Spike as soon as he had settled in to his new surroundings.


Natalie: Hi Spike, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Are you excited about being part of the [D4H] Technologies team?

Spike: I am, it's great to be here. I'm delighted to have been given the oppor-Tuna-ty. It's not every day that one gets a job in a lighthouse!

Natalie: Will you take your role of mascot seriously? What will your day to day duties include?

Spike: Of course I will, it's an important job. In terms of day to day duties, I'm not sure yet exactly what I will be doing. I have a meeting with our CEO Robin Blandford tomorrow about this. I'm sure we will Mullet over then.

Natalie: So you're meeting Robin tomorrow, what about the rest of the team? Have you met them yet and, if so, what did you think?

Spike: Oh yes I met Head of Business Development Marc Healy and Senior Software Engineer John Brett this morning, they were both very Whelkoming. I'm also looking forward to meeting Lead Engineer David Doran and everyone else. 

Natalie: In terms of the company and the products we provide, what are your thoughts? Do you have much experience in the area?

Spike: Well before I applied for the mascot job, I thought I already knew a lot about the company. But once I applied for the job and did a bit more research, I have to say I was Hooked. I think Decisions [D4H] is a brilliant piece of kit, great for teams looking for software to track their equipment, personnel, incidents and training.

Natalie: What do you think about teams who aren't already using our products?

Spike: I think it's quite Shellfish really. The stuff is great, all teams should be using it. Teams can request an information pack by going to decisions.d4h.org, right?

Natalie: That's right Spike, they can submit their information through that link. We'd be happy to talk to any team interested in our response software.

Spike: I'm a bit tired, is it alright if we Fin-ish this interview now?

Natalie: No problem Spike, thanks for your time!

[D4H] Technologies provides multi-award winning response team software - perfect for both multi-team regional collaboration and standalone units. Take Spike's advice and download an information pack.

You can also check what Spike is up to by checking out our office webcam, visible below.

Release Notes and Upcoming Features

0
0

While we've been working on some major improvements and new features we've made some updates to the product over the last week we wanted to share.


We're working on some major improvements and features at the moment, so you can expect some big improvements to search, the introduction of new a feature, custom log books, and further improved reporting. Next week's blog post will delve further into the technical aspects of these features.

As always, we hope these product updates prove useful and we look forward to answering any questions you may have.

Release Notes (Week 24th - 28th February):

  • Improved how we encode gear kind titles and how special characters are handled.
  • Fixed an issue in when under certain circumstances when a team is deleted, a link may remain in the organization view.
  • Fixed how the model and brand drop down menus load on the gear edit page making them load quicker and more reliably.

If you have any questions, a great place for them is on our community forums.

John Brett,
[D4H] Senior Engineer.

Exciting! We're Hiring: Senior Software Engineer

0
0

We are now looking for another engineer to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse.


DUBLIN, IRELAND - [D4H] Technologies build multi-award winning emergency response team management software and have experienced rapid growth around the world. Our international operation has had particular success in Oil & Gas, Coast Guard, Pharmaceutical, Emergency Management, and Local Government - we are firmly committed to growing our team size. We are now looking for another team member to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse.

As our next hire you will be part of our engineering team with a wide range of responsibilities and challenges. You will work closely with the rest of the team on all aspects of our new product development. As a [D4H] engineer you will have the opportunity to influence the design of our international infrastructure, our technology choices, our policies and procedures, and how we interact with our customers around the world.

Ideal candidates should be passionate about technology and enjoy writing code daily. They should be comfortable with designing robust extensible systems, working as part of a technical team, assisting end users, and be able to demonstrate a willingness to continually learn and keep their skills up to date.

Preference is given to those who can primarily work out of our offices in the Baily Lighthouse, Dublin 13, Ireland. Exceptional remote candidates may be considered.

Desired Skills & Experience

PHP is necessary for the successful candidate to contribute to our large PHP codebase. Framework knowledge is valuable, as is the ability to work without one. Our primary datastore is MySQL and the ability to design, maintain and debug schemas and queries is an advantage.

We use jQuery and Knockout.js on the front end, but all experience with Javascript is valued. Other technologies you will be exposed to at [D4H] are Redis for job queuing and message passing, Apache, Git as source control, and our production servers are based on CentOS. We have new products currently undergoing rapid development that use a number of technologies such as HTML5 technologies including WebSockets, IndexedDB and AppCache.

We expect you to have examples of past web applications and Github accounts are looked favourably upon. You should be able to talk about these examples in detail and describe the design decisions, technologies used, mistakes made and lessons learnt. Particular emphasis is given to examples that demonstrate your strength in the above technical competencies.


Our Values

- Outcomes, not incomes: Success is measured by tangible human outcomes. We ship insanely great stuff and expect it to convert to insanely great outcomes.

- Connections, not transactions: We encourage networking, co-creation, and collaboration. We champion the front-line responder by providing an incredibly deep and engaging technology experience for them.

- Creativity, not productivity: We create new value, not shift around the old. We work out of an actual lighthouse in Dublin Bay - come and see our culture for yourself. Don't forget your camera - the sunrise over the bay is awesome.

- People, not product: We invest in people and always give real responsibility. Our weekly team sit-down is an open forum for sales, engineering, business, and international contacts to review and question the week's activities.


Company Description

[D4H] Technologies have developed a collaborative emergency response team management tool that helps record and analyze operations, members, equipment, and training. It replaces the widely-used paper and spreadsheet formats and automates the entry of information using internet-connected computers, laptops, and consumer smartphone devices.

The tool uses this data algorithmically to deliver reporting, team management and intelligent information to the field, and information on-demand. Where required, outputs can be formatted for passing on to governing and compliance authorities.

Through intelligent collation of the data from the 'front-line', [D4H] facilitates extensive analysis, monitoring and scheduling of training, targeting of resource allocation and cost control.


Applications

The position is now open for interviews and immediate start. Applicants should email an introduction to themselves, with any other considerations to robin.blandford@d4h.org using the subject line "Senior Software Engineer Application".


[D4H] Spotlight: The Benefits Of Enhanced Search Functionality

0
0

This week in [D4H] Spotlight, the spotlight is on the enhanced Search functionality. Being able to search through a team's information quickly and effortlessly is so important, which is why we have made it an integral part of our response team software.

The recent upgrade to the Search feature means that a whole spectrum of information can be searched for. This ranges entering the name of a member to quickly pull up their profile to typing in the name of a recent incident so that you can access the report.

We have made the Search feature more user friendly by making it so that the exact title/phrase does not have to be typed. 


The upgrade also includes extensive modifications to the search functionality of the equipment module, with it now being possible to search by serial number, manufacturer, model and type, as well as being able to search by reference number and by the name given to the equipment kind. 

Searches are now quicker, with the user being able to see the suggested results almost immediately after the search term is entered.

We hope that all of our current teams will find this feature enhancement useful. For those looking for more information about our response team software, download an information pack

Natalie Marr,

Head of Customer Success

Release Notes: Improving Our Search

0
0

In this week's Engineering post, I wanted to give an insight into some search improvements you might have already discovered in the Decision [D4H] Application, as well as our weekly release notes.


At [D4H] we are rarely content to settle when it comes to the features we provide, much like the new communications module we released earlier this year we are constantly looking improve on the features we offer.

The latest feature we have improved is the quick search, a very simple, but powerful feature in our system. If you are unfamiliar with quick search to date, it is in the top right corner of the desktop user interface, or top of the dashboard view when viewing on mobile, and allows you to search equipment, members, activities and documents all from one place.


From listening to our customers, we realised that this could be even more powerful, by making more meta-data 'searchable' in relation to items, such as searching for equipment by serial number, manufacturer or model. We also wanted it to be more flexible, so from putting in different pieces of information about an entity you could narrow down a search instead of a naive search on the title of an item. 

Combining these two improvements posed some interesting technical issues. The obvious problems associated with performing a more complex search, and with making more data searchable are the performance hits incurred, something we felt would be unacceptable as our users have become accustomed to our search features' quick response. 

After evaluating multiple search engine alternatives such as Sphinx, Lucene and Elasticsearch, we found through some clever optimizations in how we store meta-data, and in how we query the data we could implement solution through PHP and MySQL alone, availing of MySQL's full-text feature. Through this we managed to meet our goals of a more flexible search feature, that could also search meta-data relating to items and actually reduced time taken to perform a database query to ~25% of the time taken before.

We are quite pleased with the results, and hope you are too. If you have any questions, a great place for them is on our community forums.

If this kind of work interests you, we have a spot open on our engineering team to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse - you can read about the role here.

Release Notes (Week 3rd - 7th March):

  • New improvements to quick search, increased speed, search entity meta-data.
  • Added setting to hide member qualifications from other team members.
  • New, more flexible permissions system added to organisation accounts.
  • Fixed filtering completed repairs by location.

John Brett,
[D4H] Senior Engineer.

[D4H] Spotlight: Tracking Tasks From Outset To Completion With The Tasks Module

0
0

This week in [D4H] Spotlight, the spotlight is on Tasks. Being able to record and monitor a task right through to completion is an important function for many teams. This is why we have made it part of our response team software.


By using Tasks, teams can add tasks and track their progress. Any repairs added in our Equipment management tool will also be visible in Tasks.

Tasks can be assigned to a particular team member or else can be left unassigned, so that team members can opt to take on the task by clicking [+ Add To My Tasks] within the module.

Once a task is assigned to a team member, they will receive a notification email. In addition, tasks are included in the weekly briefings received by team members. We added these features to ensure that team members can keep track of any assigned tasks with ease.

When carrying out a task, a team member can keep track of the progress. Each task starts out as [Not Started] by default. Team members have the option to change the status to [In Progress] or [Completed]. 

When a task is added, a due date can be set. Hopefully this will encourage team members to complete the task in a timely fashion!

When being viewed, the list of tasks can be separated either by [My Tasks], [Team Tasks] and [By Item].

It is important to note that already completed tasks can also be added after the fact - Tasks can be used as a record of past tasks also. In this case, a task can be marked as [Completed] as soon as it is added. A list of Completed tasks can be viewed within the module if so required.

We hope that all of our current teams are making use of Tasks. For those looking for more information about our response team software, download an information pack

Natalie Marr,

Head of Customer Success

Javascript? Solve The Hardest Problem In An Emergency.

0
0

We are now looking for another engineer to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse in Dublin, Ireland. 


SENIOR ENGINEER - DUBLIN, IRELAND - [D4H] Technologies build multi-award winning emergency response team management software and have experienced rapid growth around the world. We are now looking for another team member to lead the implementation of a new software product we're building in our lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse.

As our next hire you will be a senior player in our engineering team. You will be responsible for the execution of our new real-time emergency response software, "the most important innovation since the 2-way radio". As a [D4H] engineer, you'll solve the hardest problems in emergency response, and have the opportunity to influence the design of our international infrastructure, our technology choices, our policies and procedures, and how we interact with our customers around the world.

Ideal candidates should be passionate about technology and enjoy writing code daily. They should be comfortable with designing robust extensible systems, working with real-world end users, and be able to demonstrate a willingness to continually learn and keep their skills up to date.

Preference is given to those who can primarily work out of our offices in the Baily Lighthouse, Dublin 13, Ireland. Exceptional remote candidates may be considered.

Desired Skills & Experience

Ideally, javascript is required for the successful candidate to contribute to our codebase - you'll also be working in PHP and other languages. Framework knowledge is valuable, as is the ability to work without one. The ability to design, maintain and debug database schemas and queries is an advantage.

We expect you to have examples of past web applications and public repository accounts are looked favourably upon. You should be able to talk about these examples in detail and describe the design decisions, technologies used, mistakes made and lessons learnt. Particular emphasis is given to examples that demonstrate your strength in the above technical competencies.


Our Values

- Outcomes, not incomes: Success is measured by tangible human outcomes. We ship insanely great stuff and expect it to convert to insanely great outcomes.

- Connections, not transactions: We encourage networking, co-creation, and collaboration. We champion the front-line responder by providing an incredibly deep and engaging technology experience for them.

- Creativity, not productivity: We create new value, not shift around the old. We work out of an actual lighthouse in Dublin Bay - come and see our culture for yourself. Don't forget your camera - the sunrise over the bay is awesome.

- People, not product: We invest in people and always give real responsibility. Our weekly team sit-down is an open forum for sales, engineering, business, and international contacts to review and question the week's activities.


Company Description

[D4H] Technologies have developed a collaborative emergency response team management tool that helps record and analyze operations, members, equipment, and training. It replaces the widely-used paper and spreadsheet formats and automates the entry of information using internet-connected computers, laptops, and consumer smartphone devices.

The tool uses this data algorithmically to deliver reporting, team management and intelligent information to the field, and information on-demand. Where required, outputs can be formatted for passing on to governing and compliance authorities.

Through intelligent collation of the data from the 'front-line', [D4H] facilitates extensive analysis, monitoring and scheduling of training, targeting of resource allocation and cost control.


Applications

The position is now open for interviews and immediate start. Applicants should email an introduction to themselves, with any other considerations to robin.blandford@d4h.org using the subject line "Senior Software Engineer Application".

[D4H] Spotlight: Revealing the most relevant data for your response team

0
0

This week in [D4H] Spotlight, the focus is on ensuring that your response team is revealing the most relevant data through the Custom Reports function.


Whether you are looking to uncover how many incidents of a specific type have happened within the last week or figuring out your team's attendance statistics over the last 6 months, using the Custom Reports feature can help you to sift through all your data to pull out the most relevant. 

There are six types of reports to choose from - Attendance, Persons Involved, Vehicle Usage, Incidents, Events and Exercises. Once a report type is chosen, a number of sections become available in which information can be inputted to produce a report.


It is important to note that not all of the sections need to be completed. Various combinations can be selected, whichever is best for you to draw out the most relevant information.

The time period for which the report should be created can also be selected, either by indicating a range in terms of hours, days, weeks months or years or inputting specific dates.

There are handy exportable documents available once the report has been run and it is also possible to save the Custom Report template so that it can be run at a later stage.

If you are a response team looking for a solution to manage your data, request an information pack by visiting decisions.d4h.org.

Natalie Marr

Head of Customer Success







Latest Images