We are currently a team of six developers. None of us have less than 15 years programming experience. Four of us are Certified Scrum Masters, as a result Coverwatch is a company that lives and breathes the principles and benefits of Agile Development. We want to make the difficult job that you face, as easy as it can possibly be. We do this by listening to your needs, understanding them, and building solutions that meet them. We produce robust, intelligent and intuitive solutions that grow with your needs and leverage the changing world of technology available to us.
Coverwatch Ltd. was formed in January 2018 but was proviously trading under the name of Solutions at Work. Our product was originally launched (under the name firestationavailability.com) back in 2004. We decided to do everyone a favour and switch to a far better domain in 2009.
By utilising discovery days and user feedback, we are able to understand user requirements. We use staging (UAT) servers to clarify user requirements and iterate solutions. We have been building what users need for nearly 15 years.
Open Source technologies and the communities that sit behind them form an exceptional platform. Coverwatch v3 is written in PHP 7. The software is built on a solid foundation of OO (Object Oriented) architecture and on a LAMP stack.
Our solution is deployed on the public cloud. We use dedicated servers for the first tier platform and Amazon Web Services (live replication) for failover.
We use SHA-256 level encryption over TLS to ensure the most secure connectivity. Our services undergo an annual penetration test to ensure we are up to date with emerging vulnerabilities.
At Coverwatch, we wholeheartedly adopt the Agile framework and Manifesto. Four of the developers are Certified Scrum Masters. Daily stand-ups, two week sprints. Working software is always the priority.
By using GIT for version control, we are able to iterate quickly and safely. We use automated test suites (Solenium) to ensure robustness is maintained throughout the development cycle.
Below is a short video (less than 5 mins) that gives you a brief overview of the system (as at July 18). There is no sound, but is best viewed full screen.
As soon as the project begins we will work with you to move as much of your existing data in to Coverwatch. We have import scripts that will ingest and map your existing data in a variety of formats (csv, JSON or xml). You decide whether you want to take a 'station-centric' approach or start by adding users through their training records (and allocate accordingly when stations are set up).
The administration of Coverwatch is simple. You define roles, competencies, availability codes etc. in one easy to navigate area. We can provide a 'bolierplate' setup as a starting point and we will sit with you to assist understanding.
Once the initial setup is completed we will undertake training your Station Managers and Training staff. They will understand setting up crew, their contracts and associated workpatterns, competencies and personal data.
We will train your crews in using the software and app suite. From there we will be available via phone, email or remote web session to assist any gaps in understanding. Users also have access to an extensive knowledge base with articles and videos to further clarify procedures. We aim to have the full implementation operational within six-eight weeks.
We have changed the format to show in grouped block elements, which makes it far easier to see overall availability. We have also changed the format so it's showing the next 6, 12 or 24 hours (from the current time). Still allowing to move backwards and forwards through days or to a specific date. Administrators can still click a button to switch to Edit View and make global updates.
The Emergency Services Show 2018 was a resounding success. Being able to showcase our software (in live demos) met with a great deal of interest from a number of diferent Services and service sectors. Lots for us to follow up on. Really looking forward to next year with a much bigger stand!
There are now competencies that can be set as exclusive - this means users cannot be allocated another simultaneous role. There are corresponding competencies that are combined - an example of this would be a crew member that is prepared to run as JO/ERD.
We've made some changes to the Live Station section on the Station Dashboard. Drag the bar at the top to move through the next 12 hours in 30 minute steps. Show appliance and crew availability for that specific time.
More enhancements added to 'timeshift' bar.
Following the popularity of the timeshift bar on the map and alarms areas, we have extended the functionality to allow up to two weeks forward planning.
The bar still allows increments up to 48 hours in the future, but there is also now a drop down on the right that allows you to select days. This will give you a full 24 hour view of the day in half / hourly increments (depending on your setup).
We have just released another app in the suite. This app allows Station Managers to allocate crew to appliances when mobilised. It also shows a real-time snapshot of current status.
We've hooked up the Google Maps API to the available users interface. Quickly and easily search by availability, competencies, role or proximity. Smart search also allows you to refine the results. Looking at @what3words for the next stage of this. Exciting times!!
We've now added the ability to save and share your report criteria. This makes monthly and ad-hock reporting significantly quicker as your frequent searches are readily available.
All availability grids (Station, Station Planning, Admin drill-down) now have a very simple graph at the top. It allows you to see appliance availability at a glance for any specific day.
Since 2004, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service have employed Coverwatch for our retained duty system personnel. Coverwatch is also now used by our wholetime crewing optimisation group and wholetime watches for monitoring, planning and maintaining availability of appliances. We are proud to have worked with the team developing Coverwatch to meet our changing organisational needs.
Coverwatch has continued to prove itself as a scalable, highly robust and flexible tool which has now become a key factor in our daily crewing model and is visited some six hundred time per day by our staff. I would highly recommend it to any other Fire and Rescue Service.
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