Press Clipping

Emergency Services Ireland - Web-Based Software Saves Lives

Tuesday, 16th February 2010

Transcript

Source: Emergency Services Ireland

'Decisions for Heroes' is a new web-based software application that saves lives by helping rescue teams record and analyse their rescue operations and training programmes.


Decisions for Heroes, a web-based rescue team management and analytics software, has been built and developed by rescue workers for rescue workers.

First launched in Ireland in May 2009 to help rescue teams record and analyse their rescue operations and training exercises, ‘Decisions For Heroes’ held its official UK launch at the Emergency Services Show in Coventry in November 2009.

Founder and director is 24-year-old Robin Blandford from Howth in Dublin. He left a management career programme with Thomson Reuters, to launch his own company ByteSurgery Ltd in May 2008. He then set about using his experiences as a volunteer cliff rescue climber with the Irish Coast Guard, to build and launch the debut product ‘Decisions For Heroes’.

Having left full-time employment, Blandford set off travelling for a summer in the United States with his laptop. A prototype product soon came together, and every day for three months, Robin would check his inbox for feature requests, build them while Europe slept, and release a new version the next day.

The product, which came from this release-early and release-often process was structured into a company on his return to Ireland. It is now used by rescue teams around the world.

Before working with Thomson Reuters, he was awarded a BEng (Hons) in Digital Media Engineering from Dublin City University (2001-2006). He was identified early in his graduate recruitment cycle as 'one to watch' and has since worked professionally in digital media in London, Dublin, and Singapore.

DID YOU KNOW...

- Decisions for Heroes was trialled for eight months with 1,800 rescuers in five countries.

- The system has a 'baked-in' feedback system that allows users to leave improvement. suggestions against each page.

- There is no software to download. Users access the tool as a web application through their internet browser.

- Typical users include mountain rescue, coast guard, search and rescue dogs, lifeboats, and urban search and rescue teams.

- Users sign-in after each incident or training exercise to type in their activity report. Decisions For Heroes automatically adds data to their team’s records and updates their statistics.

- Rescue teams pay a monthly or annual subscription fee to gain access to the service.

- The initial service was built by founder Robin Blandford in 2008.

- Blandford saw the global use of this service, having developed a prototype version of the software for his own rescue team. The resulting data was so good that he decided there was a business in it.

Latest information can be found on the Decisions for Heroes blog page www.decisionsforheroes.com/blog

Emergency Services Ireland - Web Based Software Saves Lives

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