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Archive for July, 2013

TargetSolutions Honored to Support Country Cares Concert in Prescott, Ariz.

TargetSolutions helped support the Country Cares concert in Prescott, Arizona. The concert raised money for the families of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives in the Yarnell Fire.

Country music stars Dierks Bentley, The Band Perry, Randy Houser, and David Nail performed at the concert that raised more than $400,000 dollars for the families. The event included a special bag pipe-intro version of Dierks’ song, “Home,” which was performed by the Rural Metro Pipe and Drum Corp.

TargetSolutions and MES were honored to provide tickets for firefighters and their families from the Prescott area.

“This was really a memorable evening and it was our privilege to support these firefighters and their families,” said Regional Sales Director Phil Coons.

After the Country Cares concert, Coons and Account Manager Colleen Daughton of TargetSolutions attended the Desert Southwest Fire & EMS Expo at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. They were thrilled to have the opportunity to visit with clients during the Expo, Coons said.

Tulsa Fire Department Finds TargetSolutions ‘Hands Above the Competition’ for Firefighter Training

Tulsa Fire Department has benefited from the ability to easily distribute customizable material, including EMS continuing education, to its metro agency’s personnel.

Tulsa Fire Department’s impressive history dates back to the turn of the 20th century. The metro-sized department was once a small-time operation that served a community of around 1,000 people. Immense growth in the city’s population has been mirrored by the department’s expansion. Now, with a team of 724 employees, the 30-station department responds to more than 54,000 incidents each year, while serving nearly 400,000 citizens over 201-square miles.

With such a large metro fire department, communication across stations about training was not easy. Gathering large numbers of personnel and booking classrooms for training was unfeasible. The implementation of TargetSolutions in 2007 helped Tulsa’s leadership effectively disseminate training to the entire department.

“The biggest thing that TargetSolutions has done to help us with our training needs is offer an alternative to the classroom,” said Tulsa’s Director of EMS Michael Baker. “We have fire stations all over the city and we have to be able reach our firefighters at any time. TargetSolutions allows us to distribute education rapidly and lets us post our own custom developed content for our personnel and it gives us a great feedback mechanism to monitor it.”

The ability to distribute customizable material has benefitted Tulsa tremendously. TargetSolutions’ powerful online training management system enables departments to reach personnel on their level, at their time and at their pace. This has allowed the department to create online coursework that complements hands-on training in order to make the overall process more effective and efficient.

 

“We have fire stations all over the city and we have to be able to reach our firefighters at any time. TargetSolutions allows us to distribute education rapidly.”
Michael Baker, Director of EMS, Tulsa Fire Department

 

“We ask our members to review an online TargetSolutions PowerPoint and video embedded presentation, and take a test afterward to prepare themselves for when they arrive at an in-service or a training event to do the skills portion,” said Baker. “This has allowed us to take something that would normally be two hours long and condense it down into an hour.”

TargetSolutions has the ability to transform a department’s training productivity through engaging online courses, pre-training assignments called custom activities, and post-training tracking capabilities. Some might think web-based training software is too difficult and unpopular with personnel, but Baker believes adapting to technology is easier than you might imagine.

“TargetSolutions offers a great dashboard of performance and its easy to read, the icons are easy to access, and the members generally find their way quite nicely throughout the system,” he said. The system has proven to be beneficial for Tulsa and when it comes to customizing and delivering content, Baker says the department has found TargetSolutions to be “hands above the competition.”

About TargetSolutions
TargetSolutions is the leading provider of web-based technology solutions for fire and EMS organizations. These solutions enable organizations to maintain compliance, reduce losses, deliver curriculum, and track all station-level tasks, certifications and training activities.

Will Your Department Be Ready for Fire in Mixed-Use Occupancy Buildings?

Blog by Joseph Pronesti
Captain with Elyria Ohio Fire Department

If you work in an older community with TYPE III (ordinary construction) buildings, do you pre-plan those buildings in case of a fire? Typical mixed-use occupancy buildings will usually have some type of mercantile establishment on the ground floor with multiple apartments above on the upper floors. Many smaller departments have these types of buildings in their respective towns they protect. It’s important to think about and train on these career defining fires before they happen.

This article is the first in a two-part series breaking down these types of buildings, so you can effectively game plan before you’re faced with an incident at 3 a.m. on a cold night.

What exactly is Ordinary Construction?
Ordinary construction is a building featuring exterior masonry walls and combustible interior beams or trusses. Although it’s not the most often used building type today, Type III construction has been used a great deal for commercial buildings built in the last 100-plus years. Most of these buildings will be two to at the most four stories in height.

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A typical mixed-use ordinary construction building, these two buildings were once separate. They now have interior walls on the second and third floors and house apartments have been removed, making a single continuous structure above the separate businesses on the first floor.

 

Typical Concerns When Combating a Fire in Mix-Use Ordinary Construction Buildings
While not an all-encompassing list, the following three items should be on an all incident commanders checklist when arriving at a fire in one of these buildings:

1. Life Safety: As shown in the photo above, most ordinary mixed-use buildings will undergo some type of renovation in their lifespan. Large apartments that served 40 or 50 years ago may be divided into several smaller units to meet the needs of a landlord who wants to provide cheap affordable housing. Arriving firefighters can find a plethora of safety hazards, including single-room occupancies, heavy-fire loading of apartments, and run down fire escapes in need of maintenance.

2. Void Spaces: When renovation takes place, void spaces are usually created, allowing for hidden fire travel. These include horizontal voids created by dropped ceilings, and vertical voids through new utility chases. The large open cockloft areas are also a concern for rapid fire spread.

3. Collapse Issues: The age and continuous renovation cycles of these buildings make them prone to rapid fire spread and structural collapse. In today’s economy, many times you will find vacant store fronts and occupied apartments on the upper floors. Don’t be tricked into thinking the entire building is vacant. The best way to determine this is to be familiar with your response area.

This article is not meant to cover everything related to fires in ordinary construction, as the late Francis Brannigan stated: Beware the building the building is your enemy. Firefighters need to have a sound knowledge of building construction. There are many great pieces of literature available for further study. A well respected chief on the east coast once said no one has any business inside a burning building without proper knowledge of building construction and fire spread. I totally agree and it would behoove every firefighter to make this his/her career objective.

 

Learning to B.A.G. the Fire in Mixed Use Ordinary Constructed Occupancy
There are several well-known acronyms firefighters utilize when sizing up a fire one that will serve you well is B.A.G.where did the fire BEGIN, where is it AT currently, and where is it GOING?

Where did the fire begin? As a rule, the worst-case scenario a firefighter or incident commander can face in these structures is a basement fire. As stated earlier many buildings go through renovations just as upper story walls are removed and single structures are merged together to form larger ones, basements can undergo the same renovations making an underground cockloft, where fire can spread from building to building, taking out an entire block.

A good rule to remember is if you are called for a smell of smoke in an ordinary constructed building in a continuous block of similar type buildings, and cannot find anything, check surrounding buildings especially the basements.

Accessing the basement can be difficult under smoke and heat conditions. The hazards can be tremendous to firefighters crawling over top of a raging basement fire. Many of the store fronts on the ground floor will have multiple basement entrances, especially if there is a service alley to the rear of the structure.

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Many basements will have an exterior entrance which will make for a much more effective attack on a basement fire.

 

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Basements in continuous ordinary construction occupancies could be interconnected. This photo shows a flimsy piece of wood paneling covering an opening between two basements.

 

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Missing or damaged tiles on this basement ceiling will severely expose the first floor rafters in the event of a basement fire.

 

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The left half of this image shows an interior shot of the exterior basement door. After you force these doors you are faced with another fortified door. These are two common security obstacles you may face. The key is to get into your buildings prior to the fire and see what you will face when the fire call comes in.

 

A first floor fire will cause just as many headaches as a basement fire with the lone exception of easier access to the building. This by no means eliminates hazards to occupants above the fire in living areas. When confronted with a working fire on the first floor with apartments above, consider using a big line. The power of the 2 -inch hand line with a 1 -inch tip will put out a ton of fire in a short period of time. Many small departments say the 2 -inch line is too manpower intensive, but that is an excuse. Those departments need to train on its deployment. There are a ton of excellent training websites available to help your department train.

Consideration should even be given to pairing up companies to get the big line in service. Remember, once you get water on the fire things should get better. Even if taking the second engine away from another assignment, such as a backup line to assist in stretching the original 2 -inch attack line may pay dividends to those whose lives are in peril above the fire.

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Be aware that just as in modern strip malls, the rear of the ordinary mixed-use will probably be heavily fortified. Regardless, these must be opened up for safety of interior crews. This particular building has a locked gate on the interior side of the rear door.

 

Editor’s Note: In second part of this two-part series, we will look at fires on the upper floors of these buildings. If you have any questions for the author, contact TargetSolutions at [email protected].

 

About the Author
Joe Pronesti is a 24-year veteran of the Elyria Ohio Fire Department. He currently serves as a shift captain. He is a certified fire instructor and teaches at the Cuyahoga Community College Fire Academy near Cleveland. He is also a graduate of the Ohio Fire Chiefs Executive Fire Officer Program Class VI.

TargetSolutions’ ISO Training Tracker Makes ISO Compliance Easier Than Ever

 

TargetSolutions ISO Training Tracker Allows for a Broad Variety of Functions, Condensed into a Central Reporting and Tracking System.

 

One of the most challenging times for training officers and fire administration officials comes when an Insurance Services Office (ISO) review is looming on the horizon. The ritual of the gathering-of-the-records begins, followed shortly thereafter by the intensive effort required to prepare the records, including those that need to be located or redone.

The end result is often hundreds of hours worth of personnel time.In the past, these have mostly been manual processes, but lets take a minute to talk about a relatively new solution that can automate the reporting of ISO requirements, as well as the delivery, tracking, and accountability of training required for various classes of personnel within ISO’s standards: TargetSolutions’ ISO Training Tracker. The primary component of this system, and the heart of the improvement it brings about, is the ISO Training Tracker. More than just the name implies, this application allows for a broad variety of functions, condensed into a central reporting and tracking system.

The ISO Training Tracker pulls together credentials, “tagging” capabilities (where training courses, also delivered and tracked by the TargetSolutions suite, can be marked as meeting compliance for a given standard), and “custom activities” (trackable assignments built specifically for a particular agencys requirements using the powerful built-in course creation tool), the ISO Training Tracker allows for at-a-glance updates on demand at any time.

The system also includes many ready-made training assignments covering ISO Driver Training, ISO Officer Training, ISO Hazmat Training, ISO Company Training and ISO Facilities Training.

Training requirements, arranged into convenient “buckets” (online training courses, combined with customized, instructor-led and drill-yard training activities) that were designed from the get-go to meet ISO requirements for each class.Assigning and tracking this training to your members is simple and intuitive, cutting down on the time and effort required to get “butts in seats” in terms of your contact hours for training.

With custom reporting capabilities, when the time comes to present your agency for certification or recertification, pulling together all of your records is as simple as a few clicks of the mouse. The Training Tracker also has reports created strictly for ISO requirements that are built-in.This helps to ensure a seamless audit, with much less time (if any) spent looking for additional required records during the process.And, since the training assignments are already available to assign to your members and have been constructed specifically for ISO compliance, you wont have to worry if your educational contact hours meet the necessary criterion for approval.

By bringing together an intuitive, user-friendly interface for both administrators and personnel alike, TargetSolutions Records Management System and Learning Management System, with the built-in powerful ISO Training Tracker, can streamline your training and records management expenses, ensuring high-quality, consistent training that can be brought to your personnel wherever and whenever they have time. This enables your agency to spend more of its time, budget, and personnel hours on the primary mission of serving the citizens of your community.

 

 

Free Trial Now Available!
Are you interested in test driving the industrys leading online training and records management system? If so, TargetSolutions is offering a free trial to FireRescue1s readers.

If you would like more information about how TargetSolutions can help your department, please click here.

 

About TargetSolutions
TargetSolutions is the leading provider of web-based technology solutions for fire and EMS organizations. These solutions enable organizations to maintain compliance, reduce losses, deliver curriculum, and track all station-level tasks, certifications and training activities.

TargetSolutions’ Sexual Harassment Courses Increase Awareness, Reduce Overall Liability

There are reportedly more than 11,000 charges of sexual harassment each year. The impact of these claims can be devastating, not just on the victim, but on lost work time and legal damages.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates more than $1 billion is lost each year due to sexual harassment. For public entities, these incidents can be crippling.

That’s why TargetSolutions is a must-have risk management tool. Sexual harassment courses are built to help prevent costly incidents from ever happening. TargetSolutions offers more than 1,000 online training courses, including Sexual Harassment Awareness, Sexual Harassment for Supervisors and California AB 1825.

Organizations that are required by law to have all supervisors complete a two-hour sexual harassment course every two years can satisfy that requirement through TargetSolutions. In fact, as of July 2013, these sexual harassment courses have been taken more than 80,000 times by our clients.

Your organization can combine training with TargetSolutions’ pre-built Sexual Harassment Policy, which can be delivered electronically, requiring an e-signature and then tracked for recordkeeping purposes. With TargetSolutions, you’re able to ensure everyone in your organization understands the ramifications of sexual harassment.

If you have any questions about incorporating TargetSolutions’ Sexual Harassment Solution into your training program, please contact us today at (800) 840-8048.

New Course Released FERPA Protecting Student Privacy

School district staff members often find themselves with a large amount of confidential information at their fingertips, especially when it comes to students. Since confidential information is often sensitive and needs to remain private, it is critical school district staff members know how to handle this type of information in order to protect students privacy and avoid violations. With this in mind, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was instituted.

Earlier this month, TargetSolutions released FERPA: Protecting Student Privacy, which covers all aspects of FERPA, including the type of private information it pertains to and special exceptions to the law.

“Due to the amount of requests from risk pool clients for this type of course, in addition to the government creating an act based on protection of student privacy, we felt compelled to build a course that would help protect our clients from privacy related lawsuits,” said TargetSolutions Content Architect Jeremy Lynch.

This concise, interactive course provides an overview of FERPA and breaks down the law into case studies and lessons that cover common complaints, violations, and exceptions. Most importantly, the course covers how to get the right information out to the agencies that need it during emergency situations, while still protecting students privacy.

If you have any questions about this or any other course in TargetSolutions online training catalog, please contact us today!

FERPA: Protecting Student Privacy is the latest addition to TargetSolutions’ course catalog.

 

Challenges and Concerns of Underground Parking Garages

Blog by Will Anderson
Platoon Chief with the Euclid Fire Department in Ohio

In a previous blog, I mentioned how the Euclid Fire Department (EFD) in Ohio protects dozens of high-rise buildings. To accommodate the residents of these residential properties, both above- and below-ground parking garages exist. Any fire below grade will test the responding department, but when the fire occurs in a large open area, unique concerns come to mind. This blog discusses these concerns and helps prepare crews for the challenges of a below-grade fire, or any fire in a large, open building.

Recently, my department, the EFD, responded to a vehicle fire in an underground parking garage. While the fire was confined to one vehicle, the incident served as a reminder of several important training topics that most departments only experience every few years. We received a call about a vehicle on fire in an underground parking garage. This garage did not have sprinklers or standpipes. The first engine arrived on scene, only three minutes after the call.

The engine officer established Command and reported they had smoke showing from the 400- by 60-foot garage, but couldn’t determine how far into the garage the vehicle was located. As the on-duty platoon chief, I arrived one minute later and assumed the role of incident commander (IC).I had a ladder truck, an ambulance, and another engine responding since the fire had occurred inside a structure.

Lt. Banning performed a quick reconnaissance and instructed his crew to begin pulling 2inches of hose, while another crew member obtained the apartment pack of 1 s hose off of their apparatus. As his platoon chief, I know how important Lt. Banning takes his training. His crew performs extremely well at fire scenes and they are as equally well trained. I was very comfortable with the actions he had begun.

Shortly after their initial stretch into the garage, I was able to obtain this picture:

Description:

Crews make their initial stretch into an underground parking garage fire using 2 1/2-inch hose, which was reduced to less than 2 inches inside the structure.

By reading the smoke, we should be able to tell this fire isn’t of much significance, but that’s no reason to become complacent and assume everything will be fine. As an IC, this is what I want to avoid at all times. At this point, my thoughts were now on providing some form of ventilation to the attack crew. By now, Truck 21 led by Lt. Pete Bernacki had arrived. I instructed him and his crew to assist in getting the first line in operation. Once that was completed, their orders were to provide horizontal ventilation by breaking garage windows and performing forcible entry of a man door at the far end of the garage. There was a strong northerly wind in excess of 30 mph, which would aid the removal of the smoke.

Medic 41 was instructed to control the elevators and stand by in the basement to protect any unsuspecting occupants from entering the smoke-filled garage. After this assignment was given to Medic 41, Engine 12, led by Lt. Chris Herak, arrived. Their orders were to perform RIT duties and set up near the attack engine, Engine 13.

The fire was roughly 200 feet inside the 400 foot-long garage. It was confined to one vehicle and quickly controlled. However, the picture shown above made me think of several areas of training we must be proficient in to make sure we go home at the end of our shift. In no particular order, these topics include:

>> Proficiency in large area searches
>> The need for air management
>> Proficiency in buddy breathing
>> Understanding your ventilation options are limited, but still required
>> Carrying and deploying personal rope for use in large areas
>> The importance of staying on the hoseline
>> Understanding the dangers of cold smoke
>> Effectively communicating conditions, actions, and needs
>> Knowing your buildings
>> Blocking track of garage door

This is a short list of topics that initially came to my mind. Perhaps after you see the picture, you or your crew can think of others. Discuss your findings and work toward proficiency in these skills. All of these are important and serve a purpose. Since the attack crew made entry through the open garage door, Lt. Banning instructed one of his crew members to block the track to prevent the door from closing. They accomplished this by the methods shown in the images below:

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Vice grips block the track of a garage door on left side.

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A pike pole is used to block the garage door from closing on the right side.

Ironically, a few weeks prior to this incident, some firefighters from neighboring departments and I were discussing the topic of fires in underground parking garages. For us, they’re few and far between. Regardless of how small a fire may be, I still believe every fire serves as a reminder of how we can improve for the next one. Learn from your mistakes and those of others. None of us are perfect, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to be. On the way to perfection, well eventually come to excellence. Excellence in this business helps ensure we go home at the end of our shift. Be safe, be well, and be smart! Thanks for reading.

About the Author

Will Anderson is a Platoon Chief with the Euclid Fire Department in Ohio.Hes in his 18th year in the fire service and is certified as a State of Ohio Firefighter 2, Fire Instructor, and Paramedic. He recently completed his Fire Officer 1, 2, and 3 training in addition to his Blue Card certification. He has an Associate’s degree in Fire Science, another in Emergency Medical Services, and is nearing completion of his Bachelor’s Degree in Fire Science Administration.

 

TargetSolutions Honors Our Fallen Firefighters

TargetSolutions considers itself extremely fortunate to serve the heroes who do so much for our communities. Emergency responders show their courage, selflessness and valor every single day.

That’s why everyone at TargetSolutions was so devastated by the recent events in Arizona, as well as California. The heartbreaking Yarnell Fire took the lives of 19 members of the elite Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighting crew. This tragedy has left everyone connected to the fire service in sadness. Also, last week here in Southern California, a CAL FIRE firefighter, Christopher Douglas, was fatally injured after being struck by a passing car while answering an emergency on a local highway.

TargetSolutions would like to take this opportunity to send our most sincere condolences to the friends, families and members of the fire service who were so deeply impacted by these terrible tragedies.

Please help us in supporting the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation by providing a monetary donation to assist the survivors and coworkers of the heroes who have died in the line of duty.

 

So far this year, there have been 66 firefighter fatalities. Our prayers are with all of them. If you would like more information on the firefighters lost in the line of duty, please visit the U.S. Fire Administration’s website.

>> Jonathan W. Burgess, South Alabama Regional Airport Fire Department
>> Matthew J. Porcari , Owego Fire Department
>> Gregory Pickard, Bryan Fire Department
>> Eric Wallace, Bryan Fire Department
>> Claudia Sokol, Diligence Fire Company No.1
>> David Schnepp, Carter’s Valley Fire Department
>> Nate Fruin, Mattawan Fire District
>> Scott Morrison, Knotts Island Volunteer Fire Department
>> Christopher Brown, Hudson Community Fire Protection District
>> Donald Mize, League City Volunteer Fire Department
>> Lonnie Nutt, Marietta Fire Department
>> George A. Turner, Jr., Jericho Fire Department
>> Michael L. Broz, Dorchester County Fire Rescue
>> Jeffrey Scheuerer, New Jersey Forest Fire Service
>> Michael R. Goodwin, Sr., Philadelphia Fire Department
>> John M. Janos, City of Binghamton Bureau of Fire
>> Harold Hollingsworth, Fort Osage Fire Protection District
>> James B. Clark, Bedford Fire Department
>> Lawrence A. Stone, West Union Community Fire Protection District
>> Morris Bridges, West Volunteer Fire Department
>> Cody Dragoo, West Volunteer Fire Department
>> Joseph Pustejousky, West Volunteer Fire Department
>> Douglas Snokhous, West Volunteer Fire Department
>> Robert Snokhous, West Volunteer Fire Department
>> Rodney P. Miller, Loganville Fire Company
>> Dale S. Queen, Oak Ridge Volunteer Fire Department
>> Gene Kirchner, Baltimore County Fire Department – Reisterstown Volunteer Fire Company
>> Daniel Davidson, Sacramento Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest
>> Stanley Martin Jr., Springfield Volunteer Fire Department
>> Brian Woehlke, Westland Fire Department
>> Albert A. Nejmeh, Tacoma Fire Department
>> Brad Harper, Phoenix Fire Department
>> Stanley A. Wilson, Dallas Fire-Rescue Department
>> Robert Bebee, Houston Fire Department
>> Robert Garner, Houston Fire Department
>> Matthew Renaud, Houston Fire Department
>> Anne Sullivan, Houston Fire Department
>> Luke Sheehy, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region
>> Tony Barker, Mountain View Volunteer Fire Department
>> Edward C. Vanner, Jr., 143d Fire & Emergency Services, Quonset ANG Base R.I.
>> Thomas Burley, Youngstown Volunteer Fire Company
>> Katrina Sims, Atlanta Fire Rescue Department
>> John T. Appleton, Malden Volunteer Fire Department
>> Andrew Ashcraft, Prescott Fire Department
>> Robert Caldwell, Prescott Fire Department
>> Travis Carter, Prescott Fire Department
>> Dustin Deford, Prescott Fire Department
>> Christopher MacKenzie, Prescott Fire Department
>> Eric Marsh, Prescott Fire Department
>> Grant McKee, Prescott Fire Department
>> Sean Misner, Prescott Fire Department
>> Scott Norris, Prescott Fire Department
>> Wade Parker, Prescott Fire Department
>> John Percin, Prescott Fire Department
>> Anthony Rose, Prescott Fire Department
>> Jesse Steed, Prescott Fire Department
>> Joe Thurston, Prescott Fire Department
>> Travis Turbyfill, Prescott Fire Department
>> William Warneke, Prescott Fire Department
>> Clayton Whitted, Prescott Fire Department
>> Kevin Woyjeck, Prescott Fire Department
>> Garret Zuppiger, Prescott Fire Department
>> Christopher Douglas, CAL FIRE / Riverside County Fire Department
>> Mickey Yates, Greenfield Volunteer Fire Department
>> John Austin, City of Quincy Fire Department
>> Dennis Long, Idaho Department of Lands – Maggie Creek Forest Protective District

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. If you would like more information, please click here.

Auto Renewal for Credentials Makes Platform Management More Convenient

 

Easily Schedule Ongoing Credentials to Automatically Renew and Eliminate Unnecessary E-mail Alerts with New ARC Enhancement

If you are spending too much time managing your user’s credentials, you are going to love our latest platform upgrade. The new Auto Renewal tool inside Credentials Manager, which is now available, makes records and information management with TargetSolutions even more efficient.

In the past, credentials that contained online safety training courses with expiration dates, needed to be manually changed to reflect new dates after being completed. This was especially time consuming for larger organizations with dozens of employee training records. This new enhancement enables credentials to be automatically renewed with just a few simple clicks on the new Credentials Options page.

Platform managers will be able to choose to have credentials automatically renew immediately after final requirements have been completed, or wait until the credential’s expiration date. Once all requirements are completed, the credential sits in a “complete” status until the date of expiration, when it automatically renews. This “complete” status applies to all credentials, not just those set up to automatically renew.

“The Auto Renewal enhancement increases the platforms ability to run itself after implementation,” said TargetSolutions’ Product Manager Misty Pratt. “It also corrects several issues users experience with credentials and alert e-mails. While these changes are simple in concept, they represent a huge leap in the usefulness of Credentials as a whole.”

Alerts can now be created to notify users and platform managers that the requirements of a credential have been completed. Additionally, once a credential’s requirements have been fulfilled, administrators and users will no longer receive e-mail alerts and the credential will no longer appear in the user’s schedule.

Platform users will appreciate a reduction in e-mails, as well as less clutter on their home page alerting them to credentials that have already been completed.

“These changes were some of our most commonly requested enhancements and were happy to be able to release them,” Pratt said. “We’re constantly striving to implement changes requested by our clients. These changes in particular are excellent for the platform and we think they will be universally appreciated.”

The new Credentials Options page gives platform managers more flexibility in the viewing and editing of credentials by users, including a setting to completely hide a credential from the users schedule and a much more granular set of editing options.

“Every decision we make is meant to make the platform more user friendly,” Pratt said. “We believe that’s what this newest Credentials upgrade accomplishes.”

If you have any questions about this new release, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

About TargetSolutions
TargetSolutions is the leading provider of web-based technology solutions for fire and EMS organizations. These solutions enable organizations to maintain compliance, reduce losses, deliver curriculum, and track all station-level tasks, certifications and training activities.