Empowering a community of low-code, no-code developers to enhance fire service operations

A need to simplify complexity

Each of the 50 or so fire services in the UK has its own specialist skills and competencies tailored to the communities and geographies it serves. As a result, there isn’t a full suite of off-the-shelf solutions that can meet the varied needs of a service like Hampshire & Isle of Wight.

When Tony Oliver joined Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service as Head of ICT, he identified dual needs to streamline many processes that too often relied on paper as well as to simplify the user experience of the numerous systems that were in place.

“It felt like we had an absolute need to do more inhouse development to simplify the experience for users,” Tony Oliver explains. “Our starting point was: how do we make life more user-focused, rather than technology-focused? My vision is for people to be able to click on tiles on their desktop – that are all Hampshire and Isle of Wight branded – and be able to do the things they need to. What system sits behind that shouldn’t really matter to me as a user.” 

Simplifying complexity with PowerApps

Furthermore, the technology team saw additional opportunities to achieve quick wins by automating processes that relied on paper forms and manual effort. This way, the service could achieve efficiencies and eliminate the risks of error or duplication of data or effort.

The fire service began to look for low-code and no-code solutions that might allow it to achieve these quick wins rapidly. Initially, it tested Microsoft PowerApps by using what was available through the service’s existing Microsoft 365 licencing.

“Although the potential was known by people within the service who were recommending Microsoft PowerApps, I don’t think I was expecting quite the value Microsoft PowerApps has delivered,” admits Tony Oliver. “We had a lot of contribution from Microsoft to help develop the business case and win approval. In the end, the driver to make the decision to invest in Microsoft PowerApps was the improvements we wanted to make and the speed at which we wanted to achieve them.”

Managing through COVID-19

One of the first organisation-wide apps the service created was a desk booking application. The properties and facilities team had an urgent need to manage office space at a significantly reduced capacity because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Microsoft PowerApps, David Broomfield, a UX specialist at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, created a visual interface. His work on the project earnt him a place on the service’s development team.

“I could see that you could solve the problem with a PowerApp,” says David Broomfield. “I was looking for an easy way to visualise desk space for our staff to book a desk if they wanted to come in.”

David Broomfield created a ‘bird’s eye’ view of each desk in each office, so users could intuitively book exactly the desk they wanted. The app is displayed on the service’s SharePoint intranet, alongside a list of FAQs. Data populates a Microsoft SharePoint list so the facilities team can review the information. Eventually, they will track utilisation via a Microsoft Power BI dashboard to optimise facilities management. The service is now exploring how this will fit with and adapt to future hybrid working requirements.

“I’ve never worked in a purely development environment before,” says David Broomfield, “but using Microsoft PowerApps has sped up the ability to make an easy-to-use system for the users. We can do quite in-depth development without going into the detail of the code. I just point the PowerApp at the data source. Getting access to the different properties of each component and control is easy. We can quickly create a prototype to do user testing, then adapt it quickly by drag and drop to reflect user feedback.”

The desk-booking system has been widely used and praised by users across the service. The properties and facilities team plan to continue using it post-pandemic. “It has also got a lot of interest from multiple other agencies and government bodies around the UK that are trying to achieve the same goal,” adds David Wrigley, ‎App Development Manager at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service.

Continuing to innovate

The desk-booking app was quickly followed by another to meet a new requirement in the response to COVID-19.

“We were approached by a testing and vaccination cell earlier this year, when widespread lateral flow testing was made available to the fire service,” explains Stuart West, Application Developer at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service. “We needed a way to track activity and offer live reporting to a senior level. We were able to implement a PowerApps-based solution within less than a week. We leveraged the Microsoft Dataverse to securely extract that information and capture it safely and securely. Since then, we’ve had over 13,000 inputs into that system and, due to the responsive design of the app, ninety percent of those have been on mobile devices.”

This app also has broad application across other public sector organisations. “One of the benefits of the Microsoft Power Platform is the ability to share that code and make it available to other organisations,” emphasises David Wrigley. “There’s a real opportunity, as more fire services understand the value of the platform, to work collaboratively and to share knowledge and the successes.”

Building a community of developers

The team’s collaborative and knowledge-sharing approach is also reflected in the internal roll-out of Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft PowerApps.

“When I joined, I was very clear that I want to leverage this platform not as a clandestine platform that only IT has access to, but to open it up to a citizen developer community,” enthuses David Wrigley, “and I’m so proud of what our staff in the service have been able to do using these tools with, actually, very little initial working knowledge. They know their business processes well and they know the problem they want to solve and they have that drive to lead from the front with Microsoft PowerApps.”

Exciting community developments include an app created by Organisational Assurance Team Leader Melissa Lebrun to surface information about annual safety plans and progress against those targets. It streamlined numerous documents and manual processes into a single app with clear reporting. 

Watch Manager Sean Gray is another active citizen developer. The Command Team Section Leader has created numerous apps including one to manage trauma risk and another to automate the processes behind command unit deployment to major incidents. This integrates with Microsoft Teams to automate administration, create a Team that brings together the relevant people, stores live incident maps and template documents, and triggers notifications.

David Wrigley enthuses, “I’ve gone from having two internal developers to having fifty full-time developers – perhaps upwards of 1,800 developers – who are able to make good use of these tools safely, securely and confidently.”

The community has eight dedicated channels on Microsoft Teams. It also runs a fortnightly Power User Support Surgery meeting on Microsoft Teams with a drop-in clinic format where citizen developers can raise questions and offer support and answers. 

“Being low-code and no-code, these tools have a gentler learning curve than other products and coding platforms,” says David Wrigley, “and that democratises access to advanced technology.”

Managing an environment of many apps

The most recent go-lives have been for an app to manage annual performance reviews, with data stored in Microsoft Dataverse, and an operational assets app made up of five sub apps for technicians to manage the servicing of breathing apparatus, face masks and other life-saving equipment. An app to coordinate and report on “safe and well” visits for Community Safety Officers and firefighters is due to go live shortly.

The service has chosen to use the Microsoft Dataverse for scalability and the secure management of data for several of the apps it has deployed. Data can then be served to users using Power BI dashboards for key users for live reporting and tracking. 

“Everything fits together very nicely in the Microsoft 365 environment; it’s easy to create the data flows you need,” says Stuart West, “and with Microsoft PowerApps, you can get a quite sophisticated app up and running much faster than if you were doing it in a normal development cycle… we have the ability to help people to help themselves.”

“We have over 150 apps, 500 pieces of automation, and more than 7,000 automation runs per month,” states David Wrigley, “but, from my perspective, it’s easy to manage. We have the Microsoft Centre of Excellence established with admin portals for overview and security. We run an automated audit process to clear up things that are no longer in use and it alerts us to any problems. That oversight is built in.”

Looking to the future

“Moving forward, I see more impact; we’re going to build on the successes of the last nine months,” says David Broomfield, “it’s about using the smartest, quickest tool. What is the thing that will require the least amount of effort and have the biggest outcome?”

“We are all here to serve the community of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and this means that any productivity and time savings we can make for our frontline workers is key to our success as app makers,” says Stuart West, “Microsoft Power Platform provides the tools to help us achieve this and respond to the needs of the service.”

“Our ultimate goal is to make Hampshire and Isle of Wight safer,” confirms David Wrigley. “We’ve been dabbling with applications and now we’re going all in. We have a backlog of work requests and Power Platform is going to be the platform of choice for the vast majority of those projects, due to the speed to develop, ease of updating and integration with our existing Microsoft 365 licencing.”

As they continue to create new solutions, the development team is still weighing up the right balance to work collaboratively with users and support them across the service to maximise efficiencies and value. As the service moves to a COVID recovery phase, it is exploring new ways to use the platform to support new ways of working and an increased focus on wellbeing.

“We should be leading the way here and sharing an awful lot of what we do,” underscores Tony Oliver, “for example, every rescue service does safe and well visits. We’ve been able to achieve our goals much faster than I expected and deliver solutions really quickly. It’s helped us to respond to COVID-19 and add value. Now it’s about embedding it into everybody’s role.”