23/03/11: The ICT Project Stage 2 - Building New Systems
The reach of the ICT project is unprecedented within this organisation. We have been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set the electronic and computerised systems that we operate on a new path. The idea is to combine all our systems into one and then to build exciting new applications around that data that fulfill the key tenet of the project – to save time and to therefore save lives.
The initial phase of this project has, to an outside eye, been fairly quiet. The truth is very different however - a highly specialised team of database experts have been uniting separate pockets of data that were never designed to sit together. It’s in this second phase however, that the fruits of all that hard work will start to become evident. Phase 2 is when we begin building the new applications that will form the cornerstone of Surf Life Saving Australia’s electronic presence for at least the next decade.
One of the key systems that will be built around the new Central Operation Data Store (CODS) is a new membership portal. Over the last five years, SLSA has worked hard to give its membership access to their own and their club’s information. Surfguard was created to enable clubs, branches and states to run administration centrally and electronically. Lifesaving Online was created to give members access to their own surf lifesaving records – be it personal details, award information or patrol hours. Both of these systems have been a huge success – nearly 2,000 organisation administrators use Surfguard on a regular basis and over 27,000 members now use Lifesaving Online to manage their surf lifesaving lives.
The new membership portal takes everything forward into the future. The portal will feature news (that you can fine-tune to your own surf lifesaving interests), announcements, blogs, calendars and a shop front. The ultimate aim of this new system is to provide members with a one-login system. So whether you’re a branch director of lifesaving, a rescue swimmer in a rescue chopper or simply a patrolling member, you can access all you require through one entry system at the front of one portal.
This membership portal will also serve as a central library for all electronic documents and files. Depending on your requirements within the organisation you will have access to files such as teaching resources, publicity images, circulars and advisories. Everything will be situated within the one system, accessed through the one portal.
Amongst the other facilities that will be delivered during Phase 2 of the ICT project are new forms and workflows to streamline administration, communications tools, a voice recognition system and full blown national event management tools. Work is already well underway on the membership portal and it, along with many of the other features mentioned above will become available within the next year.
As we look forward to the third phase of the project, work will begin on replacing the legacy systems such as Surfguard and the IRD with new applications built from the ground up for speed and ease of use. The entire ICT project is slated to end in June 2012 and while there is considerable work to do we are sure that all the new systems and infrastructure that we are creating now will benefit the organisation, its membership and the public for many years to come.
01/03/11: Phase 1 of the ICT Project is Complete
The SLSA IT team and project partners have concluded the first phase of the third (and most demanding) stage of the four year ICT project. The team successfully achieved this first phase milestone at the end of 2010, establishing the foundations for all future information gathering and systems development.
The most important element of this first phase was the creation of a Central Operating Data Store (CODS). The CODS finally brings together in one place the many disparate databases in operation throughout the organisation. Data has now been consolidated from these primary sources systems: Surfguard (the national membership database), the IRD (the incident reporting database), Surfmate (SLS Queensland’s membership database), ABSAMP (SLSA’s Coastal Safety database) and Surfcom (SLSA’s radio management system) into the CODS.
The process of bringing the various databases together was extremely complicated and required the mapping of over 2000 individual data fields. So for instance, Surfguard had data fields such as name, age, membership category, patrol hours and assessments. Those fields have now been combined with specific fields in the IRD such as incident location and injury sustained.
During this initial phase the Information on over 12,000 beaches, 20,000 incidents and membership data on over 140,000 people was mapped and combined. Of course the source systems that hold this data are still active and so web scripts had to be created to automate the merging of this data on an on-going basis. This process will continue until such a time as the source databases, like Surfguard, are retired and the COD becomes the main source of ‘truth’ for data collected by the organisation.
Surf Life Saving Australia is, as you may know, one of the largest volunteer organisations in the country and so far the new central operating database is tracking information on well over 1.6million people. This includes not just current active members of surf clubs, but those whose memberships have lapsed, who are deceased or indeed those who simply took part in training arranged through one of the SLS academies.
Information now tracked within the COD on these 1.6million now gives SLSA a fully national electronic ‘view’ of the organisation. For the first time, membership information from Surf Life Saving Queensland is sitting alongside those from NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, SA, WA & the NT. In the long term this will streamline the process of tracking and movement of those people who have been touched by the organisation making, for instance, the transfer of members from clubs in one state to another a fully electronic process.
All that data has to reside somewhere of course and a new server solution, financed as part of the $4.5m Australian government grant for this project, has been developed, tested and put into production. The foundations of the four year ICT project have been completed and we can now begin the exciting process of developing new systems that can access this data in ways that streamline processes and save our hard-working volunteers time and ultimately lives on our beaches.
22/09/2010: Club Talks Leave Audiences Inspired
Life Saving Victoria hosted the final club talk briefing during their Administration Conference on the weekend. There was plenty of keen interest in the new CODS and part it will play in our future. . . . .
31/08/2010: Club Talk Briefings Schedule and Status
The IT Club Talk is a face to face briefing that will be delivered by the National IT team that aims to provide SLS Officers with the key details, benefits and timeframes for the IT upgrade, as well as information on how to cascade the details to officers and club members.
Club Talk briefings are currently underway; please see the schedule below for the locations and dates for those remaining. Please email it@sls.com.au if you would like to organise a club talk for your region.
September 2010
7-8: Mid North and Low North COMPLETE
11-12: WA Conference COMPLETE
11: NSW Far North Coast COMPLETE
18-19: Victoria Lifesaving Operations COMPLETE
August 2010
7-8: South Australia State Admin Conference COMPLETE
7: NSW Illawarra COMPLETE
14: NSW Hunter Branch COMPLETE
14: NSW Far South Coast COMPLETE
20-22: National Conference COMPLETE
28-29: NSW South Coast COMPLETE
July 2010
11-12: Northern Territory COMPLETE
23-25:Tasmania COMPLETE
24-25: NSW Branch Directors of Surf Sports Conference COMPLETE
27/07/2010: IT Change Project Pamphlet and Noticeboard Poster
20/07/2010: ICT Project in the Australian newspaper
Lifesavers ride ICT wave
THE war cry is simple: save time, save lives.
Brett Williamson is adamant that better technology can translate to more time volunteers spend patrolling Australia's 12,000-odd beaches with a core mission of saving people.
With membership booming (currently 150,000) and a range of activities from fundraisers to organising competitions such as the Ironman series, the Surf Life Saving Australia chief executive knew the group had to act quickly.
The journey began in 2007 when talks began with partner Telstra.
SLSA asked members for their wish list.... download the full article using the link below
CLICK HERE to view or download the article by Fran Foo in the IT Business section of the Australian
