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Smart BPM Cloud Boosts Fire Service Efficiency

Key Points

  • The Service Transformation and Efficiency Programme (STEP) aims to cut back‑office costs in UK fire‑and‑rescue services so more funding can be redirected to frontline firefighters.
  • As a BPM developer, the speaker moves processes from manual spreadsheets/forms to automated workflows using IBM BPM and Blueworks Live, collaborating with analysts, owners, and stakeholders.
  • Over five years the team has delivered 16 BPM processes, typically achieving 60‑90 % time‑saving efficiencies, and a recent shift to IBM BPM on the cloud has made development faster, more flexible, and freed them from infrastructure concerns.
  • Cloud‑based BPM also enables broader collaboration—not just within the fire service’s back office and incident control room but also with the mobilising system and other fire‑rescue organisations—allowing them to share and replicate efficiency gains across services.

Full Transcript

# Smart BPM Cloud Boosts Fire Service Efficiency **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_xNkLfjNzI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_xNkLfjNzI) **Duration:** 00:04:16 ## Summary - The Service Transformation and Efficiency Programme (STEP) aims to cut back‑office costs in UK fire‑and‑rescue services so more funding can be redirected to frontline firefighters. - As a BPM developer, the speaker moves processes from manual spreadsheets/forms to automated workflows using IBM BPM and Blueworks Live, collaborating with analysts, owners, and stakeholders. - Over five years the team has delivered 16 BPM processes, typically achieving 60‑90 % time‑saving efficiencies, and a recent shift to IBM BPM on the cloud has made development faster, more flexible, and freed them from infrastructure concerns. - Cloud‑based BPM also enables broader collaboration—not just within the fire service’s back office and incident control room but also with the mobilising system and other fire‑rescue organisations—allowing them to share and replicate efficiency gains across services. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_xNkLfjNzI&t=0s) **BPM‑Driven Efficiency for Fire Services** - A UK fire‑service project manager explains how the STEP programme leverages IBM BPM and Blueworks Live to redesign back‑office processes, delivering 60‑90% time savings and freeing resources for frontline crews. ## Full Transcript
0:04[Music] 0:10chemically by rescuers and emergency 0:13service here in the UK I'm the project 0:17manager for the step development here in 0:21Cambridge Bayern risky step stands for 0:23service transformation in efficiency 0:24program the efficiency program really is 0:27all about trying to make edition C's in 0:29the back office trying to save money so 0:31that we can redirect those funds to the 0:33sharp end to the firefighters the 0:35operational crews 0:36[Music] 0:47we had to find ways of becoming more 0:49cost-effective and cheaper without 0:51sacrificing operational integrity as a 0:53BPM developer I am responsible for 0:56implementing business process solutions 0:58using IBM BPM one concept of x-axis is a 1:02smarter process 1:03so not just process improvement by 1:05replacing a spreadsheet for a form but 1:07by automating assessment processes our 1:10business analysts go out and together 1:13with the process owners and stakeholders 1:15they determine or they determine the the 1:18add leads process how we do things now 1:21they model that in IBM blueworks live 1:23and then together with the development 1:26team and myself we translate that into 1:28something that you can then and develop 1:31and begin on / y-bn bpm we're in our 1:34fifth year and we've done 16 into n 1:36processes in BPM and now we've started 1:39to use the demo cloud and typically we 1:43found on those places we say between 60 1:45and 90 percent time-saving efficiencies 1:48so that means literally you know 1:50something that took a week to process or 1:53a process that took a week to perform 1:54now only takes a day or perhaps a matter 1:56of hours BPM on cloud was revelation 1:59Airy really for us the developers has 2:01found the the process of developing 2:03smart approaches on IBM BPM on cloud 2:06much more flexible it kind of allows us 2:10to get to the business process rather 2:12than having to worry about an 2:13administration of a computer system 2:15include something so I think it's fair 2:18to say we're a small team so there's a 2:20lot of work to be done and one of the 2:21biggest pressures is actually 2:23prioritizing and delivering graphically 2:25BPM cloud allows us to do is stop 2:28worrying about the infrastructure allows 2:30us to focus on our business and 2:32delivering better business processes and 2:34that will reflect the powers better 2:35public service we've already got a plan 2:37to move all of our in-house smart 2:39businesses up on 2:40we just feel like the future it's more 2:42flexible it's certainly a lot faster to 2:45develop on but equally and perhaps even 2:47more importantly we can collaborate with 2:49not just the back-office stuff and not 2:51even with just the incident control room 2:54we can do the mobilizing systems around 2:56the mobilizing system is the system that 2:58literally sends the firefighters out to 3:00the incidents 3:02it also has opened up possibilities of 3:05collaboration with other emergency 3:06services you know we we're not in 3:08isolation we have several collaborations 3:10ongoing with with different fire and 3:12rescue services for example but actually 3:14what we can do with those processes is 3:16kind of go out to other Fire Rescue 3:18Service and say look you know look what 3:19we've done look at efficiencies we've 3:21managed there's almost zero startup 3:23costs like the food for doing smart 3:26process on cloud and so you know do you 3:29want to join us if every other Fire 3:30Rescue Service is the same or common 3:32common business process we could make 3:35huge efficiencies across the country so 3:36we've improved our fee for based 3:38processes and that's provided a better 3:40foundation on which to build other 3:42processes and those sorts of processes 3:44could be for example community 3:46prevention community safety that sort of 3:48thing and they are a step towards 3:52operations and operational support so 3:55the thing that excites me most perhaps 3:56about process improvement and the use of 3:59BPM is just how much there is to do and 4:02the way in which by by addressing small 4:05improvements bit by bit you can suddenly 4:07turn around and realize that you've 4:08reach you provides 4:09[Music]