Location Intelligence Crucial to Toronto Bomb Scare Evacuation

Kitchener, Canada, October 06, 2009 --(PR.com)-- When a bomb scare in Toronto triggered an emergency evacuation, David Merkley activated his GIS Emergency Locator Application to ensure that high risk residents were assisted through the evacuation. As Regional Manager, Decision Support at Central East Community Care Access Centre (Central East CCAC), Merkley developed an application linking their ESRI GIS (Geographic Information System) system to client information in their business intelligence system using a solution by APOS Systems Inc., a leading provider of SAP® BusinessObjects™ solutions.

Central East CCAC is one of 14 local CCAC organizations across Ontario that coordinates community health care. Funded and legislated by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Central East CCAC provides and connects people to in-home health care, long-term care homes, and other services in the local community.

While local police were going door to door evacuating residents, Central East CCAC was able to give police details about their high risk clients, to assist the police in their evacuation. “In an emergency situation, we need to plot all of our active clients on a map and find out which of our clients are in the affected area. We need to identify the most vulnerable clients in that situation so that we can attend to them first, and then of course, attend to everyone else,” explained Merkley. “There are some situations where we have clients who depend on electrical devices, for example devices to assist with breathing, clients who are deaf and would not hear the police knocking, or clients with mobility problems. In these cases, we can provide this information to first responders or request ambulances for our most vulnerable clients, so that they can be taken to hospital.”

Location intelligence combines geographical information with business intelligence to leverage spatial data with reporting and analytical capabilities. The APOS Integration Kit for ESRI GIS bridges two industry-leading business intelligence solutions, ESRI GIS and SAP BusinessObjects.

“It is crucial for us to be able to access live data through our GIS system -- and the only way we could accomplish what we needed, was using the APOS Integration Kit for ESRI GIS.” stated Merkley. “Without the GIS Emergency Locator, Central East CCAC would be in a much more difficult situation during these evacuations.” Previously in this situation, Central East CCAC would have had to try to identify street names in the area affected by the evacuation, and then manually pull records of people they thought might be on those streets. The process was very tedious and lengthy, taking hours to accomplish. There was also the risk of human error, of not being able to track everyone, and someone being left unattended to. Instead, Central East CCAC is able to access and provide crucial live data in an emergency situation in less than 30 minutes, and safeguard their clients’ wellbeing.

“Central East CCAC has been very innovative in their use of technology to meet their client needs. Their creative use of the APOS technology is terrific to see, particularly in light of the emergency response impact that it is having for their clients and families," stated Allan Pym, Chief Operating Officer at APOS Systems.

###

About Central East Community Care Access Centre
The Central East Community Care Access Centre is one of 14 CCACs that work in communities across Ontario to connect people with quality in-home and community-based health care. Funded and legislated by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Central East CCAC provides information, direct access to qualified care providers and many comprehensive services to help people come home from the hospital sooner or live independently at home longer. The CCAC also coordinates applications to long-term care homes.

The Central East CCAC is staffed by caring and knowledgeable professionals who assess personal needs, determine requirements for care, answer questions and develop a customized care plan that meets the individual’s needs. The CCACs provide a range of care and supportive services, such as health-care professionals – nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, registered dietitians, occupational therapists, speech therapist and personal support workers – to provide support at home. For more information: http://www.ce.ccac-ont.ca

About APOS Systems Inc.
APOS is an SAP BusinessObjects software solution provider in the SAP PartnerEdge™ program, and is a participant of the SAP EcoHub solution marketplace. Offering incomparable knowledge and expertise in extending SAP BusinessObjects solutions, APOS Solutions are helping over 750 SAP BusinessObjects customers in over 30 countries worldwide further maximize their investments in the SAP BusinessObjects platform.

APOS was named the SAP BusinessObjects ‘Technology Partner of the Year’ for the past three years for delivering the most compelling stand-alone application leveraging SAP BusinessObjects technology. APOS Solutions provide customers with powerful solutions that yield lower TCO (total cost of ownership) and higher ROI (return on investment) for SAP BusinessObjects clients by providing deeper control over system monitoring, administration, deployment, and integration. APOS Solutions fill the demand for special functions without the need for custom development. APOS development services often use APOS Solutions as the foundation to fast track custom development projects. APOS Systems Inc. is headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. For more information: http://www.apos.com