BLM - Incident Qualifications and Certification System (IQCS)
Investment ID: 010-000000116
Overview
Program Title
BLM - Incident Qualifications and Certification System (IQCS)
Description
Incident Qualifications and Certification System (IQCS) is an inter-agency application that tracks incident responder certifications and provides workforce analytics for multiple entities (USDA/Forest Service, DOD/US Air Force, DOI (BLM, BIA, FWS, NPS), and The Nature Conservancy). IQCS was initiated in 1998 and is owned by the Assistant Director of Fire and Aviation.
Type of Program
Major IT Investments
Multi-Agency Category
Not Applicable
Associated Websites
https://iqcsweb.nwcg.gov/
Investment Detail
Return on Investment (ROI) and costs:
Net Present Value: $12M, Present Value of Costs $18M, Present Value of Benefits $30M, Benefit/Cost Ratio: 1.7 . Benefit estimates are based on comparing manual processes with the cost savings of automated processes for a variety of business functions.
Benefits:
IQCS is vital for documenting incident responder qualifications, training, experience and certifications for national emergency response. This helps ensure readiness levels to quickly respond to emergencies. All wildland fire incident response personnel dispatched to each incident are required to have the Incident Qualification Card (also known as the Red Card), on their person when arriving at the dispatched incident. This benefits various levels of government and the public impacted by incidents.
IQCS functionality provides the following benefits for end-users:
- currency and certifications for responder personnel
- enter information into the system as opposed to manual, paper-based processes.
- routing, approval processes, and notifications.
- integrate with Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) to extract data to use, as well as update source system with modified data from IQCS system if required
- store documents and other artifacts in final and draft states, with accompanying metadata and user access needs
- view static pre-defined reports
- create ad hoc reporting requests
Outcomes achieved or planned:
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) sanctioned the IQCS Information Engineering Investment Study that found that multiple redundant systems in the Department of Interior (DOI), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the individual States created inefficiencies and difficulty in tracking Firefighter Qualifications and the dispatch of those Firefighters to incidents. NWCG then chartered the IQCS Acquisition and Design phases with BLM as the lead agency. There is a monetary benefit by eliminating the cost of maintaining the redundant systems and there is an efficiency benefit because IQCS now provides the functionality of a single interagency application that allows the sharing of emergency responder training and certification data across all involved agencies. In addition, by continuing to add interagency partners to IQCS there are cost avoidances because the new agencies do not have to develop and maintain their own systems. The benefits external to the government are directly tied to the success of the Federal fire and emergency response missions which depend on the Incident Qualification and Certification System (IQCS) information. IQCS is a critical function for managing the emergency response and Wildland fire program's risk, primarily in the areas of health, life safety, and legal liability.
Planned performance measures:
This investment aids in the implementation of the Department of the Interior's FY 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. Specifically, Strategy #2: Provide dependable and efficient information technology within Goal #3: Prioritize DOI infrastructure needs and reduce deferred maintenance backlog, reads as follows: Information Management and Technology (IMT) provides modern and secure technology solutions to advance the DOI s ability to deliver programs and services to the public and our customers. The Performance Reference Model (PRM) Agency Strategic Objective code for this is 010SO1825.
Net Present Value: $12M, Present Value of Costs $18M, Present Value of Benefits $30M, Benefit/Cost Ratio: 1.7 . Benefit estimates are based on comparing manual processes with the cost savings of automated processes for a variety of business functions.
Benefits:
IQCS is vital for documenting incident responder qualifications, training, experience and certifications for national emergency response. This helps ensure readiness levels to quickly respond to emergencies. All wildland fire incident response personnel dispatched to each incident are required to have the Incident Qualification Card (also known as the Red Card), on their person when arriving at the dispatched incident. This benefits various levels of government and the public impacted by incidents.
IQCS functionality provides the following benefits for end-users:
- currency and certifications for responder personnel
- enter information into the system as opposed to manual, paper-based processes.
- routing, approval processes, and notifications.
- integrate with Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) to extract data to use, as well as update source system with modified data from IQCS system if required
- store documents and other artifacts in final and draft states, with accompanying metadata and user access needs
- view static pre-defined reports
- create ad hoc reporting requests
Outcomes achieved or planned:
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) sanctioned the IQCS Information Engineering Investment Study that found that multiple redundant systems in the Department of Interior (DOI), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the individual States created inefficiencies and difficulty in tracking Firefighter Qualifications and the dispatch of those Firefighters to incidents. NWCG then chartered the IQCS Acquisition and Design phases with BLM as the lead agency. There is a monetary benefit by eliminating the cost of maintaining the redundant systems and there is an efficiency benefit because IQCS now provides the functionality of a single interagency application that allows the sharing of emergency responder training and certification data across all involved agencies. In addition, by continuing to add interagency partners to IQCS there are cost avoidances because the new agencies do not have to develop and maintain their own systems. The benefits external to the government are directly tied to the success of the Federal fire and emergency response missions which depend on the Incident Qualification and Certification System (IQCS) information. IQCS is a critical function for managing the emergency response and Wildland fire program's risk, primarily in the areas of health, life safety, and legal liability.
Planned performance measures:
This investment aids in the implementation of the Department of the Interior's FY 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. Specifically, Strategy #2: Provide dependable and efficient information technology within Goal #3: Prioritize DOI infrastructure needs and reduce deferred maintenance backlog, reads as follows: Information Management and Technology (IMT) provides modern and secure technology solutions to advance the DOI s ability to deliver programs and services to the public and our customers. The Performance Reference Model (PRM) Agency Strategic Objective code for this is 010SO1825.