Preparing for Disasters

The Florida Division of Emergency Management, responsible for mitigating against, responding to and recovering from disasters that affect the state.  FDEM and county EOC representatives use a Groove workspace to plan and conduct the statewide hurricane exercises. Activities include developing the exercise messages for local and state governments, building the exercise, managing the project task list, sharing all related information (files, reference materials, Web-sites, etc.) and collecting after-action reports.  Groove provides the tools for people to use on a day-to-day basis to build a better state-wide team by allowing local governments and state governments to interact far more than ever before.

The State Emergency Response Team, comprised of FDEM employees and representatives from the 67 counties, state agencies, volunteer groups and private sector groups, has its own standing workspace. Inside, the members post EM bulletins and relevant Web links, maintain an events calendar and share a contact list.

Each year, FDEM produces a Continuity of Operation Plan (COOP). Prior to Groove, collaboration on the plan typically occurred via email and face-to-face meetings or conference calls. The 2005 plan was developed inside a Groove workspace, allowing members to easily work together on the plan, in real time and independently, from wherever they're located.

Read in detail how the state is using Groove in this casestudy.

Building an Emergency Operations Center on Groove and SharePoint

In response to the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina to the coast of Louisiana on August 29th 2005, two Microsoft employees helped Louisina State University to track more than 10,000 evacuees and medical volunteers. They built the university's EOC on Groove and SharePoint. Groove allowed the Center to take the entire EOC SharePoint site and make it available offline. Groove users synchronize the contents of the SharePoint site to their local computers and can then view, edit, and add to the site even if they don't have a network connection. When they reconnect, the content is automatically synchronized back to SharePoint for the rest of the EOC to use.  With a combination of Groove and SharePoint, they were able to create a robust EOC. Read the full article here.

California Department of Justice's Criminal Intelligence Bureau (CIB)

The California CIB has created an intrastate communications system called the California Joint Regional Information Exchange System (CAL JRIES) that enables hundreds of law-enforcement and public-safety agencies to work together using common processes within a standard technology framework. Built on Groove Virtual Office software (now part of the Microsoft Office system) and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, CAL JRIES features a security-enhanced collaborative work space and integrated Web portal that supports both asynchronous and real-time collaboration and seamless information sharing.

"Groove has enabled us to create what I call virtual analytical units, where a number of intelligence analysts from California and even other states can collaborate without having to be in the same room. We can get a lot of different eyes looking at a case and end up with a much better response."

— Ed Manavian, Chief, California CIB

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