Operations Center for Resource Management

Discover what resources are in Operations Center and how their effective use benefits customers.

• Resources are the assets your customers possess and entities connected to activities.
• Resources can include people, such as employees or contractors, and also those you interact with, like students or patrons. Equipment and devices, like cameras or phones, are also resources used to complete tasks. Additionally, places like buildings, rooms, or areas are considered resources in the Operations Center.

Optimizing Resource Management 

The Role of Resources in Operations Center

Resources are an essential component of work, and they are also sources of work. Additionally, each type of resource in Operations Center can be configured to contain any relevant data to simplify record keeping.

Creating and Linking Resources for Incident Management

A resource can be created when a security officer has an interaction with a person so that the customer can keep records. This person can now be connected to any other incidents, either historical events that are now better understood or incidents in the future. This information may be helpful to other departments if they need to examine their history with individuals.

Maintaining and Tracking Critical Resources

Resources like vehicles or emergency response equipment should have regular maintenance inspections. Employees may be required to have specific certifications which expire. Making sure that each one is tracked so that they can be renewed in a timely manner keeps staff ready to work.

Do their reports provide all the information needed in an accurate and meaningful way?

These activities can be types of work which is managed in Operations Center to ensure it happens, but many reports are related to resources. Having a streamlined record keeping process that enables your customer’s staff to look into the history for compliance or legal purposes. The details or history of involvement to different activities can be very important later on when a user pulls a report on those resources, or it could be something a different user needs to verify while working on an incident.

Understanding and Integrating Resource Types

To begin thinking about resources, let’s review the three types of resources in Operations Center and a few examples of each:

• People – security officers, customers, faculty
• Equipment – work stations, patrol vehicles, uniforms
• Places – buildings, parking lots, zones

Your customer will have systems that are responsible for creating and managing databases of these resources, and it is ideal to integrate Operations Center to these system. This allows those systems to be the source of information and streamlines the process of managing databases. Understanding which systems are in place and who their owners are will be the initial steps in designing the environment for Operations Center later in the course. 

Examples of systems: Active Directory, HR systems, student management systems

And like with work management, you need to talk to your customer about reports. What information would be beneficial in helping them manage their resources, or what types of reports have been requested of them by leadership? 

Examples: Trespass lists, repeat offenders, damaged equipment, locations with out of date risk assessments

How are they tracking information today, and what challenges do they have doing it?

Mapping Resources to Enhance Customer Operations and Value 

Mapping out the various resources of your customers will broaden your understanding of their operations. Being more engaged with these different systems can also present options to make new recommendations that can add value.