Customer case

DSB Improves Emergency Request Handling with Novacura Flow

March 19, 2021

The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB) is a government organization tasked with protecting Norway and it’s citizens from natural disasters and other non-military threats to safety. As a national organization, DSB is responsible for collecting and organizing information across local, regional, and national offices so that they can quickly respond to threats and provide up-to-date information back to the government.

The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB) is a government organization tasked with protecting Norway and its’ citizens from natural disasters, corporate accidents, and other non-military threats to safety. Working under the Minister of Justice and the Police they handle everything from training personnel for disaster response, crisis response, performing studies to assess potential risks, cooperation between military and civilian agencies, and data management in each of these areas.

Novacura Flow is to be used by the Norwegian Civil Defense. The Norwegian Civil Defense is subordinate to the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB).

Over the years their over 20 locations have utilized different and sometimes outdated tools and software systems to manage the operations listed above. The Civil Defense realized these systems were undependable and the process of compiling all the data had become a tedious task. According to Lars Sørsdal, Head of Investigation, Operation, Plan and Exercise:

Novacura Flow made it much more efficient for us. Our ERP system [IFS Applications] is very good but we see that Novacura Flow on top of it makes it easier to retrieve exactly the data we want to see.

Lars Sørsdal

Head of Investigation, Operation, Plan and Exercise

Novacura was brought in to help standardize the processes for each of the various functions that DSB was involved in. Using a combination of IFS Applications and Novacura Flow, Novacura was able to quickly build a custom application that helped DSB improve its handling of emergency requests by:

Standardizing operations and automating manual processes
Instantly capturing data in the field with a mobile app’s
Improving visibility across civil defense districts with a universal dashboard
Replacing outdated systems

Over the years DSB and it’s twenty civil defense districts utilized different and sometimes outdated software systems to manage their operations. The Civil Defense realized that their systems were unreliable and were looking for a way to streamline its processes.

We have eight thousand conscripts who have a duty to meet when there is an effort going on and we must have records of all their competencies and history of the stakes and exercises they have been a part of. If the system that we used to track that information broke down, we would be in a bit of a crisis. So that’s the main reason we wanted a better system.

Lars Sørsdal

DSB, Head of Investigation

Once they had the vision, the next step was building custom applications to replace old systems and tasks that had previously been done by manual operations. These custom applications had three major benefits. First, it allowed 8000 personnel in the field at disaster relief sites, training facilities, inspections etc. to report data in real-time, second it automated and digitized processes that had previously been manually entered one at a time, and third it compiled and displayed all the information in a Portal dashboard.

Novacura allows us to see the total overview of what is happening, we get the statistics so fast. Someone uses Flow in the forest, we can follow through on it here. In Flow portal but also inside IFS and Lobby in IFS which is a very good tool.

Lars Sørsdal

Head of Investigation, Operation, Plan and Exercise

The most important thing for us is that Novacura Flow is very easy to use on a cell phone. I can do a call-out in a quick and easy way and I think that is really good. It’s also a big advantage that we can pick out what data to see and pick out data in relation to user access of what the individual needs to see. If there are too many buttons then it gets a bit complicated to use it. So it is a low threshold to use it.

Lars Sørsdal

DSB, Head of Investigation

Anyone who has spent time at a large organization knows that real change is easy to imagine, but almost impossible to achieve. The Civil Defense and Novacura have together implemented processes across over 20 districts and changed the day-to-day routines for over 250 employees. One of our core values at Novacura is that “We care”, so implementing these changes at an organization dedicated to protecting the well-being of the Norwegian citizens and countless others worldwide is something we treasure.