Customer Solution Case Study
Commonwealth Enhances Cross-Agency
Collaboration with Fusion Framework
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Government—State and local
Customer Profile
Located in Maynard, the Massachusetts Commonwealth Fusion Center (CFC) collects and analyzes information in support of strategic and tactical decision making to help prevent domestic and international terrorism. Its 40 employees represent 18 different federal, state, and local entities.
Business Situation
To combat crime and terrorism, the agency needed to create a collaborative analytical framework that officials across federal, state, and local agencies could rely on to share and act on critical intelligence.
Solution
The CFC chose the Microsoft Fusion Framework to harness the capabilities of
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and
ESRI ArcGIS Server to create a cross-jurisdictional resource to support the rapid assessment of trends and potential threats.
Benefits
· Enhanced cross-agency collaboration
· Improved information management and consolidation
· Flexible, scalable system that will accommodate future growth / The Microsoft Fusion Framework provides an approach for improving efficiency by automating workflows,
providing information capture forms, and enhancing the role of GIS in supporting daily operations.
The Massachusetts Commonwealth Fusion Center (CFC) is comprised of troopers and civilian personnel from the Massachusetts State Police along with representatives from 18 other entities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. The CFC needed a cross-jurisdictional resource to support agency collaboration and the rapid assessment of trends and potential threats. It chose a combination of technologies to form the information backbone, including ESRI ArcGIS Server and a several specialized Microsoft SQL Server databases linked through Microsoft Office
SharePoint Server. The Microsoft Fusion Framework automated and tied them all together. The system has proven critical to helping ensure that CFC staff can share information effectively and communicate in a rapidly changing homeland security and crime-fighting environment.
Situation
Fusion centers have become the focal point of local first prevention and response in the era of coordinated law enforcement, disaster preparedness, and homeland security activities that followed the terrorist attacks on the United States and the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in New Orleans.
This critical need has been reemphasized by recent attempted terrorist attacks in the United States (Times Square in New York City; Fort Hood, Texas, and the airliner attempt on December 25, 2009). Fusion centers act as a hub for local, state, and federal departments and agencies and are typically staffed by a mix of professionals from each of the participating units who share common office space and information resources. They are usually jointly funded by federal, state, and local resources and are often located in major population centers across the United States.
The Massachusetts Commonwealth Fusion
Center (CFC) collects, analyzes, and disseminates criminal and terrorism-related intelligence with over 200 state, county, and municipal agencies located across the state. Forty personnel, representing 18 different local, state, and federal entities comprise the staff of the CFC. The Massachusetts state government agency charged with managing and housing the CFC is the Massachusetts State Police.
The CFC staff and correspondent agencies, individuals, and organizations are allowed to share information according to appropriate right-to-know and need-to-know guidelines. For example, agencies charged with disaster response and emergency management cannot access criminal information.
The establishment of the CFC in October
2002 underscored the need for the digitization of outdated paper filing and for centralized access to other data silos scattered around the Massachusetts state government. The organization had a few databases based on Microsoft Office Access built for specific purposes—and a few staff used Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets to track investigative data—but most business processes were paper-based. The CFC found it difficult to input into and retrieve information from its systems, especially in a post-9/11 environment. The organization’s homeland security responsibilities were always changing, so the CFC needed an information system that would be flexible and scalable, would require minimal training, and be easy for employees to use.
Moreover, while federal and state resources for building homeland security infrastructure were plentiful in 2002, the CFC knew that these resources would become limited over time. With this in mind, the organization needed a solution that was inexpensive, ready to use out of the box, and already proven effective in enterprise settings.
Solution
In 2005, to establish the kind of collaborative analytical framework officials across federal, state, and local agencies could rely on to share and act on critical intelligence, the Massachusetts CFC opted to acquire several applications based on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software and ESRI ArcGIS Server, all engineered specifically for law enforcement needs. The CFC then implemented Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to integrate the specialized law enforcement programs.
To help automate these technologies, the
CFC adopted the Microsoft Fusion Framework. By automating information exchange to reduce dependence on manual processes, the Microsoft Fusion Framework helps fusion centers like the Massachusetts CFC get the right information to the right people at the right place and the right time.
With the adoption of the Fusion Framework, the CFC reexamined how it could use technology to enhance its criminal intelligence and criminal information collection programs.
For separate case management and criminal intelligence databases, the CFC tapped CI Technologies, a provider of criminal intelligence and investigation software based on Microsoft SQL Server. CopLink, a widely used criminal information management solution based on SQL Server, was also acquired.
The CFC also contracted the services of local Microsoft Office SharePoint Server developer Delphi Technical Solutions to adapt the collaboration tool to the fusion center’s specific requirements. Delphi’s integration effort was reasonably priced, and the relative ease of developing new modules in Office SharePoint Server will also allow CFC to keep programming and development efforts in-house—which is no small consideration in the dynamic homeland security culture.
According to the CFC, visitors to the organization’s website now experience the portal as an inviting, professional workspace where users can easily obtain whatever information they need.
Benefits
It is difficult for law enforcement and homeland security agencies to precisely calculate a financial return on investment for a major technology implementation like that undertaken by the Massachusetts CFC, but the organization can point to significant improvements in operations and management.
Enhanced Cross-Agency Collaboration
By integrating Office SharePoint Server with ArcGIS Server, more users were able to take advantage of the organization’s substantial GIS resources and analytical capabilities. Additionally, with the ability to implement and audit access in Office SharePoint Server, the CFC has gained better management of right-to-know, need-to-know, and federal security classification restrictions.
Improved Information Management,
Consolidation
By using Office SharePoint Server in conjunction with the Microsoft Fusion Framework, the CFC has broken down the silos that once made information sharing difficult. At the same time, the CFC is also using the Fusion Framework to precisely track the unit’s overall performance and response times, as well as to quantify the CFC workload rather than relying on anecdotal evidence.
Flexible, Scalable System
Massachusetts CFC expects its workload to increase, in large measure because of an effort to link every Massachusetts jurisdiction to the CFC system. But the organization is confident that—thanks to the scalability of the solution—it can easily adapt to the increased demand.
Microsoft Fusion Framework
For more information about the Microsoft Fusion Framework, go to: www.microsoft.com/fusion
Contact if you have questions or would like to request a demonstration.
Microsoft Government
Microsoft applications, solutions, and services help to empower public servants and government employees to share critical information and serve their constituents more efficiently.
For more information about Microsoft Government please go to:
www.microsoft.com/industry/government
www.microsoft.com/industry/government/
federal
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