Pinellas County Completes ‘Seamless’ ISO Audit with Help From Vector Solutions

There are 18 different municipal and special district fire departments spread across 280 square miles of land that make up Florida's Pinellas County. Each department runs independently but utilizes the same dispatch system and operating procedures when responding to an excess of 150,000 calls each year.

In an effort to improve the training system and help personnel meet the needs of more than 1 million residents and visitors in Pinellas County, 17 of the county's departments joined to form the Pinellas County Training Group. With more than 1,300 personnel spread across the county, tracking and logging training records was a challenge for the Group's departments. Officers relied on complicated in-house programs that required numerous steps when recording completed training activities. These programs were time-consuming, complex, and inconsistent. Something needed to be done to simplify the process and put everyone on the same page.

"The old system didn't work for what was required for ISO reporting," said Randy Keirn, the district chief for Lealman Fire Department. "With the old system, we'd do training and have to create codes with no rhyme or reason. It just didn't work like we wanted, so we needed to start over." The departments needed an online format that was easier to operate and would allow personnel to meet training objectives while simultaneously providing service to the community.

With clear challenges in its training system, the Group turned to Vector Solutions (formerly TargetSolutions) for answers. The initial reason for coming to Vector Solutions' Learning Management System (Vector LMS) was the impressive menu of OSHA/safety courses. The addition of Emergency Vehicle Operator and NFPA 1001- 1500 courses enhanced the quality of the departments' training while making better use of their employees' time.

But the biggest success Vector LMS helped the Group achieve was vastly superior reporting and tracking ability. Vector LMS allowed the organization to easily comply with its scheduled ISO audit. The process of completing the training section of the ISO report took just one hour and was "seamless," said Guy Keirn, the training chief for Pinellas Park Fire Department. "We were able to extract all required information and complete a comprehensive report for the ISO inspector," Guy Keirn said. "Vector Solutions has created great tools that are, and will become, a positive part of future training."

"TargetSolutions (now Vector Solutions) has created a records
system that clearly allowed our organization to comply with
our scheduled ISO audit in September 2010. The process of
completing the training section of the report for ISO was
seamless."
Guy Keirn, Training Chief, Pinellas Park Fire Department