If you are operating an EOC or leading/supporting a distributed/multi-site response, DLAN is a solid platform to use. The model based around tickets for resolving individual elements or issue per incident is very effective for responses that do not primarily revolve around the deployment teams and assets to particular locations. Due to the unintuitive nature of the UI/UX and the need for many people to wrap their minds around how tickets are different from emails, your teams will need significant initial training & practice to get accustomed to DLAN. Furthermore, your teams must remain active on DLAN in order to remain familiar and effective with DLAN. The BCG representatives we worked with were very attentive and helpful. Our configuration team had a good experience with the company. Lastly, like many systems with a large operational footprint, in a variety of ways you will have to change your processes to fit the tool. As a COTS solution, there are definite limits on how far the system can be tailored to match your processes. These accomodations to the tool affect the dynamics and flow within your EOC and response structure. Some will be neutral, some beneficial, and others subtly detrimental. You need to have experience and insight into your current flows, dynamics and strengths in order to assess the effect of those accomodations.

DLAN offers a lot of functionality in a well-integrated package. Information is the lifeblood of effective assessment, preparation, and response for emergencies and disruptions. DLAN lets your team effectively take in, navigate, and work through information flows that would otherwise end up being chaotic. Text-based, visual, geographic, and data-based information are all brought together in various ways to enable decision-makers, analysts, and direct responders to work more effectively as a coordinated whole. Using DLAN our people are able to communicate, coordinate and collaborate across a large geographic footprint during planning, preparation, response and recovery. DLAN's integrations and workflows take things well beyond ad-hoc cobbling together of email and other common general-use tools.

UI and UX are weak points though I suspect this is also the case with other comparable platforms. For those used to using the range of SaaS providers currently out there for various purposes, you'll have experience with different UI/UX design approaches. If you've used a range of purchased apps on your phones and tablets, you'll also have experienced a different slew of UI/UX design approaches. Some are better than others, some more intuitive than others. When I train others on the platform, I often tell them "Engineers developed this thing, not designers. The functionality is there, but the names, locations, and clickflow are often not intuitive." Some modules that allow for collaborative content creation & modification are sequentially-collaborative rather than simultaneously-collaborative like Google Docs or other platforms. When describing to people that a particular module is "collaborative", these days users immediately think of simutaneous collaboration.

Recently, we had an EOC activation for a flooding incident. DLAN was able to help us visualize multiple scenarios based on predicted flooding. The DLAN GIS tool was quick to load different flood maps. This aided decision makers by quickly understanding what could happen if flood waters reached peak levels. Although we have other robust GIS software, DLAN was quick, accurate, and met our needs to quickly assess threats to affected homes.

Configurable-DisasterLAN is able to flex and bend to our EOC structure Big Tent-We can bring all of our emergency management partners together for collaborative management, whether or not they able to access city networks and other firewall barriers Customer Service-Buffalo Computer Graphics treat our problems like their own; they work with us to resolve issues; they are quick to respond, and provide effective solutions Continuous Improvement-DisasterLAN is continually improving; they offer frequent updates and roll out new features

For DisasterLAN for function the best, it is necessary to send admin time on the front end to configure and optimize. This takes trial-and-error to set-up and test. Because it is highly configurable, it meets our needs. This flexibility does require attention to set-up before the emergency incident occurs.

Considers a wide-range of incident response communication activities and streamlines these into one space.

Requires a fair bit of ramp up to get users familiar with the software (not exceptionally intuitive). Requires a fair bit of customisation before it can be deployed.

DLAN is an excellent tool to enhance situational awareness, timely decision making and data sharing with multiple agencies. It was a pleasure working with BCG and FutureShield to support the development of a customized approach. They provide excellent support that ensures effective customization, implementation and ongoing support. Well done!

As an Emergency Preparedness Program Manager for Bruce Power, I worked effectively with BCG to shape specific aspects of DLAN to meet our needs for data input into the software prior to implementing on site. It was beneficial to be able to custom develop forms and make preparation for automated input into the system to meet our needs. BCG was very accommodating and a pleasure to work with in this regard. Flexibility in creating custom dashboards and ease in retreiving automated trends is very useful to meet the needs of consolidating complex data sets to support a timely situational awareness and effective decision-making process. The cloud-based approach provides an excellent avenue for ease in secure data sharing with multiple agencies.

It is difficult to pinpoint anything negative about DLAN in comparison to other products on the market.

FutureShield has been involved in re-selling EOC software since 2006. We have worked with many solutions and settled on DLAN to support the requirements of a BC based university and then again for the PanAM and Parapan Games in 2015. From there, we haven't looked back. DLAN is a comprehensive web-based solution (either cloud-based or installed at client sites) with a mobile responsive interface allowing it to be used in a physical or virtual EOC. We have had many Canadian organizations choose DLAN and they are very happy with the IMS/ICS forms, Sitrep and IAP automation, logs, ticket-based incident management, single-button reporting as well as flexible dashboards. For those looking to replace white boards, paper forms, and out-dated and less flexible solutions in the EOC, DLAN is a great choice.

FutureShield does not have any negative comments to make for DLAN.

You developed a program to offer our customers a rapid assessment of their infrastructure against natural disasters. We worked with the Buffalo Computer Graphics staff . They developed a software program that would provide us the tool to conduct the evaluations. This provided us the opportunity to offer this service to our clients across the States and Canada.

We didn't find any difficulties with the product. When we realized the capabilities we could build into the program we immediately wanted to expand the software's capabilities. If anything we wanted to upgrade the software faster the you can expect programmers to make the requested updates. a great team to work with when developing innovative ideas.

Disaster LAN has provided us a great learning experience, and we’ve been able to enhance our knowledge and understanding of a lot of things we are working to implement. Disaster LAN may not currently be our choice, but the possibilities may change in the future.

The thing I like most about Disaster LAN is the wide array of emergency communication features. Our agency is currently implementing several emergency notification methods and Disaster LAN appears to enhance all of them. From monitoring our agency’s Twitter feed and even posting updates to Twitter for us, to two way messaging features, it seems to have it all.

The thing I liked least is that it isn’t very cost effective. Our budget cannot sustain the cost at this time.

We have been using D-Lan for many years (at least since 2011). We have never had any real problems with the system. BCG has always been available to help. They have worked with our Planning dept to get the maps they have created into the system. They have made changes we need to the system when we asked.

the software works well, if we ever have a problem of can't figure out to do something the support staff is always available to help. They are very responsive to additions or changes we would like to see.

I cannot think of any real cons with the software.

This product was obtained to streamline and manage our Emergency Operations Center activities and enhance our ability to communicate with community partners during emergencies and planned events.

Ease of use, and clear, uniform information sharing with appropriate partners as well as visual resource request and tracking process. Integration with ArcGIS Online is a very valuable feature.

I like it all. It serves out needs very well.

Information sharing among staff has improved using DLAN!

Easy to use platform with great training and support.

Software does not always operate the same on mobile devices.