Company: West Covina Services Group
Headquarters: West Covina
Signature Product: Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management Software
Website: http://wcsg.net/
The West Covina Service Group designs and builds Public Safety Software Solutions utilizing leading-edge proven technology and progressive software programming techniques. The end result is an easy-to-use, powerful, yet comprehensive software solution which provides the end-user a productivity tool to address the needs of a progressive public service entity.
Q&A Questions:
1. Where did your company name originate from?
The West Covina Service Group was named after a software development team was established to serve the West Covina Police Department, along with many other police and fire agencies, who at the time were using a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management Software (RMS) provided by a company formally known as Command Data Systems (CDS). The West Covina Police Department purchased the rights to the CDS software product and the West Covina Service Group took over the management and maintenance of the software. The West Covina Service Group is a division of the West Covina Police Department and an enterprise of the City of West Covina.
2. What was the inspiration behind starting your company?
In the mid 1990’s, the West Covina Service Group was put in place to manage and maintain the CAD and RMS being used by the West Covina Police Department. This charter quickly morphed into the need to manage and maintain several dozen other police and fire agencies who had also purchased the same CAD/RMS software and found themselves without an organization in place to support the software applications. The West Covina Service Group continues to maintain and enhance the CAD/RMS product, and now with decades of experience, has begun the task of rebuilding and retooling the CAD/RMS application for our customer agencies.
3. What is your signature product and how does it work?
The CAD and RMS has many components and features which come as part of the overall software solution. There is no one particular software component which has more value than another, but the Automated Field Reporting module has received the most attention and accolades from our customer agencies. This module is an end–to–end report writing software that enables those who write reports (typically officers/deputies) to electronically complete all the necessary report paperwork (including attachments) and submit these reports up the supervision chain for final approval. Supervision can reject, approve and comment as needed and the report is able to be finalized completely electronically – keeping field resources in the field where they are needed the most.
4. Why do you believe your products are essential to the police community?
Police and fire agencies rely heavily on record keeping and information gathering. During emergency and non-emergency calls for service by the public into a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), the initial information captured between the citizen and professional call-taker is critical and needs to be disseminated to internal and external field personnel easily and quickly. A reliable and robust CAD software, that includes the mobile (field personnel software) version of CAD, has become an integral part of the almost every first responder community in the United States.
5. What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
The West Covina Service Group provides a “hosted” CAD and RMS solution to many of our customer agencies. This means the West Covina Service Group maintains the hardware, servers, backups, disaster recovery and general maintenance and upkeep of the data center responsibilities. The challenge for the West Covina Service Group stems from outside business entities required to provide connectivity to the managed data center. Over time the connectivity issues have diminished as newer, more robust and reliable network connections have been deployed by these external entities making the reliance on these connections less impactful during outages and disruptions.
6. What makes your company unique?
The West Covina Service Group is a business entirely owned and operated by a functioning City Police Department – The West Covina Police Department. This means management, product design and functionality along with software testing is all accomplished by professionals within the law enforcement community, and they all use the same software our customers do on a daily basis to do their job.
7. What do your customers like best about you and your products?
The majority of the West Covina Service Group customers have been using the software for more than a decade. Upgrades and enhancements happen at least monthly and are included into the annual maintenance subscriptions. Integration with outside hardware and software products have been a cornerstone of the development staff activities and many of these integrations have been provided free or at a minimal investment to the client community.
8. What is the most rewarding part of serving the first responder community?
The West Covina Service Group not only serves the first responder community – we are part of the first responder community. The enhancements we continue to make to the CAD and RMS are requests made by Law Enforcement Officers, Emergency Dispatchers, Records Specialists and the management teams that support their efforts.
9. What’s next for your company? Any upcoming new projects or initiatives?
The West Covina Service Group is working hand-in-hand with our user community to redesign and reinvent the product offering. This bold effort is being undertaken by the professional software development staff of the West Covina Service Group in conjunction with management at the West Covina Police Department. The product we intend on delivering will be an example of technology and innovation in concert with citizen connectivity and will embody ease of use and accessibility.
