Over the past few months, South Africa has experienced numerous disasters, both manmade and natural. From the George building collapse in May to the floods that have wreaked havoc in the Western Cape for the second year in a row, and the wildfires that engulfed KwaZulu Natal in July, all have come with a significant cost to lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure.
Recovering from such disasters also requires careful and extensive management. The George building collapse, for instance, required multiple state agencies and private sector organisations to come together across the rescue, recovery, and mop-up parts of the operation. The Western Cape floods, meanwhile, required relief teams to cover large geographical areas, including areas that became isolated when roads were washed away. Similarly, the KwaZulu Natal wildfires required a coordinated response while they were burning and as relief efforts began in their immediate aftermath.
Given how challenging disaster management can be, anything that can make it simpler should be welcomed by the bodies and organisations tasked with it. That includes software. Just as various forms of software have made all of our day-to-day lives easier, so it could do the same for disaster management.
More particularly, anyone working in disaster management and recovery should look at how field service management (FSM) software could benefit their efforts. This type of software optimises scheduling, dispatching, and work order management for businesses with field-based operations. Having first emerged, albeit in a very limited form, in the 1980s and 1990s, FSM really started to come into its own with the rise of mobile technology and smartphones in particular.
“Since then, FSM software has become indispensable for organisations across a broad range of fields,” says Anand Subbaraj, CEO of FSM software provider Zuper. “From mobile network operators to telcos and utility operators, it has transformed how businesses with field service requirements operate. Imagine if those advantages could be transferred to disaster management efforts.
“Having a field management system in place to coordinate technician dispatching (intelligent dispatching), direct teams smoothly (location intelligence), and facilitate fast and direct communications between the people on the ground, HQ, and those affected by the disaster could prove invaluable,” he adds.
According to the Zuper CEO, there are several ways that FSM software can benefit disaster management efforts. It can, for instance, be used to help to manage the deployment of technicians to disaster areas, and management of data around their feedback.
“FSM software can also help ensure that resources are deployed to the correct areas,” says Subbaraj. “For example, it can be used to ensure that food packs and cot beds reach displaced citizens if they are being temporarily housed somewhere.”
All of these applications help disaster management teams get damaged infrastructure and structures repaired as quickly as possible, businesses operating again, and residents able to have a solid roof over their heads.
Perhaps most importantly, however, FSM software allows disaster management teams to respond dynamically as the situation changes. That’s as important for manmade disasters as it is for natural ones. Whether it’s a building collapse, the aftermath of an urban fire, or widespread flooding, what’s true right now in a disaster situation might not be true five minutes later.
“For an organisation heading up a disaster response, being able to dynamically respond to sudden changes is invaluable,” says Subbaraj. “With good FSM software, they not only get a full picture of how things are changing but can also more easily coordinate everyone involved to better deal with those shifts.”
With sub-Saharan Africa among the regions most vulnerable to climate change, the number of natural disasters will only increase in the coming years. While governments, including South Africa’s, should do everything they can to prevent and mitigate those disasters, they should also do everything they can to make managing them easier. While manmade disasters are more difficult to predict with any certainty, the same would be broadly true for them.
“FSM software isn’t a panacea for all the issues associated with disaster management,” Subbaraj concludes. “But it can make them significantly easier and more efficient to deal with. And in situations where every little advantage can make an impact on how fast critical aid can reach affected people, that’s priceless.”