Planning Tips for New Communications Systems
- When drawing up a specification, use consultants to guide you on the technical aspects. However, don’t let them dictate matters relating to fire operations. Use in-house skills where you can, regardless of rank.
- When initiating major building renovations, use consulting engineers to draw up the specifications.
- Think ahead. Put in building systems now for future extensions of the system so you won’t have to disrupt the center when you add on new features. For instance, we installed three-phase power and in-room air conditioners already for when the computer equipment arrives later in 1983.
- Be objective in analyzing your current system, its shortcomings, what causes the problems and how they can be overcome.
- Don’t hesitate to steal other people’s ideas if they are good ones.
- Although you will have a project schedule, don’t expect the completion date to be met exactly. So don’t schedule changeover against a critical date unless you are within two months from completion.
- Likewise funds. Hide a fudgefactor in your budget to take care of unexpected contingencies. If you don’t use it, you can hand it back and make your municipal treasurer smile.
- Draw up a payment schedule based on progress milestones. Don’t hesitate to hold back payments if, to your mind, acceptance criteria have not been met.
- Be cynical. Have all claims of performance made by suppliers checked by your consultants and by talking with the supplier’s previous customers. And with computer systems, the cheapest may not be the best: make sure the company is likely to still be around in years to come.
- Although you will have a fall-back plan in place in the event of system failures, make sure that your dispatchers don’t forget it as time goes by.
