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The New York City Office of Emergency Management lost its state-ofthe-art emergency operations center (EOC) when World Trade Center 7, which was situated across the street from Tower 1, caught fire and collapsed on September 11. As a result, the EOC was unusable-just when it was needed most.
An EOC's purpose is to coordinate incident information and resources for management. It is the heart of any major response operation and provides enhanced decision-making capabilities to the organization. But when earthquakes, fires, floods, tornados or other disasters destroy or make the building in which the EOC is located inaccessible, or key staff that are dispersed throughout the world are needed during an emergency response, alternate locations as well as alternative operational concepts are required.
As a result, many organizations are now employing virtual emergency operations center (VEOC) concepts as part of their emergency management program. Beyond the Internet and the telephone, new developments in telecommunications, such as wireless networks and handheld devices, have opened significant opportunities for overcoming inherent EOC participation problems.
The Many Forms of the VEOC
An EOC is "virtual" when participants can share information, make decisions and deploy resources without being physically present in the EOC. Typically using Web-enabled software, a VEOC allows participants to work from their normal workstation, from home or from the field. Emergency plans and reports are available from any location. In fact, all information can be maintained in a central database that is available to VEOC participants from anywhere in the world.
A VEOC permits effective direction and control of resources, automates processes and methodologies, assigns and tracks tasks, and efficiently communicates real-time information. In addition, if configured properly, a VEOC can protect communication and data with needed redundancy, security and flexibility.
The military embraced the VEOC concept early in its command and control efforts, and the private sector is beginning to follow suit. As a September 19, 2001 Gartner Research Note states, "Enterprises should consider establishing a 'virtual' command center to limit the vulnerability caused by all senior executives being in one location."
Companies such as Cisco and AT&T use commercial, off-the-shelf VEOC software, while others, such as Fidelity Investments and Bank of America, utilize conference calls and online databases to coordinate emergency response for global operations....