How Cary Fire Department Transformed Policy Management with DocTract

The Cary Fire Department stands at the forefront of collaborative emergency response services in North Carolina. With over 250 employees serving a population of 190,000 across 60 square miles, Cary Fire demonstrates excellence through its innovative approach to community safety and risk reduction. As a five-time CFAI accredited agency that also holds an ISO Class 1 rating, they exemplify the highest standards in fire service delivery through their commitment to continuous improvement and innovative partnerships.

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One of the many factors that sets Cary Fire Department apart is an innovative CAM (Cary-Apex-Morrisville) partnership, a groundbreaking collaborative service delivery model that dissolves jurisdictional boundaries to ensure the fastest possible emergency response times. Through this unique arrangement, all three agencies are dispatched by a single center, providing the closest capable unit response regardless of jurisdiction. This citizen-first approach exemplifies Cary Fire's commitment to exceptional service delivery and its core values of People First and Working Smart.

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‍Industry:

Public Services

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Size:

252 employees | 9 stations

19,000 citizens served

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Use Cases:

Policy Management & Distribution

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Cary Fire Department's legacy policy management system consisted of an Excel spreadsheet with links to PDF documents, housed in SharePoint. While functional, this basic system lacked crucial features needed for a modern fire service organization.

• Streamlining Version Control: The department sought to enhance their document tracking system to further improve efficiency.
• Enhancing Policy Review Processes: Their existing tracking system was getting the job done, but Cary FD recognized an opportunity to simplify oversight of policy reviews and updates.
• Advancing Compliance Verification: The department aimed to implement better tools to effectively verify personnel had accessed and understood important policy updates.

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When evaluating solutions, Cary Fire sought a platform that could provide robust policy management while maintaining simplicity for end users.

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Having tried SharePoint as well as another policy management solution, DocTract's focused approach and intuitive interface stood out from other options.

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"After seeing the demo, we were very interested. When evaluating against the market, we couldn't see anything else that was as intuitive with all the features Cary Fire needed. We were able to execute an agreement and bring our policies into the DocTract environment, which has been tremendous for us."

Matt Jacoby -Assistant Fire Chief, Cary Fire Department

DocTract transformed Cary Fire's policy management into a streamlined, automated process. The platform's version control capabilities enhanced their existing procedures, while the intuitive interface supported both administrative staff and field personnel.

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The seamless implementation process, aided by Cary Fire's well-organized document structure, allowed for a smooth transition to the new system.

• Streamlined policy review cycles.
• Enhanced version control with side-by-side document comparison.
• Improved accountability through user activity tracking.
• Simplified policy review and attestation process with one-click functionality.
• Intuitive dashboard interface for both administrative and field personnel.

"Our implementation process with DocTract was truly painless. It was a batch upload of our policies and assigning those document names, and we were off and running. It's a very, very simple, intuitive process."

Matt Jacoby -Assistant Fire Chief, Cary Fire Department       ‍

As a five-time CFAI-accredited agency, Cary Fire Department looks to use DocTract to maintain its commitment to excellence. The platform's robust documentation and tracking capabilities are particularly valuable for meeting accreditation requirements.

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Cary Fire Department also maintains an ISO 1 ranking, making it 1 of only 121 cities across the US to have a CFAI accreditation along with an ISO 1 ranking.

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"We gain a whole lot more credibility in being able to document the version control along the life cycle of each policy. We're looking forward to utilizing DocTract in our accreditation process this year."Matt Jacoby on DocTract's approach to accreditation features

Cary Fire Department's partnership with DocTract over the past two years exemplifies how modern policy management should work in public safety: intuitive, efficient, and forward-thinking. As Cary Fire continues to align operational policies across its regional partnerships, DocTract's platform provides the foundation for enhanced collaboration and standardization.

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"We are in the final phases right now of a very critical policy that will govern how we respond to and operate at a moderate risk structure fire across all three agencies (Cary, Apex, Morrisville).

It's important for us to align all of our efforts. That will be a key step with the version control, ease of use and simplicity provided by DocTract. That's going to be a key piece in those life-saving efforts."

 Matt Jacoby -Assistant Fire Chief, Cary Fire Department