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| Online Hazmat Reporting System Gets High Participation by Online Businesses and Boosts Agency Performance |
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| New Realities, New Requirements |
In the past, Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) was receiving critical emergency and hazardous chemical inventory reports, known as Tier II Reports, in paper hardcopy and Tier 2 Submit floppy disks. IEMA Administrators endured a long and time-consuming process for their management of the Tier II Reports. IEMA’s budget for Tier II personnel was cut by almost 50%, forcing IEMA to look for a more feasible way of managing Tier II Reporting with fewer resources. |
| Manual Process had expensive overhead |
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The Tier 2 Submit floppy disk program would override reports if the facilities had the same record key IDs.
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Administrators lost facility data while importing into the Tier 2 Submit program.
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Administrators spent a lot of time importing all e-mail attachments, CDs, and diskettes into the old program.
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Administrators spent a lot of time and money on printing out paper copies of Tier II reports and attachments for their own files.
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Program administration team took more than 6 months to complete inventory data entry.
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In addition to IEMA’s core Tier II team, IEMA employed additional clerical support to work part-time with Tier 2 data entry activities.
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Since Tier 2 Submit software has no archive capabilities, staff had to print out each Tier II report for facilities that reported electronically.
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Each year the printing process took at least three months to complete.
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Historical reports were stored in 10 large filing cabinets It took 10 large vertical filing cabinets to store each year’s reports.
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Each year, in December, Tier 2 reminder letters were printed and mailed to all 7,000 facilities.
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The program group spent approximately 100 hours preparing a mailing list, printing letters, stuffing envelopes, and transporting letters to the mailroom.
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The program group spent over $1,700 in postage, letterhead, and envelopes.
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After an implementation of the TIER II MANAGER™ an online hazmat reporting program, in early 2005, IEMA has achieved an astounding 99.9% online reporting rate from its 7000+ facilities and achieved significant cost savings in terms of improved data quality and accessibility. |
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"With the TIER II MANAGER™,we no longer have to import electronic files, process hard-copy submissions, or print tierforms for our files." |
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- Lori Canterbury, |
EPCRA Program, IEMA |
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| Significant Savings with New System |
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Usually getting businesses to participate is difficult. The program team had a 99.9% success rate of online submission in the first year statewide. Only a few facilities sent in hardcopy reports.
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Completed the Tier II Report review in less than 2 months without the help of any additional clerical support that core staff relied on during the previousyears.
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Expenses for resource time and mail outs have been slashed.
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Reports and archive data is available 24x7 to businesses and program administrators.
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| New Features Extend the Team’s Capabilities |
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The system’s Export to CAMEO feature allows criticaldata to be shared down to the LEPC’s and fire departments statewide easily.
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IEMA has the resources to conduct compliance assurance on facilities for the first time since 2001.
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Have more time to concentrate on other areas such as Hazard Mitigation.
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