Is NERIS a Boondoggle?

I’ve heard NFIRS referred to as a boondoggle, and I had to look up what it meant precisely. It led me to wonder, “is NERIS going to be a boondoggle”?

  Boondoggle - North American English: “work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value."  

Is NERIS going to be valuable or boondoggle?

NERIS needs to earn its investment. It isn’t like we don’t have many other things to do.

I asked that effective question (especially for smaller / rural / volunteer fire departments) on a recent NERIS webinar. Some of what I heard back was:

• "Smaller departments should benefit the most", getting the most back from NERIS without needing fancy hardware or technology skills.
• Smaller departments equally need to justify funding, and NERIS will provide them the "shapes and colors" (charts) to take to their board and/or local governance. The panel referred to NERIS as "a free data analyst" for all departments.
• Smaller departments in NERIS will be on the same playing field as larger organizations when it comes to grant applications.
• NFIRS (with monthly, or later reporting) ended up providing an “annual report” - arguably a year or more late - whereas NERIS will be more realtime & responsive.
• More departments reporting along with more realtime analysis means that states and regions can quickly identify emerging challenges and communicate these to local communities, providing returned value for the reporting.
• NERIS should support "show me, don't tell me" presentations to stakeholders.

NERIS should be far more achievable than NFIRS was for all departments, and although time will tell if it is a boondoggle, there are initial indications it will deliver real value across the whole fire service.

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