Use of PIER reduces Puget Sound MARSEC Notification and Response Time to a Fraction

Utilizing PIER’s capability to send email messages, faxes and text-to-voice telephone calls, MSO Puget Sound reduced staff time and response time from up to 192 hours to less than one hour.

Background

Marine Safety Offices (MSOs) are a network of regional organizations within the US Coast Guard dedicated to promoting the safe marine transportation of people and cargo, safeguarding of those who work on our waterways and protecting the marine environment. MSOs accomplish this through prevention, preparedness, response and partnerships with fellow agencies and members of their community. There are 47 MSOs in the United States covering 88,633 miles of coastline.

Challenge

MSOs are mandated by the Department of Homeland Security regulations as part of the Port Security Act, to notify all port facilities, businesses and vessels within their district of any changes in the Maritime Security Notification (MARSEC). These notifications parallel the national security alerts. Notifications must be made when the alert goes up as well as when the alert goes down. MSOs are required to deliver the notifications and confirm and track responses within 12 hours of any MARSEC change.

Due to security restrictions, MSOs have been limited to distributing notifications with faxes, registered mail or personal phone calls. These can be time consuming and not particularly efficient methods. US Coast Guard MSO Puget Sound estimates that a single MARSEC notification has required 192 hours of MSO staff time. (Notifications must be sent to the over 300 facilities, businesses, and vessels in the Puget Sound district). That means three staff members are occupied for most of one entire day, just to distribute a single notification.

Solutions

In order to provide a better system for fulfilling the MARSEC requirements MSO Puget Sound implemented a PIER center in September of 2003. Users can quickly develop content, have dispersed teams review and approve the information and then immediately post and distribute the communications to all targeted audiences and stakeholders.

By utilizing PIER’s capabilities of sending email messages, faxes and text-to-voice telephone calls, all from within the secure system, MSO Puget Sound reduced staff time and response time from up to 192 hours to less than one hour.

This acceleration of the notification and response tracking has two significant advantages. First, all Port facilities and stakeholders receive notification much faster, allowing necessary security changes to be made more quickly and reducing any time of possible vulnerability. This enhances security for the region and in some situations it potentially saves lives. The timesaving also results in increased available MSO staff time to work on other security and safety response efforts. Second, MSO Puget Sound has recognized real cost savings through its use of the PIER system. A MARSEC notification prior to implementing PIER cost an estimated $5,000 per notification. With PIER in place, the costs dropped to less than $100 per notification.

As part of the MARSEC notification mandates, MSOs are required to track and confirm the responses to the notifications delivered. At the request of MSO Puget Sound, PIER Systems developed and incorporated a receipt-recording feature to PIER’s distribution capabilities, allowing real-time status reports of receipt notifications and responses received. With this feature it is easy for a local MSO to share the response data with US Coast Guard leadership and other MSOs.

PIER provides complete reporting of all notifications, responses and MSO user activities, allowing for comprehensive activity information and clear accountability. Analysis of reports can assist MSO leadership in staffing projections, cost justification and budgeting for future years. In addition, the reporting features within the PIER system allow an organization to maintain its institutional memory. All activity is stored within the system, not in separate notebooks, and is available for fast retrieval as needed.

Since PIER is a web based platform it allows the MSO and US Coast Guard staff to respond from any location or facility. This greatly reduces the possibility of notification delays due to transit time.

As an online platform PIER also allows system users to be assigned to multiple linked PIER centers. Each MSO with a PIER center can permit access and share information with users of any other MSO PIER center. MSO PIER centers make it possible for geographically dispersed organizations to work together to maximize communication and share information while minimizing delays and inefficiencies.

Key Benefits

MSO Puget Sound has experienced many benefits through the use of their PIER center, most significantly, a time-savings reducing staff and response time from up to 192 hours to one; a net financial savings of $4,900 per notifications. In addition, the staff is able to experience greater continuity in delivering on the agency’s mission and responsibilities. MARSEC notifications are a part of the MSO function, but with PIER, MARSEC efforts aren’t major disruptions. As other MSOs move to a PIER system, the MSO network will experience even greater value and efficiencies in day-to-day communication and information sharing, as well as timeliness in the case of security alerts and marine emergencies.

Additional Information