Our Company

News - 2008

December 2008

On Tuesday, December 16, 2008, Ramsey County, MN County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract to Winbourne & Costas to conduct a study of the Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center. The study will examine workload, staffing, quality of service, the design and layout of the room where dispatchers and call takers work, and overtime and sick-leave patterns. The Ramsey County Emergency Communications Center is the largest public safety dispatch center in Minnesota and one of the largest in the Upper Midwest region.

October 2008

Winbourne & Costas will participate as part of a larger team in the development of a strategic plan for a major west coast city police department. Working with IMI of Valhalla, NY, we will be working with the public safety departments and the city Information Technology staff. The team will first baseline the city’s current capabilities and then draft a plan to improve current performance and incorporate organizational changes. Winbourne & Costas has developed similar plans for San Antonio, TX and New Haven CT.

October 2008

October 2008 - Winbourne & Costas, Inc. was awarded a contract to assist the City of Philadelphia in implementing its 3-1-1 Call Center by December 31, 2008. The firm’s had responsibility for preparing the City’s management and staff for implementation by: developing training syllabus for various staff levels; preparing and conducting executive level presentations; training all of the City’s customer service supervisors and agents; and providing “best practice” consultation based on our experiences in other cities.

    The Winbourne & Costas, Inc. training addressed on several key areas:
  • Customer Service Training, including Customer Service Excellence soft skills, Customer Service Supervisor skills, Quality Management, and the differences between 3-1-1 and 9-1-1 call handling
  • Knowledge Management, including Analysis of Business Processes and the Creating Well Constructed Knowledgebase Articles
  • Change Management, including Change Models, Managing Organizational Change, and Stress Management

The City of Philadelphia successfully launched it’s 3-1-1 Call Center on time on 12/31/2008.

August 2008

Milwaukee E-9-1-1 RFP Support
Winbourne & Costas was engaged by the Milwaukee Police and Fire Departments to assist them with the development on a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new E-9-1-1 system. Winbourne & Costas worked with the City team to develop the technical and functional sections of the RFP.

July 2008

Tallahassee-Leon County, Florida Joint E-9-1-1 Center
Winbourne & Costas will provide E-9-1-1 technology consulting services as subcontractor to URS team for the new Tallahassee-Leon County Public Safety Communications Center. The new $40-50M facility will house the Tallahassee Police, Fire, Leon County Sheriff and Emergency Medical Services E-9-1-1 call taking and dispatching operations. In 2007 Winbourne & Costas prepared the Joint Dispatch Consolidation plan to merge the two separate emergency communications centers of the City of Tallahassee and Leon County, Florida which included governance and organization, personnel, technology, operations, and facilities components.

July 2008

Winbourne & Costas will be presenting its updated review, analysis, and strategic plan for the Kane County, IL Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Answering Point to the Board of County Commissioners. The analysis included comparisons and reviews of other Public Safety Answering Points and radio communications in the County in order to determine what option the County should pursue to provide quality emergency communication services. The study addresses next generation 9-1-1 technology, governance and organization, facility, operations, and budgetary considerations to assist the County in meeting emergency communication needs on all levels while doing so at the most efficient cost.

June 2008

Winbourne & Costas Addresses Emergency Communications Meeting in Warsaw, Poland

Jeff Winbourne and Velizar Shalamanov of Winbourne & Costas made presentations on our firm and our emergency management and 112 feasibility study in Gdansk, Poland to over 40 participants at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Warsaw, Poland. Ambassador Ashe opened the event with remarks on the importance of emergency management to city governments based on his experience as Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee.
The June 11 event framed our efforts in Gdansk around the “Euro 2012” European Football Championship that will take place in Poland and Ukraine. The briefing focused on informing local government and national ministry personnel associated with emergency management and 112 communications of the project‘s progress in Gdansk which is funded by the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) and it’s linkage to Euro 2012 preparations. Participants came for a wide range of cities, regions and national Ministries to include Ministry of Interior and Administration, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health, Office of Electronic Communications. Representative from many cities attended such as Katowice, Gdansk, and Warsaw. The Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw also sent representatives. The event was organized by the US Commercial Service.

June 2008

Winbourne & Costas was awarded a contract extension to provide quality assurance and oversight support for the Roanoke Valley, Virginia Regional Law Enforcement Data Sharing System RFP process. The RFP requirements were based on system specifications previously developed by Winbourne & Costas. The new system will leverage information contained in existing agency Records Management Systems to improve their ability to prevent, respond to, manage, and analyze situations threatening the safety and property of citizens. The specifications developed are compliant with all Federal, State and local regulations including the Federal Global Justice XML exchange standards. We also developed a governance model and plan to govern the overall administration, operation, and technological matters related to how the resultant system should be administered and managed.

May 2008

Strategic Plan for the City of San Antonio TX Public Safety
Winbourne & Costas, Inc. was awarded a contract to provide the City of San Antonio, Texas with a three year strategic plan for improvements to public safety technology. Working with the public safety departments and the Information Technology Services Division, our firm will first baseline the city’s current capabilities and then draft a plan to improve current performance and incorporate many planned projects that are projected for the next three years. Known project include a new computer aided dispatch system, a record management systems, new headquarters facilities for fire and police and a new 911 public safety dispatch center.

April 2008

Winbourne & Costas was awarded the follow-on contract as Project Manager for the implementation of a 3-1-1 Call Center for a large Eastern city. The scope of work includes planning and management, coordination of CRM Application, Telephony, and hardware vendors, and organizational change management. Winbourne & Costas will also serve as the “Trusted Advisor” to City Administration, providing input on all aspects of the project.

February 2008

Winbourne & Costas completed a 3-1-1 Call Center Assessment and Feasibility Study for a mid-western City. The study provided a road map for implementation in a 3-1-1 Call Center as a “One Stop” solution to constituent services. The study provided recommendations for People, Processes, Technology, and Facilities, presenting; cost estimates for initial start-up and ongoing operations; Call Center organization structure and staffing; Implementation Planning; Risk Management Planning; 3-1-1 Call Center “Best Practices”; and a 3-1-1 CRM Market Scan. Winbourne & Costas also prepared and presented a business case to the City’s Administration and the City Council. As a result of the study, the City issued an RFP for implementation of the 3-1-1 Call Center.

FEBRUARY 2008

Winbourne & Costas was contracted by the US Trade & Development Agency and the City of Gdansk, Poland to conduct a feasibility study for an Integrated Emergency Management System and a 112 emergency communications system. The feasibility study will assess the current emergency response systems, facilities and staffing. In addition, we will prepare a conceptual design and associated estimated costs for enhancing response IEMS and 112 capabilities and plan a pilot implementation.

JANUARY 2008

As a subcontractor to Kaseman, LLC, the US Department of State Antiterrorism Agency has selected Winbourne & Costas, Inc. to provide consulting services for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in conjunction with a Kingdom-wide implementation of E9-1-1 service s and a command/call center complex. This engagement is a follow-on one for Winbourne & Costas and will entail design, procurement assistance and operations consulting.