ESO Fire RMS

FIREHOUSE Software Review

Comments: The benefits are we are able to do our charts and QA/QI in a timely manner and we are able to use the scheduling portion and setup times easily as well for scheduling.

Pros:

We use the firehouse software for our scheduling and for our reporting and it is the best.

Cons:

None needed the software meets all our expectations

Does a lot of things pretty good

Pros:

I'm currently using the 7.x version and not FHnet. I have only played with FHnet and cannot give guidance. I also use the client provided server model and have not used the hosted services offered. Admin side is fairly straight forward and easy to use. They used a proprietary software for reporting in the older version based on FireFox. Crystal knowledge will go a long way with this. They have conferences every year and they teach you everything you might need to know about reporting (the best reporting courses I have ever taken). The newest version is using SQL reporting which is free and has a lot of youtube videos. The conference again will help with this. User side is straight forward, but a little clunky. Easy to set custom rules and require fields when you want. Interfaces with many other software packages including: Kronos Workforce TeleStaff, OSSI CAD, Rescue One CE provider. If you have a little database knowledge, you can do just about anything. Lots of task that can be set up automatically. Automated reports. It is easy to import bulk data and export bulk data from the software directly. Also have a ipad version for inspections.

Cons:

Tech support usually makes you leave a message, but generally calls back within a few hours. Started using other software for scheduling, truck and SBCA checks because they are easier. Did not like the EMS package offered. They could do very little customization. When I asked about a field that would be required by my region, they stated that not enough people wanted it so they would not do it. I would say the 9 county region around Houston, Texas as being a very large group of people.

Work with this program every 3rd shift for charting purposes

Pros:

Prior to other programs becoming more readily available FH had everything a user could want in charting because nothing really existed pre-hospital. Now with programs catching up and surpassing FH, FH has not continued to keep up with the times. There is not much to look at for Pros outside the fact it is still #1 for NFIRS reports only because it is FIREHOUSE, it should be good at that.

Cons:

Just about everything in this program, I apologize for being harsh but it has been bought and sold many times now and the development and upkeep of the software has fallen by the far wayside. Customer service can take up to months to respond and I believe only because you emailed them enough times. There is no way to truly modify the fields you want to modify even though that was a portion of their sales pitch. The program loses data as you are typing through your chart so we have learned to avoid certain "automation" buttons. This once great program has fallen quite far from its original design.

Great customization

Comments: We used Firehouse for 5 years. It was great for putting data in and getting it out but could cause other issues.

Pros:

The ability to make your own reports was great. Also, you could set certain questions to make other questions be asked. This made it easy to be able to get as much information from the data inputter as possible.

Cons:

There was a little much customization on some stuff and could cause other issues if you didn't know what was being changed.

Firehouse is meeting our needs.

Comments: Effectively runs our fire department.

Pros:

Locally hosted and self managed. Light on server and workstation resources. Reliable and stable software. This application has lots of options and features. Support seems to be getting better and better.

Cons:

This software has a bit of an older look and feel. Application is very hard to use on a mobile device. Lots of training required to effectively use the software.

Fire Inspection and Permit Problems

Comments: I currently use ESO daily as a fire inspector. it is cumbersome. It is now set to replace the ERS systems in the other fire department I volunteer for. attempted to contact the company several times about the problems. I was told my situation would be escalated up the chain multiple times then never hear back from anyone.

Pros:

Not much at all. I am not happy with this product or their customer service.

Cons:

The fire inspection side is extremely poor in its operations. Fire Inspections and permit obviously are an extremely low priority for this company. The biggest issue is the ability to search for addresses or businesses by name. unable to find occupancies that you know are loaded in the system. cannot forward the inspection notes from a previous inspection.

IT Administrator of Firehouse for Fire / EMS

Pros:

It integrates with our CAD. When it works, it works okay. It does what it says for the most part, and has been around for awhile.

Cons:

When you call in with a problem, the tech has 20 minutes to fix the problem, and then they make it into a ticket. It can takes many days to hear back about it. Sometimes I have had to call in multiple times about the same open ticket, and have to talk through the issue from scratch with each one. The software is definitely not intuitive in any way. It is 5 clicks to attach a document to an occupancy, and if it doesn't work, that's at least 4 days to get it fixed. Sometimes it seems like most of the repair tech's themselves don't understand the software. One time I was asked if I had Googled the error code myself to see if I could find anything. The FH Inspector app requires many things to work together for the program to work, which means it doesn't work as much as it does. The Fire Marshals still carry paper with them for when it is down.

There are better products than Firehouse

Comments: Firehouse is way behind in regards to offering up-to-date technology. They have taken on the model of buying software and trying to integrate it with their existing platform rather than develop new software. Xerox acquired them years ago and users thought it would be a benefit but the company has only gone down hill since. Their customer service was never good and has also declined in the 8+ years I've worked with them. I was very relieved when our department finally gave up on Firehouse.

Cons:

Not intuitive. Runs on old software (FoxPro). Mobile products are horrible. Customer service is practically non-responsive for all but the most basic of issues.

Horrible. They don't care about their customer, only their bottomline

Cons:

It's awful and I would NOT RECOMMEND. It is redundant, not easy to fill out, and there are no manuals to help users make it work better for their needs. I contacted Customer Service and it took them 2 weeks to get back to me for a simple database question. They were really nice, probably the nicest company reps I've dealt with, but not very helpful for an immediate need. It would have taken me less time to hand write the list that I was asking about. Don't even get me started on their sales team, THE WORST. If I didn't HAVE to use this system, I wouldn't. Trust me, there are better options out there.

Reports-Ok everything else way to complicated FH Sketch etc

Comments: FH Sketch is WAY to complicated unless you are a CAD pro and know all of the functions and how to operate the program. I have spent hours reading and watching how to videos and I can get it done but it is NOT user friendly at all. Mobile inspections not a plus. FireHouse can do at lot of things - but it needs a major overhaul to make it user friendly

Pros:

Options and what it can do

Cons:

It's so complicated that you can't utilize all that it offers

Frustrated by Firehouse implementation that never happened, even though paid. Ripoff.

Comments: Firehouse cost us thousands and it is useless because it never worked. We've gone to Fire Records from Tritech.

Pros:

Our Fire Dept. chose Firehouse. We paid them thousands. As per contract we sent them the data from our current Fire Records system to convert. They loaded it for us to inspect. Many jumbled fields. Marked errors after extensive review and sent back. Came back with many errors, sent back. The salesman dodged our contact attempts for months. Still haven't worked out migrated database. Go-Live originally to be June 2016. It's now November 2017. We paid thousands. Only have a demo with bad data in it. We still use our original Fire Records system. What I like most is we aren't using Firehouse and we're not giving them anymore money. I also like the idea of filing a lawsuit for non-performance.

Cons:

The service response is a swindle. The proprietary database doesn't import data very well. Never used it in production because of it's never been finished. The company has not honored the agreement. 1.5 years and still not implemented. They have the nerve to put us on their customer list. Run away.

Affordable & Feature Rich

Comments: Our experience with Firehouse has been rewarding, and we hope to continue using the it for years to come.

Pros:

We have been using Firehouse for about 3 months, and we are really starting to realize the benefits of the software package as it pertains to the data we must compile for our property insurance rating by the state property insurance association. Firehouse turns collecting data and compiling that data into reports a very simple task. The features are so plentiful, and we’ve yet to use them all to fully get the benefit of the package.

Cons:

The only thing that we’ve come to dislike about the software is again, like most packages I review, the ability to customize the software without limitation.

Worst software on the market

Comments: The software has hundreds of problems. Its like we are writing the software for the company by sending non stop complaints. This software is a liability total waste.

Pros:

None

Cons:

Too many to list

Horrible all around

Comments: I absolutely detest this software. I would seriously rather pull my fingernails out than use this ever again. It is slow and not responsive, it is not easy to use and although it may track everything under the sun and that sounds great, but is a huge consumer of time. It does way too much for what the average user needs it to do. We just went with what our stated provides for free and I couldn't be happier. The new system is fast, intuitive and someone actually answers the phone when I call. With the free software we are compliant with both the state and federal reporting so we still remain eligible for grants with way less hassle.

Horrid

Comments: Every time I have to complete a report using FH, I long for the old days of hand written PCRs. With all the innovations in technology, it's unbelievable that we would be using something so arcane that it hearkens back to DOS operating systems. I pray every shift that our system would crash so that we can upgrade to something worth using.

Easy but not Fire Fighter easy...

Comments: This software is full featured and robust however it is not the most intuitive software out there no matter how few programs do what Firehouse does. It is time intensive and the 'automation' could be better.

Excellent program for managing calls, training and manpower

Comments: Customer service stinks, and is even worse if you are using the cloud version.

It's Crap

Comments: Fire House Is the worst software I have ever used.