Every now and then a new phone hits the market, letting you know that a newer, improved device is available for download. While you might initially roll your eyes, once you see your phone start lagging or you feel the limited capabilities, you start to wonder: Should I just get a new and improved phone?
Change - no matter how big or small - can feel intimidating, but it’s not inherently bad. In fact, it’s usually designed to make our lives easier and overcome past limitations, and the same can be said when it comes to upgrading to an advanced inmate tracking system. The decision to embrace change in this area can result in a powerful transformation for your facility operations and staff.
In this blog, we’ll address the common questions that agencies have when considering transitioning from OnDemand to Command Cloud:
- What is Command Cloud?
- What Does Command Cloud Offer That OnDemand Doesn’t?
- What is required to make this switch?
What is Command Cloud?
Command Cloud, the Officer Experience Platform (OXP), was built from the ground up to improve the day-to-day operations of corrections staff. It combines integrated applications and services to provide users with real-time situational awareness through a unified, common operating picture.
What does this mean? With Command Cloud, corrections officers and administrators gain real-time insights into what's happening throughout the facility. This allows them to manage and monitor the inmate population from anywhere in the facility, on any SPARTAN device. From tracking inmates with Keep Separates in place to knowing exactly when rounds are due, this instant access to critical information is revolutionary for corrections staff.
Command Cloud is a platform of fully integrated applications and services, including:
- Mobile Command XR: The most widely used and trusted mobile inmate tracking system, which optimizes cell checks and inmate management by streamlining workflows for greater efficiency. Mobile Command XR gives officers immediate access to the data and capabilities they need, all at their fingertips using a SPARTAN.
- Mission Command: This tool works alongside Mobile Command XR to provide a common operating picture across your entire facility. It consolidates everything you need to know, see, and control, all in one place. This feature is accessible on desktops.
- Operational Intelligence: This tool brings real-time clarity to the data captured across all aspects of inmate management through diagnostic analytics. It allows corrections managers to identify trends, understand patterns, and make informed decisions.
What Does Command Cloud Offer That OnDemand Doesn’t?
While the concept is familiar, Command Cloud is a major upgrade that resolves the issues and limitations of OnDemand. These improvements go beyond just changes in names and icons; the functionality and capabilities of Command Cloud far exceed those of OnDemand. And these updates were not made to complicate things for officers; in fact, you’ll quickly find that they simplify tasks instead.
Though Command Cloud’s features are more advanced, they are objectively easier to use. Being an officer experience platform, Command Cloud was designed to improve officer efficiency and effectiveness, ultimately enhancing defensibility, safety, and security across the entire facility.
Now, let’s explore some of the key differences between the two systems.
Enhanced Officer Awareness With Mobile Compliance Monitor
Conducting rounds is one of the most important responsibilities of a correctional officer, which must be completed within a specific timeframe depending on state or facility standards. Among the seemingly hundreds of other tasks that COs have throughout the day, it can be difficult to remember to perform their rounds on time and document them correctly, especially without the right tools. Inmate tracking technology has been introduced to improve the efficiency and accuracy of this process, though some solutions are more effective than others.
With OnDemand, officers would conduct their security rounds with the Security Checks module. To ensure they were in compliance with their round requirements, officers could view a timer on their desktop computers. However, the limitation was that these timers were stationary, meaning officers had to return to their desktop monitors to check how much time remained to complete their rounds. As a result, officers lacked real-time information while performing their rounds.
Command Cloud’s Mobile Compliance Monitor (MCM) solves this by consolidating all timers for required checks into a single, mobile platform. Officers can now access timers directly on their handheld SPARTANs, ensuring they stay informed in real-time throughout their rounds. The system not only tracks the standard time for checks, but also synchronizes with special statuses or inmates requiring more frequent checks. This helps officers maintain compliance and stay aware of when and where checks are due, no matter where they are located in the facility.
With the MCM, users can filter to the specific area they are responsible for, further eliminating unnecessary noise (literally). By filtering to narrowed locations, officers can quickly access information only pertaining to them.
During rounds, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of, "We’re only five minutes away from when rounds are due, so we should start now." However, when officers become too predictable with their round start times, inmates are likely to notice. With all of the time inmates have on their hands, they become highly observant, recognizing patterns in officer’s routines. And when inmates anticipate when rounds will begin and end, it creates this window of opportunity for inmate misconduct.
Command Cloud has revolutionized officer awareness by offering timers on SPARTANs, along with its Staggering Score feature, helping officers make their rounds less predictable. The Staggering Score tool recommends optimal times to conduct rounds, allowing officers to perform more randomized, unpredictable rounds, and minimizing the window for potential inmate misbehavior.
Improvements to the Core Six
While both OnDemand and Command Cloud share the same foundational “Core Six” modules on the SPARTAN device, Command Cloud elevates their functionality to an entirely new level. Although some modules have minor name changes, the enhancements in Command Cloud go far beyond the module functionality in OnDemand. Key upgrades to the Core Six include:
- Observations (previously known as “Cell Check”): With Command Cloud, officers can now capture unlimited photo and video evidence (up to a 2-minute duration per clip). Unlike the previous limitation of one image or video with OnDemand, officers now have no restrictions on the amount of digital evidence they can collect, further enhancing accountability. While this improvement benefits all modules, it is particularly valuable during observation checks.
- Supplies: One of the most significant updates to the Supplies module is the introduction of RFID tags for supplies. This enhancement enables officers to manage supplies more efficiently and effectively by ensuring the correct items are returned and streamlining the checkout process. Another new feature that Command Cloud offers is displaying the number of days a supply item has been out, allowing officers to know exactly how long an inmate has had a returnable supply item.
- Movements (previously known as “Out of Cell”): Ensuring that inmates receive— or are at least offered— their required Out of Cell time is mandatory in most facilities. Command Cloud helps officers track both Structured and Unstructured time for inmates by setting minimum and maximum Out of Cell times officers must follow. Officers can also document whether an inmate accepted or declined the Out of Cell time offered, along with the reasons for their decision.
- Special Statuses: Command Cloud categorizes Special Statuses into three groups: Compliance, Meal Restrictions, and Special Info. This enables officers to better understand why inmates are on a particular status as well as proactively align their actions with the inmates. Another area of improvement from OnDemand is that officers were only alerted of “Keep Separate” statuses once an inmate movement was completed. Command Cloud, on the other hand, provides these alerts in advance. This early warning allows officers to adjust movements if necessary and requires them to explain why a "Keep Separate" status was overridden.
- Meals: OnDemand only indicated whether inmates had been fed, but it didn’t address why they might not have been. With Command Cloud, officers can document whether an inmate refused a meal, capture the reason for refusal, and even include digital evidence to support the record. This addition enhances officers' defensibility by offering an opportunity to provide more detailed information.
- Headcounts: One of the key issues with OnDemand was that headcounts weren’t integrated into the round process. This meant officers had to repeat the headcount procedure if it was conducted shortly before a scheduled round, creating unnecessary redundancy and wasting time. Command Cloud eliminates this inefficiency by including headcount counts as a round. Another perk of Command Cloud is that it sends an alert to officers’ SPARTANs when a scheduled headcount begins.
Advanced Reporting with Operational Intelligence
Operational Intelligence (OI) leverages all the data captured in Command Cloud and transforms it into advanced, dynamic reports that support informed decision-making. Unlike the traditional data tables in Command Cloud, OI presents these reports visually through graphs and charts, offering a more intuitive understanding of the data. OI is specifically designed to enhance facility administrators' situational awareness.
The reports generated by OI provide actionable insights for upper management. If a supervisor needs to assess officer performance and identify areas for improvement, OI allows them to generate reports either for the entire team or for an individual officer. These reports track metrics such as the speed at which officers complete their rounds and the frequency of officer movements throughout the day, among many other valuable insights. This helps supervisors gain a comprehensive view of officer performance, behavior, and predictability, equipping them with the data they need for their next shift briefing.
While the concept of actionable insights and in-depth reporting may seem similar to OnDemand's capabilities, Command Cloud’s OI offers a wide variety of additional data views, one of the most valuable improvements being the ability for users to review data up to six months old. In contrast, OnDemand only allowed users to access data from the past two weeks.
What is Required to Make the Switch?
To use Command Cloud, your facility must be equipped with GUARDIAN RFIDs SPARTAN 3. If your facility is already using this device version, you won’t need to purchase new devices. However, if you have an older model of the SPARTAN, you will need to replace those devices with the SPARTAN 3.
There is a price difference between the OnDemand and Command Cloud software options, and there may be costs associated with transitioning to the new platform. However, despite these costs, the return on investment (ROI) is almost immediate. In the video below, you’ll see how other facilities are benefiting from Command Cloud and the value it provides.
Migrating from OnDemand to Command Cloud can feel daunting, but it offers significant improvements that enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of corrections staff. Command Cloud provides a unified platform that integrates mobile access, real-time data analytics, and inmate tracking and management. These upgrades streamline workflows, improve officer safety, and allow for better decision-making through real-time intelligence and enhanced compliance monitoring.
While there have been many advancements and changes in functionality, the familiar features between OnDemand and Command Cloud will make the transition feel seamless. This change won’t be difficult to adjust to, and it’s one you won’t regret. Once you start using Command Cloud, you'll quickly realize how necessary this transition was.
