Fire Weather System – EcoConnect Application Upgrade
What is this notification for?
Our Risk Reduction and ICT teams, in partnership with NIWA and Scion Research, are planning to deploy an upgraded Fire Weather System (FWSYS) EcoConnect Application for all registered user devices and the Citrix environment during July/August 2020. This new application has been developed from changes and new requirements gathered from a wide range of stakeholders and user design forums to inform how the FWSYS, user application (EcoConnect) and the FWSYS public website(external link) should evolve to meet future needs. This notification provides users with initial background for the change, timeframes and impacts to users.
What is changing and why?
Following successful development and testing, an upgraded FWSYS EcoConnect Application (version 3) is now available. This change is necessary because the NIWA systems which support EcoConnect have been upgraded to new supercomputer infrastructure, and as a result the existing EcoConnect application (version 2) will no longer be supported, requiring decommissioning. The rich FWSYS data, products and functionality remain available to users in the new EcoConnect application, along with new enhancements including:
- New easy to use map-based interface and search tools
- Enhanced catalogue of weather stations and products
- Alerts Manager – new tool for managing alerts
- Bulk Data Download – new tools for downloading bulk forecast and observation data
- Chart Builder – new tools to create your own charts
- Grass Curing Input – new tools for managing grass curing data
- Report Manager – new tools to create and schedule reports and manage their distribution
- Resource Sharing – new tools to share workspaces and products
What does this mean for me?
During July/August 2020, you’ll notice a new EcoConnect application version 3 appear on your device desktop and Citrix environment. The existing EcoConnect application version 2 will remain available to the end of August 2020, until users have been trained in the version 3 application, and all user content has been migrated. As a result of COVID-19 we have had to re-think our approach to delivery of training for the new application. While these arrangements are being finalised the intent is to conduct training during July/August 2020 in the following formats:
- Online video tutorials
- Question and Answer sessions with NIWA and ICT support teams and subject matters experts
- One-on-one remote tutorials where requested
How do I get the new EcoConnect application and who do I contact?
- Fire and Emergency personnel - the new FWSYS EcoConnect application and user guide will be automatically installed on your device and Citrix when you connect to the Fire and Emergency network, so you won’t need to do anything other than connect. As with the existing EcoConnect version 2, you may be requested to download the latest catalogue to take advantage of the latest products and services.
- External users – a separate communication will be going out to those external users of EcoConnect (i.e. DOC, Forestry etc.). The reason for this is the instruction for external users to access the new application is tailored to enable other organisations to download and install the software.
- Further information will follow, but if you have any questions or please contact either Tim Mitchell or Stuart Waring