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GH International

What We Do

We help governments at all levels solve their biggest problems with governance and technological solutions that are repeatable, scalable and sustainable.

Our Focus

We bring together domain and subject matter expertise in governance, policy, technology, and training to build lasting operational capacity that will support your mission and help your organization become more self-sufficient. To accomplish this, we focus on building partnerships to establish and/or enhance appropriate governance and policies; identify and create clear and integrated operational procedures; and conduct trainings to reinforce policies, procedures, and organizational usage.

We work with you to build lasting operational capacity that will support your mission and help your organization become more self-sufficient.

Smart Cities Start With Smart People

Local, state and federal governments today face problems that are incredibly complicated and complex. The old ways of working within service-delivery silos (often called departments in government) are no longer sufficient to address complicated and complex problems. That’s why we’re working with innovative leaders who are committed to reimagining how they work, breaking down silos and creating cultures that enable, empower and reward collaboration.

Our approach is to implement solutions built on an understanding that governance and processes must be aligned with objectives before technology can be used to its full potential. Instead of organizing around services, governments are most effective when organized around a shared understanding of challenges and problems to be solved.

We help to build collaborative teams across the entire community comprised of people that are proactive, forward- thinking and collaborative. Technology must then enable seamless access to and collaboration with information across the organization and the community.

Interested in learning how we can help you? Complete our follow-up form to begin the conversation.

Smart Cities Follow Up Form

Cary, NC - Smart City Case Study

Reimagining Cary, NC

We are helping Cary, NC move from the "Old World" to the "New World" of governance in order to create "the town that doesn't yet exist."

Learn More

Our Framework

We use the Interoperability Continuum as a tool and framework for working with customers throughout a project lifecycle but especially during the assessment/planning and building phases. The Interoperability Continuum was developed by the Department of Homeland Security’s SAFECOM Program in recognition that sustainable solutions involved a number of interrelated factors including governance, policies and procedures, technology, training and daily usage. The Interoperability Continuum serves as maturity model to help guide a project through to successful implementation. When using this framework along with our capability-building approach we are able to help our customers achieve their goals.
Learn more about the Interoperability Continuum »

The Interoperability Continuum
Interoperability Continuum

Governance

Standard Operating Procedures

Technology

Training and Exercises

Usage

Individual agencies working independently

Informal coordination between agencies

Key multi-discipline staff collaboration on a regular basis

Regional committee working within a statewide interoperability plan framework

Individual agency SOPs

Joint SOPs for planned events

Joint SOPs for emergencies

Regional set of SOPs

National incident management system integrated SOPs

DATA ELEMENTS: Swap files

VOICE ELEMENTS: Swap radios

Common applications

Gateway

Custom-interfaced applications

Shared channels

One-way standards-based sharing

Proprietary shared system

Two-way standards-based sharing

Standards-based shared system

General orientation on equipment and applications

Single agency tabletop exercises for key field and support staff

Multi-agency tabletop exercises for key field and support staff

Multi-agency full functional exercises involving all staff

Regular comprehensive regionwide training and exercises

Planned events

Localized emergency incidents

Regional incident management

Daily use throughout region

Limited leadership, planning, and collaboration among areas with minimal investment in sustainability of systems and documentation.

High degree of leadership, planning, and collaboration among areas with commitment to and investment in sustainability of systems and documentation.

Our Capacity-Building Approach

🔍Assess

Partnership  Engagement  Planning

When you combine data, governance, technology, and people it can create a “perfect storm” of issues, making it difficult for organizations to figure out what to tackle first and how to overcome their challenges. We partner with your organization to identify and assess the problem and facilitate a shared definition of operational needs and requirements. We understand that your organization may have already invested significant resources towards building or enhancing your organization’s capabilities, so a critical step is to understand your desired end state and to partner with you to conduct an initial assessment of where you stand and to develop a plan that meets your organizational goals.

Build

Implementation  Evaluation

Our goal is to help your organization maximize use of existing technologies and resource investments, and to help you build open, sustainable information-sharing partnerships with internal and external stakeholders. We bring both the technical expertise and the operational background to understand the unique business processes, operational requirements, and political challenges you may face. Data, governance, technology, and people play a unique role in our approach for implementing effective and sustainable information management solutions.

👥Train

Transition

We employ a “train-the-trainer” model to develop and deploy operator-centric solutions while ensuring compatibility with agency-specific, regional, and national operations plans. Our subject matter experts and instructional designers specialize in designing, developing, and delivering training courses on topics like information technology, social media, GIS, emergency management, homeland security, and crisis communications. Our training courses suit a variety of instructional methods, including traditional classroom events, on-demand videos, and webinars. The G&H Training Program directs all of our training projects and ensures conformity to the highest instructional design standards and best practices. The desired outcome of these efforts is to ensure all solutions are transitioned successfully to your organization.

  Our Toolbox

  • Technology & Operational Assessments
  • Requirements Definition
  • Data Discovery & Engineering
  • Technology Assistance & Development
  • Policy Development
  • Program Development
  • Project Management
  • Strategic Communications & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Meeting Design
  • Meeting/Group Facilitation

Our Primary Concerns

Operational relevance and sustainability are our primary concerns for all of our consulting and technology engagements. Our teams build real-world solutions by partnering with our clients to identify their informational and management needs and determine the best approach to meeting them. We ensure that the stakeholder community, including end-users, drives the direction and development of a project throughout its lifecycle.

We ensure that the stakeholder community drives the direction and development of a project throughout its lifecycle.

The Stakeholder Community

The graphic below is simply meant to demonstrate that responses to incidents take place in phases and to identify who needs to be engaged in response and recovery efforts. In the first phase of a response a first responder might be a police officer, a public health official, a utility worker, a fire officer and so on—depending upon the event. Regardless of who is involved in the initial response, the ongoing response and recovery depends upon the entire community, represented in the graphic below. This is who we consider our stakeholders.

The Emergency Response Stakeholder Community

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your organization build lasting capacity.

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