Accelerated Critical Event Discovery

Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that, prior to Dataminr First Alert, critical event discovery was a repetitive, reactive, and often overwhelming process. Analysts had to comb through disparate open-source platforms — including social media, news outlets, government alerts, and online forums — to identify potential risks. This created inefficiencies and exposed teams to information overload. With Dataminr First Alert, analysts received real-time, high-fidelity alerts that significantly reduced the need for manual collection and review. Interviewees noted that this allowed analysts to shift their focus from sifting through large volumes of data to higher-value tasks, such as assessing risk relevance, prioritizing response actions, and advising decision-makers. Over time, as the system improved signal quality and filtering, organizations reported further reductions in time spent on manual discovery efforts.

• The senior detective in legal services said: “Having First Alert has allowed me to do my job more effectively because it pulls information from a variety of platforms, including social media, newspapers, and the dark web, and sends me alerts based on the filters we’ve set. It’s been a huge help. I could never have come close to finding or addressing thousands of references on my own without First Alert.”
  The senior detective continued: “To justify the investment in First Alert to our senior leaders, we explained that it would take at least two additional personnel to deliver the same level of information and situational awareness. They’d have to view publicly available information continuously throughout the day just to keep up with the volume, and even then, I think saying it would only take two or three people was generous. It would take many more than that.”

• A director of operations in law enforcement reported that, despite a 20% to 30% increase in analyst workload over the past two years, First Alert has allowed their team to successfully absorb the increasing threats to the safety of people and assets without the need to add headcount. The director said: “We’re seeing more requests for information coming in both from partners in surrounding areas and from within our own city. Suspicious activity reporting is also increasing. At the same time, we’re supporting more large-scale special events that each have their own risk assessment to ensure public safety. We’ve got multiple major venues and recurring events, from sports to concerts to university gatherings. For every performer or high-profile event, we’re looking at what kind of events may have occurred in other cities and using that [information] to adjust our security posture here. The goal is to stay ahead and make it [less likely] for the same kind of [risks to surface] in our area.”

• The director of safety and security in education said that they were able to eliminate a full-time resource that was previously dedicated to parsing through information signals during major events, explaining: “We no longer have someone dedicated solely to scanning [public information online]. It was a huge task because it was impossible to catch everything. Now, alerts go to multiple people across our organization, so the responsibility is distributed. We don’t have to worry about potential issues falling through the cracks anymore.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s operations center has a team of 10 operations analysts in Year 1, which grows to 11 in Year 2 and 12 in Year 3 as threats to the safety of people and assets increase and the organization expands its data source coverage.

• Prior to Dataminr First Alert, each analyst spent 40 hours per month manually collecting and sifting through publicly available information to identify potential risks.

• With Dataminr First Alert, analysts reduce time spent on critical event discovery by 60% in Year 1, 65% in Year 2, and 70% in Year 3.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst is $50.

• For this benefit, the composite has a productivity recapture rate of 50%. Employees spend most of the time they save on activities that support the organization’s mission, but they do not dedicate all reclaimed time to value-added work.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• Operations analyst team size.

• Time spent collecting and sifting through publicly available information to identify potential risks before Dataminr First Alert. This may vary depending on factors such as the organization’s scope of area served, volume and complexity of information signals, number of sources consumed, and the maturity of existing information-processing workflows.

• Average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $191,000.

Accelerated Identification Of Relevant Risks

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that Dataminr First Alert significantly accelerated the identification of relevant risks after the initial discovery stage. Before implementing First Alert, operations analyst teams were routinely overwhelmed by the volume of open-source information across platforms including social media, blogs, public reporting feeds, and local and international news. Analysts spent considerable time manually triaging raw data to distinguish credible risks from background noise, misinformation, and low-priority activity. Some interviewees noted that, given the overwhelming volume and velocity of publicly available information, they had to prioritize manageable areas of coverage while accepting that some critical signals could be overlooked.

With First Alert, analysts received AI-generated, real-time alerts that had already been filtered, clustered, and prioritized based on relevance to their organization’s mission, geography, and areas of interest. The platform’s AI models automatically removed noisy or redundant signals, surfaced new developments, and grouped related items to reduce manual effort. As a result, analysts could quickly identify and validate high-priority risks, often within minutes of emergence. With the productivity gains they experienced, interviewees explained that analysts were able to dedicate more time to high-value activities such as case analysis, interagency collaboration, and producing situation reports.

• The commander in defense noted that previously, they personally spent 3 to 6 hours daily assessing the operational environment and prioritizing critical information — in addition to the time that their analysts also spent on the effort. The commander explained: “Time is an important asset in this line of work. The [First Alert] tool allows us to use our time wisely. We’re spending less time on “what ifs” and “what do we think is happening” and more time focused on critical preparation activities like rehearsals, pre-mission checks, and inspections.”

• The director of operations in law enforcement explained: “We have fewer items to [analyze] because the most relevant ones are now automatically coming to us. We are a lot better informed about our situational awareness than we were in the past, much more quickly.”
  The director of operations continued: “We invested in First Alert to help our analysts make more efficient use of their time. We saw it as a way to reduce the labor required to search through social media and find relevant information more quickly. At the time the decision was made, I was new in my role. Our analysts brought it forward as a tool they needed to streamline their work. My job is to support the team and ensure they have the right tools, so I worked with them to secure funding and implement it. They’ve since started using it and really value what it brings to their workflow. They’re doing way less manual effort now.”‘

• The supervisor of operations in law enforcement shared that First Alert helped reduce time sorting through irrelevant alerts by helping filter nonactionable content, noting: “We had a case where the system was pulling in a large volume of content, some of which was unrelated, like music videos where people were just mentioning or displaying guns. We flagged this to the Dataminr team, and they were able to quickly adjust the backend parameters. That cut down on the noise and saved our analysts time by narrowing the focus to what we actually needed to be aware of.”

• The director of safety and security in education reported a significant reduction in irrelevant risk signals after implementing First Alert. In a single event, the number of risk signals decreased from hundreds of thousands to just 25 alerts. The director explained: “Our previous setup was really cumbersome to manipulate. We had to scroll through long lists of social media posts, which made it difficult to filter out false positives, especially for incidents that included terms that were seemingly relevant but had nothing to do with our area of responsibility and that constantly triggered alerts. The Dataminr team has been much more effective at helping us fine-tune the system to remove those kinds of irrelevant alerts so we can stay focused on actual risks.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s operations center has a team of 10 operations analysts in Year 1, which grows to 11 in Year 2 and 12 in Year 3 as threats to the safety of people and assets increase and the organization expands its data source coverage.

• Prior to using Dataminr First Alert, operations analysts manually discovered 150,000 risk signals in Year 1 by searching across open-source platforms such as social media, blogs, and public news feeds. This total includes both relevant and irrelevant content, all of which required analyst time to review. As overall threats to the safety of people and assets increase, this number rises by 15% annually to 172,500 in Year 2 and 198,375 in Year 3.

• With Dataminr First Alert, the organization experiences a 90% reduction in irrelevant signals due to AI-driven signal triage and prioritization.

• On average, it took 7 minutes to manually research each risk signal prior to implementing Dataminr First Alert.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst is $50.

• For this benefit, the composite has a productivity recapture rate of 50%. Employees spend most of the time they save on activities that support the organization’s mission, but they do not dedicate all reclaimed time to value-added work.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• Risk signal volume before Dataminr First Alert. This may vary depending on factors such as the organization’s scope of area served, the number and diversity of ingested sources, the sector-specific risk landscape, and maturity of existing information-processing workflows.

• Average time of manual analysis per risk signal. This may vary depending on factors such as signal complexity, analyst experience, and protocols.

• Average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.0M.

Faster Critical Event Response

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that, prior to adopting Dataminr First Alert, critical events were often identified too late — sometimes hours after initial signals emerged. This delay was driven in part by slow critical event discovery and common operating picture development, which hindered timely situational awareness. By the time their teams relayed information to law enforcement agents and other emergency personnel, the window for early containment had often closed, leading to more complex, resource-intensive responses and greater operational risk.

With Dataminr First Alert, interviewees’ organizations experienced a significant reduction in time to respond to verified critical events. The platform’s ability to surface high-priority alerts earlier and with greater accuracy meant that field teams could intervene faster — often while an incident was still developing. This earlier response enabled more efficient use of resources and reduced the duration and cost of on-the-ground response efforts. Over time, this shift contributed to a more proactive posture toward emerging risks.

• The commander in defense explained how First Alert helped them relay information more quickly for resources to act faster in the field. In the past, it could take up to 4 hours for critical updates — such as roadblocks, disruptions, or other incidents — to reach them through traditional, bottom-up reporting channels. Now, they receive early warnings in as little as 5 minutes. The commander described the impact, noting: “We used the First Alert tool to [stay informed of] disruptions along our planned routes. Overlaying data onto our maps allowed us to adjust in advance. It saved a lot of time and money. If you’re sitting idling for hours in tanks or other vehicles, you’re burning a lot of fuel and budget.”
  The commander continued: “There was an instance during an operation overseas where our unit was already moving along a planned route when [an incident] started blocking major intersections. Normally, our interpreter would have to call us with an update so we could adjust, but First Alert actually beat the interpreter to it. We were already [following] the disruption and notified other task forces to avoid the area.”

• The director of operations in law enforcement described a critical event in which they were able to alert partner organizations and prompt action within an hour — rather than the several hours it would have typically taken in the prior environment. The director explained: “We recently had a [major incident] that impacted critical infrastructure and were worried that it could have been an attack. Immediately after I learned about the [incident] from First Alert, I was able to make sure that the appropriate resources got out to the scene to respond. I was getting notifications from Dataminr before I got them from my own department.”
  The director of operations continued: “The big risk we’re focused on is preventing or subduing a major incident. That’s always the primary concern. We’re trying to stay ahead of situations like active shooters and social unrest. At large-scale events, there are often agitators who stir up the crowd and push things in a direction that the event was never intended to go. First Alert helps us go in and minimize the risk more quickly.”
  The director concluded: “It costs a lot of money to deploy law enforcement, because the personnel and staffing time is expensive. You also have to factor in the fact that we’re bringing a lot of assets to the scene, whether it’s drones, robots, radiation detection, or canines, depending on the scenario. So, it can vary greatly, but First Alert is saving us a lot of money.”

• The senior detective in legal services described an incident in which Dataminr flagged an online post with potential reputational consequences. Because the alert surfaced within an hour of the post going live, the team was able to quickly assess and escalate the issue. Without Dataminr, they noted that the post likely would have gone unnoticed for days or even weeks, because it fell outside typical information-processing parameters and was not something they would have proactively searched for.

• The supervisor of operations in law enforcement shared that they now receive information about critical events from First Alert an hour faster, on average, than they previously did through public news or reports from partner agencies. They explained: “The timing varies, but in most cases, we’re seeing information from Dataminr First Alert before we get it through other alerting mechanisms. There have been incidents, like a mass shooting in another state, where we received the alert before anything hit the news or came through local channels. We’re able to stay ahead more consistently without having to rely solely on catching something at the right time ourselves while also juggling other work.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Prior to using Dataminr First Alert, operations analysts manually discovered 150,000 risk signals in Year 1 by searching across open-source platforms such as social media, blogs, and public news feeds. This total includes both relevant and irrelevant content, all of which required analyst time to review. As overall threats to the safety of people and assets increase, this number rises by 15% annually to 172,500 in Year 2 and 198,375 in Year 3.

• On average, 0.01% of risk signals result in escalation before Dataminr First Alert.

• The average cost per hour for response operations is $200. This represents the estimated average hourly cost of deploying field resources by the composite organization to respond to critical events.

• The average time required to respond to a critical event before Dataminr is 4 hours.

• With Dataminr First Alert, the composite filters out a significant portion of irrelevant noise and has an alert volume of 15,000 in Year 1. As overall threats to the safety of people and assets increase, this number rises by 15% annually to 17,250 in Year 2, and 19,837 in Year 3.

• On average, 0.05% of risk signals result in escalation with Dataminr First Alert. This higher escalation rate compared to the preadoption rate of 0.01% reflects Dataminr First Alert’s improved accuracy and prioritization capabilities, which help operations analysts identify and escalate more relevant and actionable risks that may have been previously missed or overlooked.

• With Dataminr First Alert, the composite experiences a 50% reduction in time to respond to critical events.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• Risk signal volume before Dataminr First Alert. This may vary depending on factors such as the organization’s scope of area served, the number and diversity of consumed sources, the sector-specific risk landscape, and maturity of existing information-processing workflows.

• Average percentage of risk signals that result in escalation before and after Dataminr First Alert.

• Average cost per hour for response operations.

• Average time to respond to critical events before Dataminr First Alert.

• Alert volume with Dataminr First Alert.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $21,000.

Streamlined Situation Reporting

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that prior to Dataminr First Alert, operations analysts spent extensive hours manually compiling both recurring reports (such as weekly information briefs and situational awareness updates) and major reports (including comprehensive risk assessments, incident analysis reports, and deep-dive evaluations of specific events or emerging risks). These reports previously depended on fragmented, static data sources, which frequently became outdated by delivery time. This manual effort hindered operations analyst teams’ agility by slowing down their ability to relay information about emerging risks in a timely manner.

With the First Alert investment, interviewees’ organizations gained real-time information processing across diverse public data sources that were automatically filtered to surface high-priority information. This shift significantly reduced the time analysts spent consolidating and verifying information for faster, more accurate situation reporting.

• The commander in defense shared that the extensive manual effort required for situational awareness and critical event discovery in their prior environment made it impossible to meet the demand for situation reporting across a wide operational footprint: “We’re only allotted two analysts in our unit, and with [nearly 1,000] partners and over 100 advisors employed across [our region] on any given day, there was no way I could ask our two analysts to produce weekly [information] summaries or open-source reports. They were simply overwhelmed. We needed to build a common operating picture that our people could access while on location to see what was happening in their area.”

• The director of operations in law enforcement explained: “Our analysts produce various situational awareness briefings, including special event assessments and [risk] assessments. Some are specific to an event that is shared only with those involved, and others are broader alerts sent countywide to make sure everyone is [aware of] particular types of [events]. For projects involving three or four analysts over several days, First Alert saves us several hours of work depending on the size and scale of the [risk] or event they’re creating a report for.”

• The senior detective in legal services said: “We appreciate the AI-generated summaries that First Alert provides. They give us the latest information and a quick rundown of everything that’s happened around a specific event, so we can keep up as it develops. Instead of reading and stitching together multiple updates manually, I can review a concise synopsis and quickly pass it along to others on the team. Whereas before, it would take 30 to 45 minutes to create a report ourselves.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s operations center has a team of 10 operations analysts in Year 1, which grows to 11 in Year 2 and 12 in Year 3 as threats to the safety of people and assets increase and the organization expands its data source coverage.

• On average, each operations analyst produces two recurring situation reports per week, each requiring 1 hour to complete.

• With Dataminr First Alert, operations analysts experience a 50% reduction in time spent producing recurring situation reports.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst is $50.

• Five operations analysts are involved in producing major situation reports.

• The operations analysts collectively produce an average of five major situation reports per quarter, each requiring 16 hours to complete.

• With Dataminr First Alert, operations analysts experience a 75% reduction in time spent producing major situation reports.

• For this benefit, the composite has a productivity recapture rate of 50%. Employees spend most of the time they save on activities that support the organization’s mission, but they do not dedicate all reclaimed time to value-added work.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• Number of operations analysts involved in reporting.

• Number of recurring and major situation reports produced.

• Time spent producing recurring and major situation reports prior to Dataminr First Alert.

• Average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $99,000.

Improved Operations Analyst Readiness

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that before Dataminr First Alert, training new operations analysts was a lengthy and complex process. Analysts needed to master critical event discovery and distillation while also developing judgment to prioritize alerts based on their organization’s mission, specific use cases, and unique risk landscape. Before they could become productive in their role, new analysts required extensive one-on-one training from director-level resources and significant time spent understanding which signals were truly relevant.

With Dataminr First Alert, onboarding new analysts becomes significantly more efficient. The platform’s automated alert triage and intuitive interface helped analysts quickly recognize and prioritize risks aligned with organizational goals. Directors who once spent substantial time on hands-on training were able to shift their focus to strategic initiatives, including conducting more-advanced analyses and collaborating with different departments and agencies.

• The senior detective in legal services shared that supervising new analyst hires in the prior environment required 40% to 50% of their own time. This was due, in part, to the need for personnel with analyst or sworn law enforcement backgrounds, given the level of confidentiality and contextual judgment required. Each hire also needed a covert or anonymized identity to access and view social media platforms safely. The time and effort involved in establishing, managing, and remaining accountable for these identities contributed significantly to the operational overhead associated with onboarding new hires.

• The manager of operations in law enforcement said: “Training analysts in our prior environment was very cumbersome because there was a lot of information to teach someone on the spot. We have so many different use cases, events, and areas of focus. The time to train an analyst varied significantly based on how tech-savvy they were. Training our people on First Alert is pretty instant. It’s fairly easy to use, even for those who are less technical. Once a few people on our team learned how to use it, they passed their learnings down to other colleagues. It was very seamless.”

• The director of safety and security in education explained: “There is a lot of training needed to view social media effectively without a tool like First Alert. Without it, it would take six months to a year just to train someone to understand our full operational footprint and what to [consume]. Of that time, I would have to spend a quarter of my time training the resource. Even then, we’re receiving information through Dataminr that I’m not even sure how we’d manually access without it, including alerts from city or law enforcement agencies in foreign countries.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization’s operations center has a team of 10 operations analysts in Year 1, which grows to 11 in Year 2 and 12 in Year 3 as threats to the safety of people and assets increase and the organization expands its data source coverage.

• On average, 20% of the operations analyst team turns over annually, which requires new hires to be trained.

• Before Dataminr First Alert, each analyst requires six months of training to learn to detect, distill, and deliver risk assessment information.

• With First Alert, the time to train new operations analysts is reduced by 90%.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations analyst is $50.

• One operations director is involved in training operations analysts prior to First Alert, spending 25% of analysts’ total training time on hands-on instruction and guidance.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate of an operations director is $75.

• For this benefit, the composite has a productivity recapture rate of 50%. Employees spend most of the time they save on activities that support the organization’s mission, but they do not dedicate all reclaimed time to value-added work.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• Operations analyst team size.

• Average operations analyst churn rate.

• Time to train operations analysts on detecting, distilling, and delivering risk assessment information prior to Dataminr First Alert. This may vary based on factors such as analysts’ prior expertise in risk analysis, the complexity of an organization’s risk environment, and the efficiency of internal knowledge-sharing processes.

• Average fully burdened hourly rates of an operations analyst and an operations director.

• Number of directors involved in training analysts.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $117,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Improved mission-critical outcomes. Interviewees shared how Dataminr First Alert helped their organizations save lives, prevent incidents, and enhance overall public safety by delivering real-time alerts tailored to their unique mission priorities. By quickly distilling vast amounts of unstructured data into precise, actionable information, First Alert ensured that organizations had more accurate critical event discovery to better anticipate emerging risks and respond proactively. This improvement in situational awareness directly contributed to strengthening the safety and security of the communities they serve.

  • The commander in defense explained: “First Alert is critical to our mission planning because we can tailor alerts to our specific information requirements using keywords. This helps us decide where to deploy personnel and equipment. We’ve built a shared operating picture around it, and it’s become core to how we make decisions and keep people informed and safe.”
    The commander continued: “We’ve been able to save costs associated with running day-to-day operations by making better decisions with quicker insights, but more than that, First Alert has helped save lives. We’ve been near areas where there were gunshots fired, and we were able to immediately call our partners who were approaching the danger and tell them to reroute.”
  • The supervisor of operations in law enforcement said: “There have been instances where something was posted online about a school lockdown or a possible shooter nearby. We were able to quickly relay that to local law enforcement, work with them to ensure the school was safe, and help determine whether there was actually a gun on campus or if the threat was in the surrounding area. We also assist in trying to locate those involved.”

• Cross-functional collaboration. Interviewees noted that First Alert facilitated improved information sharing and coordination both within their departments and across external agencies. By providing a trusted, centralized source of real-time information, the platform helped break down silos to enable more effective joint-response efforts and heightened situational awareness across multiple stakeholders.

  • The operations director in law enforcement said that they share the information provided by First Alert with 75 external entities, including other departments and local organizations, explaining: “Across [all the] counties we serve, we’re the largest department by far. Smaller departments don’t have the same resources or capacity to invest in technology and personnel like we do, so we share [information] with them. We also partner closely with critical infrastructure, schools, and religious organizations, because if you look nationally, those are often the primary targets where major incidents occur. We work to build relationships with leadership at these sites for information sharing. Once we share that information with them, if they have the capabilities to deal with it, then they will handle it. If they don’t, and ask for our assistance, then we will certainly provide any help that we can in dealing with the threat.”

• Improved preparedness for travel and on-site risk assessments. Interviewees described how they leveraged First Alert’s real-time alerts to assess conditions before travel or field deployments. Having access to proactive risk assessments allowed their teams to better plan and adjust in dynamic environments and subsequently reduce exposure to emerging risks and enhance safety for personnel on the move.

  • The senior detective in legal services shared: “During a recent high-profile event, our team received real-time alerts about [incidents] unfolding near our travel route. With those updates coming in as we were on the way, we quickly rerouted and avoided the area altogether. It wasn’t necessarily about immediate danger, but we were able to avoid unnecessary disruption. Without First Alert, we likely wouldn’t have known until we were already there, and it would’ve taken longer to get to where we needed to go.”
  • The director of safety and security in education explained: “Dataminr plays a valuable role in giving me situational awareness ahead of [and during] travel once students on study abroad programs are on the ground. It allows me to get real on-the-ground information about what’s happening in a defined area, not just about broader incidents elsewhere in the city. Having those localized alerts gives us timely insight into conditions in the immediate area.”
    The director of safety and security continued: “If it’s a study abroad program, I’ll usually travel with someone from our study abroad office and sometimes the faculty member leading the trip to conduct a risk assessment. If it’s a mission trip, I’ll travel with someone from that team who knows the local partner well. We’ll do assessments, approve the location for future travel, and continue to [assess] the situation after the fact. Some of my on-site risk assessment trips happen months before students arrive, and things can change significantly, especially if there’s political instability. I use Dataminr to [stay aware of] developments and help decide if any changes to our travel approvals are needed.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement First Alert and later realize additional uses and opportunities, including:

• Strategic partnership with Dataminr. Interviewees shared that their ongoing partnership with Dataminr enhanced their agility by ensuring continuous, mission-aligned event coverage that could quickly adapt to evolving use cases. They noted that Dataminr’s team fully managed the development and deployment of new alerting streams and alert configurations — sometimes completing requests within a few hours. This hands-off, rapid-response approach enabled organizations to seamlessly integrate emerging risks and expand First Alert’s impact across multiple departments and operational scenarios.

  • The senior detective in legal services explained: “I have big ideas for how we can expand our use of First Alert. We’ve talked about integrating it into [other apps], but I also see value for other teams and task forces. Over time, we’d also like to add more users to the tool so we’re not relying on just one person to catch something important while others are busy or unavailable.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).