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Visual Records Offers XML Data Standard System to All Emergency Management Agencies in the United States (09-Jul-2007)

Visual Records has developed a XML data standard system called Debris Emergency Management & Accountability Networking Data Standard (DEMANDS), which provides a method of collecting data on post-disaster cleanup projects as they occur and a set of tools for recognizing fraud as it happens. XML is the normal and current way computers communicate with each other.

A DEMANDS license has been offered free for two years to all the Emergency Management agencies in the United States for auditing purposes only. By adopting this XML standard, these agencies will be able to effectively and quickly recognize fraudulent activity as it occurs instead of years later during a post-project audit, ensuring that large amounts of money are not paid out by cities, counties, state or FEMA. Agencies can require cities, counties, and/or contractors to submit data to them on a regular basis, and it can be loaded into a database and analyzed for certain trends and relationships that most often indicate fraudulent activity.

This XML standard corresponds to the database structure of Visual Records' Storm Tracker product, which has been in use since 2002 as a process management and accountability tool for debris removal and cleanup projects, mainly after hurricanes. The product has been used on hundreds of projects throughout the United States. With the release of Version 5.0 this year, Storm Tracker has evolved into the exact tool these agencies need for monitoring clean projects as they happen and holding cities, counties, monitoring organizations, the Army Corps of Engineers and private contractors accountable for their work.