How Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue strengthened risk communication and operational oversight with SharpCloud

Introduction

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service (D&S Fire & Rescue) is England’s largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service, responsible for protecting communities across a large and diverse geographic area. Managing risk in this environment requires clear communication, strong operational control, and the ability to track actions and decisions as situations evolve.

D&S Fire & Rescue needed a more effective way to understand, communicate, and manage risk across incidents and operational activities. With SharpCloud, the service transformed how it visualized risk, tracked actions, and engaged stakeholders—enabling clearer oversight, improved accountability, and more informed decision-making across the organization.

The challenge

D&S Fire & Rescue operated in a high-risk, fast-moving environment where risks, actions, and controls needed to be clearly understood and continuously updated. Prior to SharpCloud, tracking risk mitigation, progress updates, and disclosures was difficult, particularly when information was spread across 15 A3 spreadsheets and 30+ separate Microsoft Excel workbooks.

This made it challenging to maintain momentum on action tracking and ensure visibility across multiple risk controls and action owners. Communicating risk effectively—both during incidents and as part of ongoing operational management—required significant manual effort and coordination.

Without a clear, shared view of risks and actions, D&S FIRE & RESCUE faced limitations in maintaining oversight, ensuring accountability, and keeping stakeholders aligned around priorities. The service needed a better way to communicate risk clearly and support decisionmaking in dynamic operational conditions.

The solution

D&S Fire & Rescue adopted SharpCloud to improve how risk information was visualized, communicated, and managed across the organization.

SharpCloud provided a interactive environment that acted as a source of truth, where risks, controls, and actions could be clearly mapped and tracked. By bringing together thousands of cells of data into one simplified view, D&S Fire & Rescue moved beyond static reporting and created a live view of risk that reflected real-time progress, ownership, and dependencies.

By visualizing relationships between risks and mitigation activities, SharpCloud enhanced data understanding and made it easier to see how actions contributed to reducing exposure. By replacing scattered and unengaging spreadsheets with dynamic views of risk data, the system gave leaders clearer insights into where attention was needed and enabled more effective tracking of progress, updates, and disclosures.

By making responsibilities and status visible across the organization, SharpCloud helped D&S Fire & Rescue maintain momentum in action tracking. This improved operational oversight and supported better-informed decision-making, ensuring risk management remained an active, ongoing process rather than a periodic reporting exercise.

The results

With SharpCloud, D&S Fire & Rescue strengthened its approach to risk communication and operational oversight.

Risks, controls, and actions are now visible in a single environment, improving clarity and accountability across the service. Teams are better able to track progress, maintain momentum, and communicate updates as situations evolve.

Senior leaders benefit from improved visibility into risk status and mitigation activity, supporting more informed decisions during incidents and across day-to-day operations. Today, SharpCloud plays a key role in helping D&S Fire & Rescue manage risk more effectively in a complex, high-pressure operational environment.