Operational Edge · Flagship Project, Operational Digital Transformations
SARManager
The operational edge for life-saving teams. A unified incident-command platform that ties a team's existing systems into one live picture — from callout to close-out, bringing search and rescue into the future.
The Problem
Life-or-death response runs on disconnected tools
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Fragmented systems
D4H, CalTopo, paper ICS forms, phone trees and spreadsheets — none of them talk to each other.
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Time is safety
In the first minutes of a callout, coordination overhead is measured in lives. Manual re-keying costs time no one has.
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Accountability gaps
Who is on scene, on what task, with what gear, and when is their drop-dead time? Too often that lives on a whiteboard.
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Command chases information
Operational data should be pushed upward automatically. Instead, leadership phones around to build a picture that is already out of date.
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Volunteers under load
Teams are volunteer-run. Tools must work on a phone, in the field, under stress — or they don't get used.
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Not a search problem
Every one of these is a coordination problem — and coordination is something software can actually fix.
Our Approach
A trusted solutions partner — not another vendor
Operational Edge works alongside the domain experts who run these operations, bringing the rigour of critical-infrastructure engineering to search and rescue. We leverage the systems teams already trust and connect them — rather than forcing a rip-and-replace.
- Leverage, don't replace. D4H stays the system of record; CalTopo stays the map. SARManager makes them work as one.
- Built with practitioners. Designed hand-in-hand with active SAR leaders, on real operations and real training nights.
- Safety #1, mission #2. The operating principle behind everything Operational Edge does is built into every workflow.
- Field-first. If it doesn't work on a phone, in the cold, under stress, it doesn't ship.
What It Is
One live operating picture, callout to close-out
The live operation Board — who is on scene, on task, and on time.
What a coordinator gets
- Intake to rollout. Parse a dispatch message, start from a pre-plan for that place, plot the IPP, and run a guided Deployment Wizard.
- Callouts that get answered. Members answer Responding or Unavailable from the app, a text reply or the phone keypad — and a live board shows who is coming, when, and who was never reached.
- Live accountability. A shared Board of who is on scene, on what task, with radio-check timers, drop-dead times, and command paged the moment a team goes quiet.
- Mapping built in. CalTopo probability rings, team tracks, and field clues plotted live with photo and accuracy.
- Searchers know their job. One card on the phone: their team, team lead, task, comms plan and where to report — updated the moment command assigns them.
- Paperwork, automated. ICS Canada forms and the SAR104 pack, pre-filled from operation data.
- Command visibility. Field, task, resource and accountability data pushed upward into one live dashboard and a command-post wall display.
- The whole year, not just the night. Volunteer hours, team reports, and who is qualified and ready to send tonight.
In the app today · v2.13.0
Captured from the SARManager training scenario. Every person and operation shown is fictional.
What It Can Do Today
18 capabilities and 5 modules, live on real operations
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Call Intake + Deployment Wizard
Paste dispatch → parsed → guided rollout.
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Pre-alert
Ask who is available before committing to an operation.
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Pre-Plans
Scenario, assignments, comms, medical & CalTopo map — reused.
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Answered callouts
Responding / Unavailable by app, text reply or keypad; re-paged.
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Critical Alerts
Loudest callouts ring through silent on iPhone and Android.
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Live Board & CalTopo map
Accountability, radio timers, probability rings, live clues.
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Overdue alerts
Command paged when a team or searcher goes quiet.
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Teams & Assignments
Auto-build teams, POD & status, push the tasking.
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Searcher check-in
App or browser; one card with team, lead, task & comms.
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IMT roles & checklists
Delegate roles — even to outside agencies — with live checklists.
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SAR forms auto-fill
ICS Canada 201, 202, 204–206, 209, 211, 214 and 309, plus SAR104.
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Escalation & mutual aid
ICS-213-RR; partner teams paged and joined to your board.
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Equipment & QR sign-out
Container-level checkout, quick checks, gear signed to people.
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Command post display
Wall-screen view for the command vehicle; no personal data.
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On-call scheduling
Rotations and phone trees; synced to D4H and 3CX.
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Reports & volunteer hours
Operations by type and outcome, hours, mutual aid; CSV export.
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Event kit & walk-up join
One QR sheet: join an exercise from a phone, no app required.
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Training server
A scripted world to practise in; nothing reaches a real phone.
Modules
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SARConnect
Inbound dispatch → reviewable operation drafts, and the duty phones ring.
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SARDR
Disaster-response staged callouts & mobilization.
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SARDrone
Live DJI telemetry, CalTopo tracking & video.
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New
SARScribe
Command-post radio traffic transcribed into the incident record and the ICS 309 — nothing changes until a person confirms it.
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New
Personnel & Equipment
Members, qualifications, competencies and gear — with readiness that answers "who can I send tonight?" and optional two-way D4H publishing.
Technical Overview
Architecture & data flow
A secure multi-tenant operations platform, engineered to the standards of the critical-infrastructure world it came from.
At the edge · People · Devices · Agencies
- Coordinators & IMT Command shell — any browser
- Searchers Mobile app · web check-in · text & keypad replies
- Tasking agencies Dispatch SMS · email · API
- RPAS DJI drone + Pilot (RC)
- Command post Radio capture box · wall display
SARManager — secure multi-tenant operations platform
Next.js · Azure App Service · per-org DB isolation
- Auth & Org Gate Clerk identity · capability RBAC
- ICS Operations Core intake → board → forms → close-out
- Modules SARConnect · SARDR · SARDrone · SARScribe · Personnel & Equipment
- Live Telemetry Bridge MQTT singleton · video gateway
Data layer
- Per-org SQLite isolated operational data
- Platform registry DB tenancy & configuration
- PDF & report store forms, packs, close-out records
Integrated systems — leveraged, not replaced
- D4Hroster · quals · incidents · two-way
- CalTopomaps · rings · tracks
- TwilioSMS · voice
- SendGridemail · forms
- HEREgeocoding
- Expo Pushfield alerts
- 3CXon-call phone routing
Where We Are
The hard part is done
The core platform is built, in production, and proven on live operations and training with an active SAR team. What comes next is not invention — it is hardening, validation, and scale.
- v2.13.0
- In production, used on real operations
- 18 + 5
- Capabilities and modules shipping today
- 7
- External systems integrated
- In production on Azure with per-org data isolation and capability RBAC.
- Proven on real callouts and training nights with an active SAR team.
- Already integrated with D4H, CalTopo, Twilio, SendGrid, HERE, Expo Push and 3CX.
- Run on a training exercise with walk-up searchers — and the searchers' own feedback shipped as the next release.
What's Next
Built to work when the network isn't
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In scoping
Provincial reporting
Team Reports already total operations, outcomes, hours and mutual aid. Next is the SAR Alberta return itself — produced from the same records, not re-keyed.
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In design · Device + service
SARBeacon
A secure location-beacon device and service designed to function in low- and no-cell-coverage terrain — keeping accountability alive exactly where teams operate.
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A funded pilot unlocks this
Quality & scale
Multi-team hardening under real concurrent load, SARScribe and Personnel & Equipment proven on live teams, and the operational validation that only a funded pilot can provide.
Deployment
Hosted by us, or on your own infrastructure
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Available today
Hosted
We run SARManager on Azure and your team simply signs in. Nothing to operate, nothing to patch — the fastest way to get a team live.
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Six-month term · Your infrastructure
Self-hosted pilot
A licensed container on your own subscription, for a six-month term. Your operational data never leaves infrastructure you control. Setup, training and technical support are included.
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Leverage, don't replace
What you bring
Your D4H and CalTopo accounts stay yours and stay authoritative. We provide the application, identity, geocoding, and SMS and voice paging.
Next Steps
Pilot it, prove it, then scale
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01
Back the roadmap
Move from founder-funded to backed — resourcing the roadmap, hardening, and support that province-wide reliability requires.
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02
Pilot with a few teams
Run SARManager on real operations with a small cohort to validate quality and scalability.
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03
Prove it, then scale
Use pilot evidence to expand to more teams with confidence in reliability and fit.
Operational Edge
Let's give life-saving teams their operational edge.
A trusted solutions partner — leveraging the systems teams trust, built by operators who work where safety comes first. Technical expertise, bringing SAR into the future.