Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office Cuts Inspection Time in Half and Secures More Funding

The Challenge 

The Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) oversees fire inspections across the state, including compliance with their Statewide Fire Prevention Code for state facilities and most of the counties for which the state provides Fire Marshall services.

Before implementing Elite™ Fire solutions, the SFMO relied on an outdated, in-house Access database, which was no longer meeting operational needs. Inspectors had to complete reports on paper and manually enter them into the system at the office, leading to inefficiencies and significant time delays. Additionally, the lack of a centralized, real-time reporting system made it difficult for the SFMO to provide data-driven justifications for budget and staffing requests.

With a growing workload, rapidly depleting special funds, and pressure from state budget and finance officials, the department needed an immediate solution to modernize its inspection processes and provide clear data to support critical funding requests.

The Solution 

The SFMO turned to the Locations, Occupants & Inspections (LOI) module to overhaul its inspection and reporting processes. By leveraging this configurable platform, the department achieved the following:

• Real-Time Field Inspections: The transition from a paper-based system to a cloud-based module enabled inspectors to complete inspections in the field, collect digital signatures, and submit reports instantly, even in areas with limited connectivity.
• Personalized Inspection Workflows: The department reconfigured existing templates in the platform to accommodate state-specific requirements, ensuring that data collection and reporting aligned with compliance mandates for schools, hospitals, correctional facilities, and other state-owned properties.
• Enhanced Reporting & Budget Justification: Using reporting tools within the platform, the SFMO gained the ability to track and analyze inspection data, including mandated inspections, inspection times, staff workload, and travel requirements. This data became a critical resource in securing additional funding and staffing positions from the state government.
• Inspection Type Standardization & Fee Integration: The SFMO
  restructured inspection classifications to differentiate between
  local jurisdiction responsibilities and state-managed inspections. They also integrated a fee schedule directly into the module to automate fee calculations and improve billing accuracy.
• Streamlined Compliance & Audit Readiness: Implementing
  the LOI module enabled the SFMO to pass the state’s internal information management protocol, making it one of the few cloud-based storage systems approved through the official state cloud oversight service assessment.