Expensive high-end software suited to large organizations with Admin's who can tolerate poor UI design.
Rating: 5 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
D3 is used in reporting/documentation, accountability, performance analytics, and record keeping capacity within the organization. It is currently being used predominantly by the Security Department but does provide incident record keeping and documentation support for all departments in the local branch of our organization.
D3 addresses a number of needs within our Department including:
- The need for a software tool to facilitate officer dispatch to reported and observed incidents.
- The need for incident reporting and case management regarding offenders and investigations.
- Record keeping and documentation of officer dispatches, patrols completed, and dangerous conditions noted.
- Browser-based and mobile compatibility for use in the field and at the dispatch console.
- Report creation for productivity and threat analysis.
D3 addresses a number of needs within our Department including:
- The need for a software tool to facilitate officer dispatch to reported and observed incidents.
- The need for incident reporting and case management regarding offenders and investigations.
- Record keeping and documentation of officer dispatches, patrols completed, and dangerous conditions noted.
- Browser-based and mobile compatibility for use in the field and at the dispatch console.
- Report creation for productivity and threat analysis.
Pros
- Report creation tool is comprehensive and provides considerable options to attach information, pictures, documents, and create links between cases.
- D3 provides seamless ability for Dispatch to create a report and provide details and information, and officers in the field to complete it with greater detail.
- Guard tour tracking and reporting allow easy access to records showing officer presence at critical locations and times and access to hazardous conditions reported during tours.
- End user interface has been improved over previous versions.
- High-end workflow, threat assessment, incident response, and analytics tools are available. This is where most of D3's value exists vs. competitors in a similar price range.
Cons
- The Administration user interface is arcane, confusing, frustrating to use, and is not well supported with comprehensive training and help documentation.
- D3 does not appear to have substantial customization options for the UI, dispatch, reporting, or guard tour screens when compared to some of their competitors. If it does, the Admin tool does not make it as clear, or simple, to affect these changes as their competitors do.
- D3 Customer Support has not been particularly responsive to training needs. Multiple promises to provide training and video demonstrations for officers have been unsuccessful. Only a request for Administration training has been provided after several requests and was largely a "one size fits all" presentation. An interactive training environment that visually walks users through the use of all features in a module would be helpful.
- Case and entity linking, as well as a live search of database entries from previous reports in case management, is not as well implemented compared to some of their competitors. There is room for improvement in this regard, and I expect D3 will do so in future versions.
- Implementation of server upgrades and/or version changes have not been managed smoothly. Recent technical upgrades resulted in a multi-day disruption of D3 usability due to extreme slowness, as well as several modules not functioning properly for multiple days. Followup in the aftermath of the upgrade was nonexistent and we had to reach out regarding the chronic slowdowns and module issues, which they seemed to already be aware of. The solution to most of these issues was accomplished by the end-user and could have been communicated prior to the upgrade to mitigate most of these issues. It was not.
- They have been aggressive in marketing additional modules and features. It is unfortunate that they have not been nearly as aggressive and responsive in follow-up when supporting their product and providing training and client outreach when there isn't an additional financial incentive for them to do so.
- The program is not well tailored for small to medium-sized departments and lacks features which are provided by software developed with input from end-users who work in this industry. The lack of several small, and easily implemented, features which are tremendously helpful to the average security department reduces cost-to-value of this program considerably.
- The annual subscription for D3 is comparable to other large competitor suites, but vastly more expensive than some lesser advertised competing software that offers greater customization, more intuitive UI and Administration, modules and features D3 does not offer, and often includes free features that D3 charges a high price for.
Likelihood to Recommend
D3 is clearly tailoring their approach to large organizations with a significant geographical footprint who are largely in need of a tool that provides robust analytics and activity graphing to analyze productivity and supervisory efficiency at the executive level.
However, small to medium-sized organizations and those with narrow geographical footprints may find the investment vastly more expensive than the return. The implementation of minimum purchasing guidelines means that smaller departments will be forced into purchasing tools they have little to no use for, and medium-size departments will be paying a high price for features they do find helpful but could get elsewhere for a substantially lower price.
Additionally, small to medium-sized users may find that D3's focus on large organizational level tools is less helpful than some smaller competitor's software which provides a number of capabilities with more operational relevance for environments like office buildings, college campuses, university police departments, and housing associations.
Overall, I would recommend D3 to large organizations who have need of the advanced tools included in their more expensive modules. The lack of some smaller levels of customization, 1st line operational features, and the high-end user interface is less important at that level of implementation.
However, small to medium-sized organizations and those with narrow geographical footprints may find the investment vastly more expensive than the return. The implementation of minimum purchasing guidelines means that smaller departments will be forced into purchasing tools they have little to no use for, and medium-size departments will be paying a high price for features they do find helpful but could get elsewhere for a substantially lower price.
Additionally, small to medium-sized users may find that D3's focus on large organizational level tools is less helpful than some smaller competitor's software which provides a number of capabilities with more operational relevance for environments like office buildings, college campuses, university police departments, and housing associations.
Overall, I would recommend D3 to large organizations who have need of the advanced tools included in their more expensive modules. The lack of some smaller levels of customization, 1st line operational features, and the high-end user interface is less important at that level of implementation.
Vetted Review
2 years of experience