In an effort to prevent the type of building site inspection failures that led to the two tragic deaths in the Deutsche Bank building fire last year, city officials are trying to modernize the way inspection data is stored and shared between agencies. The city is hooking a new $5.5 million IBM computer system into the Fire Department, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Environmental Protection that will serve as a unified database that will eventually contain inspection data for every building in the city.
The database, called the Business Intelligence System, will replace an out-of date and unreliable paper-filing system, and allow the three agencies charged with inspecting buildings and construction sites to combine their efforts and more easily retrieve vital data.
