NWSChat 2.0 - A Transformation in NWS Communication and IDSS with its Partners!

The NWSChat system allows direct, real time communication between NWS offices and their partners. Surveys have indicated it is one of the most important tools we have for providing Decision Support Services to our partners. Beginning in 2019, the NWS Office of Dissemination took action to improve and replace the aging system, which grew far faster and more widely than ever anticipated, resulting in technical failures. Stage one and two of this effort has stabilized the existing system. Stage three concerns finding a viable, long-term replacement to NWSChat and implementing it into operations. As part of the third stage, a demonstration was conducted in fall of 2021 with a number of NWS offices in the Southern Region using a customized Slack instance to communicate with their partners. The success of the demonstration led to a decision to procure Slack licenses and use Slack as the long-term replacement for the current NWSChat system, which will be known as NWSChat 2.0. The procurement was completed in July, 2022 and planning for the transition commenced at that time. NWSChat 2.0 was operationally implemented in August 2023 and this talk will discuss the current status and next steps, implementation process, and any lessons learned from this transformation Cloud and SaaS effort. NWSChat 2.0 leverages Slack to provide a line of direct communication with our partners and others and includes the features of NWSChat 1.0 while adding more! Registration also supports building out the database for the agency’s IDSS Management System (IMS), which will offer expanded communication features with NWS. NWSChat 2.0 builds upon our decade of success and growth with NWSChat 1.0 while transforming it so we can continue to robustly and reliably support our partners today and in the years to come.