Information Management & Notifications during an Emergency.

As per global risk reports on current threats, a threat likelihood and its impact have added a new dimension to the concept of urgency & emergency. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the situations like civic unrest, cyber-attacks and geo-thermal disturbances, all examples lead to one conclusion; these chaotic situations severely impact health, businesses, and the economy.

When it comes to dealing with emergencies, it’s observed that such situations trigger extreme panic. Businesses need to handle these situations rapidly, efficiently & tactfully, though few are prepared to do so. To handle a crisis, emergency management features such as information management and multi-channel notifications can be invaluable. In a disaster or an emergency, this helps alerts teams and helps to take prompt action before it’s too late.

Assimilate & Disseminate Information Trusted sources of information and guidance from civic authorities needs be analyzed and shared with business stakeholders, providing a means to access genuine information which is a challenge during emergencies. Tutorial videos and internal crisis related corporate communications supplements this.

Emergency Notification This involves crisis handling with timely notifications to reduce panic. A BCM team chooses from pre-built templates once they identify the crisis and then add the relevant data for sending notifications. It leads to better execution of crisis management and recovery decisions.

Crisis Notification Notify employees when the disaster hits. The crisis management team uses from prebuilt crisis templates to send notifications to the concerned staff. This minimizes the efforts and time in coming up with the relevant messages.

BCP Activation Alerts Employees need to know when they need to activate their BCP. Once they activate their respective BCP, they refer to their specific plans and take action accordingly. This supports them in being attentive to the situation & execute steps planned by the leadership team.

Broadcasts Emergency notifications need to have the capability to broadcast tens of thousands of warnings, multi-lingual voice messages, texts, and emails with proper information at a time. Importantly, messaging is targeted to specific groups of employees, contractors, upstream and downstream supply chain participants through a variety of communication mechanisms.

Mobile App for Emergency Situation A mobile application is specifically designed for supporting organizations to manage crises successfully. It streamlines crisis communication in real-time through notifications. The two-way process addresses the utmost necessities during the disruption period.

Emergency Contact Directory The directory consists of important PoCs in the crisis management team. With the updated contacts in one place, leadership teams can easily take quick actions once they get notified.

Response plans for a crisis A virtual command center helps the crisis management team connect and access the action plans required to respond to a crisis.

Prompt & Agile Decision Making Mobile apps provides the means to leadership teams to quickly make proactive decisions on-the-move. It supports implementing pre-planned communication strategy & critical business operational tactics that minimize revenue loss, customer dissatisfaction, and reputational damage.

Taking Emergency and Crisis Management to the next level

• Reduce Panic Level in Employees Emergency notification notifies concerned employees about the critical processes and the crisis once the CMT identifies the crisis. The main purpose is to get the alert and jump into planned actions during a crisis in no time without confusion or panic.

• Monitor Employee Health Status Check Checking up on Employees, is a clear expression of the Organizations concern for their wellbeing and importantly to provide the correct guidance.

• Supply Chain BCP Status Check This helps ensure that supply chains are not broken with periodic status checks on suppliers, upstream and downstream supply chain participants.

• Current Updates on BCP Activation Status The emergency app offers notification on the respective BCP status. It sends out alerts when there is a need to manually access the business continuity plan and take the necessary measures as the situation demands.  

• Communication through Notification This feature is used to notify the crisis management team about an emergency. The crisis management team then disseminates the communication relevant to the crisis to all the employees.  

• Lastly and most often neglected, post emergency communication plans.

With AutoBCM™, you can collaborate online and share information about a disruptive event in real-time, including announcements, situation reports, details regarding planned meetings, and more. Capture and manage real-time incidents with the Crisis & Incident Management module. Quickly access recovery plans, resources plans, communications tools, contact lists, link individual assets/applications, other information resources and align RTOs. Provide immediate visibility to management for decision-making allowing them to effectively track and resolve issues, regardless of location.

Authors: Ms. Nandini Shekhawat, Director, Ascent Business and Mr. Kapil Raghavan, CEO Total RegTech. You can reach us at contactus@totalregtechsolutions.com or visit our website www.totalregtechsolutions.com