Recent national events have highlighted how an effective rapid communication system can provide an invaluable link between managers and employees. Though an active armed shooter is one of the nightmare scenarios our business continuity community plans for, more likely scenarios include weather or IT disruptions, power/service outages, hazardous material spill, flooding, or pandemic influenza.
How can your company implement or manage a notification system to minimize work disruption, and create the smallest possible impact on the bottom line?
There are a few things to consider. First, how many employees, suppliers and customers would require a rapid notification if some segment of your business were to be interrupted? Second, how much risk or potential loss would be mitigated by having the ability to quickly disseminate information to the right people? Finally, what is the investment, both monetarily and technically, required to obtain a notification system?
Nearly any company could gain benefit by migration to an automated critical notification service. Though used by large nonprofit and political organizations as well as collection agencies for years, the mass call interactive voice response (IVR) technology has only recently become widely used. Partly in response to 9-11 and the noted failures, as well as a rapid decline in the cost of ownership by obtaining these services on a subscription basis, many organizations from small business to major corporations have found great value in rapid notification systems. Often instituted by the emergency manager or business continuity director for contingency planning, these systems provide additional value by automating many finance, human resource and operations functions as well. This added bang for the buck often allows smaller organizations to justify the purchase.
The mitigation of risk is very specific to each company's potential threats with regard to both severity and likelihood. While public safety organizations are compelled to institute notification systems to alert residents, the waters muddy considerably when trying to define an employer's responsibility in the same area. While we would all love to provide the greatest system available, it is not always economically feasible. This is where an analysis of how much risk the company is willing to accept is performed, along with the possible cost and impact involved with doing nothing.
The costs of these systems vary wildly as does the functionality of each. A company could obtain a solution that could contact all employees, suppliers and customers on their phones for as little as a few thousand dollars a year. On the other end of the scale, you have enterprise systems allowing recipients to respond, mobilize and coordinate using nearly all communications devices in several different languages. This kind of service can run into the many thousands of dollars per month range.
As businesses plan for disaster and recovery, rapid coordinated notification in one form or another is essential to keeping the company moving forward. When the unexpected happens, will your business be ready?
For more information visit www.warncalling.com.
How can your company implement or manage a notification system to minimize work disruption, and create the smallest possible impact on the bottom line?
There are a few things to consider. First, how many employees, suppliers and customers would require a rapid notification if some segment of your business were to be interrupted? Second, how much risk or potential loss would be mitigated by having the ability to quickly disseminate information to the right people? Finally, what is the investment, both monetarily and technically, required to obtain a notification system?
Nearly any company could gain benefit by migration to an automated critical notification service. Though used by large nonprofit and political organizations as well as collection agencies for years, the mass call interactive voice response (IVR) technology has only recently become widely used. Partly in response to 9-11 and the noted failures, as well as a rapid decline in the cost of ownership by obtaining these services on a subscription basis, many organizations from small business to major corporations have found great value in rapid notification systems. Often instituted by the emergency manager or business continuity director for contingency planning, these systems provide additional value by automating many finance, human resource and operations functions as well. This added bang for the buck often allows smaller organizations to justify the purchase.
The mitigation of risk is very specific to each company's potential threats with regard to both severity and likelihood. While public safety organizations are compelled to institute notification systems to alert residents, the waters muddy considerably when trying to define an employer's responsibility in the same area. While we would all love to provide the greatest system available, it is not always economically feasible. This is where an analysis of how much risk the company is willing to accept is performed, along with the possible cost and impact involved with doing nothing.
The costs of these systems vary wildly as does the functionality of each. A company could obtain a solution that could contact all employees, suppliers and customers on their phones for as little as a few thousand dollars a year. On the other end of the scale, you have enterprise systems allowing recipients to respond, mobilize and coordinate using nearly all communications devices in several different languages. This kind of service can run into the many thousands of dollars per month range.
As businesses plan for disaster and recovery, rapid coordinated notification in one form or another is essential to keeping the company moving forward. When the unexpected happens, will your business be ready?
For more information visit www.warncalling.com.