To amplify critical event management capabilities, the right digital tools can keep you connected with stakeholders, free up your key people, and reduce the risk of crisis burnout and fatigue.
Now facing multiple, ongoing events worldwide, critical event management teams can no longer rely on outdated strategies and response plans that were designed for short-term, one-off events. By adopting digital tools that can automate key tasks during a crisis or incident event—including threat monitoring, intelligence sourcing, data reporting, and delivering communications—key decision-makers can stay focused on actioning the next critical step and supporting their team.
A Critical Event Management (CEM) System in Action
How would this look? Let’s look at a live example of a potential threat and how a critical event management system could support a crisis response team:
1. Real-time Threat Alerts: Your critical event management team is alerted to a potential flood event escalating near a warehouse in regional Victoria. Instead of continually logging into an active threat monitoring system, your CEM system makes it possible for threat alerts to be delivered by email or SMS to relevant stakeholders as soon as a threat arises. 
2. Automated Intelligence Feeds: Sourcing information from a verified source of truth contextualized to the event (for example, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology) the system automatically delivers live and relevant information about the unfolding flood to the critical event management team in San Diego. (With no need for manual monitoring or active user engagement.)
3. Unified Communications: Using the most up-to-date data, the critical response team receives advanced warning that their regional site will be impacted by the flood at 10:00am. A critical event management system with unified communications capabilities, enable crisis response teams to trigger mass notifications to all stakeholders alerting them of the critical event.
Integrated with business-as-usual applications, messages delivering evacuation and stay-at-home orders are sent to all site-based workers by email and SMS. A second message, pre-approved and ready to be sent in the face of a critical event, is delivered to key supply chain stakeholders outlining the expected disruption. Both messages are customised in their detail and delivery to support the likelihood of all recipients receiving critical information and actioning their next step.
4. Two-way Messaging: The same unified communications component of the critical event management system allows front-line workers to send messages back up to the crisis response team. Based in regional Victoria, site-based personnel can send live data back to the critical event room in the face of the escalating flood and remote workers can respond to SMS polls confirming their safety and wellbeing. By democratizing intelligence sourcing and connecting distributed teams during a critical event, two-way messaging further connects whole organizations to help teams navigate events together.
5. Board and Governance Reporting: Need evidence of actions taken both to monitor for potential threats and when navigating an event? A digital critical event management system acts as a database for tasks actioned against the timeline of events and communications both sent and received. Vitally important to support critical event review, digital CEMs can produce incident reports to provide evidence of steps taken to minimise impact and stay compliant.
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Armed with real-time threat intelligence and a unified communications system, crisis management teams can focus on the next best step and keep their people safe during an escalating threat. Never having logged into an unfamiliar application during an otherwise challenging event, both leaders and front-line workers can stay up-to-date with critical information and support an efficient crisis response.
Want to update your critical event management plan and adopt the tools needed to better navigate potential threats? Adopting the right digital tools can reduce the risk of critical event and communications fatigue and empower your workforce to navigate threats together. Want to support organisational resilience and revamp your critical event management capabilities? Upgrade your digital toolsets and stay ahead of emerging 2021 threats today.
