Eric – Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) Manager – Banking industry
What motivated the need for tools in your organization?
Not only is it essential to have some tools to manage a crisis, but it is also necessary to have set them up before the crisis, and to have practiced with them for a long time.
What is the added value?
The main advantage is being able to concentrate on the crisis itself, not wasting time with other problems. So, for example, it allows us to focus on the content of our communication without having to worry about how we’ll deliver the message itself.
What’s the main challenge?
The first risk is that the crisis tools could themselves be impacted by the crisis. So we have to give preference to outsourced systems, and also print hard copies of all our documents. The other risk is that, if tools are not well mastered, time could be wasted in working them out at a time when time is precious. The office automation tools have been developed with simplicity in mind.
What advice would you give?
The crisis we face is never exactly the one we prepared for. It is therefore important to master the tools to ensure that, in the heat of the moment, you can adapt them to the stressful context of a crisis. They should not be too rigid or too complex – if you take a long time to prepare, you have a problem.
Loïc – Group Deputy Security Director
What motivated the need for tools in your organization?
Geopolitical news regularly confirms the “VUCA*” character of our time. In this context, information can no longer afford to be fragmented: the use of multiple non-integrated media (handwritten reports, reports drawn up with office automation tools, reports by e-mail or handwritten, etc.) inevitably affects crisis management. The information must therefore circulate quickly and efficiently, in order to be able to identify weak signals that are precursors to crises, to assess a given situation, and also to be able to determine the options necessary for decision-making.
*Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity
What is the added value?
The deployment of a crisis management tool promotes the sharing of information. This centralization allows for a rapid alert and ramp-up of the necessary teams as soon as the beginnings of a critical situation are detected. Throughout the duration of the operation, the teams work on consolidated situation reports that can be exported at any time, according to a shared and collaborative follow-up of tasks and procedures. The synergy guaranteed by the tool allows them to concentrate their efforts on the actions to be taken, without “chasing” information.
What’s the main challenge?
The perfect tool does not exist, and each organization has its own constraints and methods. In addition, crises increasingly involve teams that are not always used to this exercise and may be operating at very different levels. The challenge is therefore to set up and use the tool to the maximum of its capabilities, always keeping in mind that it should be able to be used by an untrained person. In short, simplicity and agility must not be overlooked.
What advice would you give?
The best user experience must be the target of the key stages of research, choice, set up, and deployment of a tool. It seems to me that the tool should also be chosen for its current features, but also for the ability of its provider to adapt it over time to both technological developments and user needs. A central administration capacity allows the support of these evolutions in the long term, but also to maintain daily skills and a good knowledge of the tool which will be useful at each crisis.
Muriel – SVP Security and Crisis Management
What motivated the need for tools in your organization?
Crisis management has become increasingly important within the company. It is becoming more professional and structured from both a conceptual and functional point of view. The implementation of a dedicated tool is the result of this evolution. Working methods based on files and emails no longer fit the needs. They are a source of errors and misunderstandings, and generate a considerable work overload, not to mention the security risks that result from them.
What is the added value?
The crisis management tool must be an asset for the organization in terms of security, reliability of data and procedures and, above all, the fluidity of exchanges. The stakes are high for an international company. The difficulty lies not so much in the geographical spread of its locations as in the complexity of exchanges linked to cultural and linguistic specificities. The tool becomes essential because it offers a reassuring, customizable and facilitating work environment. In times of crisis, when stress naturally rises, it is essential to free oneself from technical or practical constraints in order to let the event be managed. This is what we expect from a tool.
What’s the main challenge?
The main difficulty is the homogenization of practices and, with it, the cleaning of data. Both allow for the efficient customization of the tool. Without it, the project will fail and the tool will not be used as expected. The work of cleaning up the databases and updating the information is obviously key. Supporting the change and the overall transformation process will then be the keystone of a successful deployment and ongoing learning.
What advice would you give?
Involve the operational teams from the beginning of the project and support the change. The tool will not alter the way things are done, but it will support the transformation. It is imperative to have the support of the teams for this transformation before deploying a new solution.
Sandrine – Head of Business & IT Continuity
What motivated the need for tools in your organization?
In a large organization, tools are essential to inform a maximum number of employees efficiently and in a limited time. The use of a manual call tree quickly reaches its limits, especially when it comes to alerting several thousand employees on a regular basis (over a long crisis) and across several platforms.
What is the added value?
The added value of such a tool is therefore twofold: the provision of a service not previously covered, with the added bonus of real-time control of indicators to measure the effectiveness of notifications and ensure that the target population has been alerted.
What’s the main challenge?
When equipping yourself with a tool, especially when it is as complete and rich in functionalities as Everbridge, the challenge is to make the right set-up choices: the danger is to want to take maximum advantage of the range of possible features which might mean you get lost in the use-case, multiplying the alert parameters or the selection criteria of the collaborators.
From experience, all communication models planned in advance and covering “all” the different crisis scenarios turn out to be quite ineffective if they are too precise when faced with a real situation. The advantage of Everbridge is its flexibility and ease of alerts setup to adapt in real time to a very specific situation.
What advice would you give?
To be efficient, Just go to the essential and build simple use-case in order to keep a clear reading of the tool, especially for the administrators who will have to launch alerts in the middle of a crisis.
