For large enterprises, critical events are a common occurrence. They might be as fleeting as a minor system outage, as acute as a hurricane approaching their main office, or as widespread and disruptive as a global pandemic.
With more employees and their wide geographic footprint, enterprises may face many critical events over the course of a year. But crisis managers and disaster recovery teams may also need to manage multiple events – in different parts of the world – at once. For instance, there might be an earthquake at their California warehouse, a cyberattack on a customer database and a protest taking place near their London offices – all happening at the same time.
The complexity of dealing with multiple critical events at the same time is a key reason many large enterprises have invested in a critical event management system. Without the right preparation or technology in place, organizations of any size will find it challenging to communicate and respond effectively during even a single disruption. Because enterprises are especially at risk due to their size and complexity, it’s not surprising that those with 10,000 or more employees are 3.5 times more likely to have a CEM, according to research by Aberdeen.
But even having a traditional CEM system in place may not be sufficient to mitigate risk or reduce costs of critical events. When lives are at stake, the ability to act requires organizations to be prepared with a crisis plan and have early insight into emerging threats. This was difficult enough in the pre-pandemic environment, when enterprises had to keep watch over a collection of global office buildings. In the post-pandemic environment, with employees dispersed to tens of thousands of home offices, it’s now impossible for human analysts to keep track of events in every corner of the world.
That’s probably why large enterprises are 25 percent more likely to value CEM when it has artificial intelligence embedded. Perhaps the only thing worse than not having AI, is not having a CEM at all. According to Aberdeen, 55 percent of large enterprises without a CEM are more likely to take more than 24 hours to resolve a critical event.
What kind of difference can an AI-enabled CEM platform make for your organization? Enterprises that are already using modern CEM say the key benefits are centered on speed, relevance and usability. The following research findings from Aberdeen illustrate these advantages.
30% more likely to gain relevant insights
When AI-powered risk intelligence is built into the CEM platform, enterprises are 30 percent more likely to see improved ability to identify and understand events. Artificial intelligence creates a clear advantage, especially for geographically dispersed organizations. Human analysts can’t possibly monitor tens of thousands of global data for critical events that may impact any employee or company property. But an AI engine can identify relevant issues in minutes and provide the actionable intelligence required for crisis teams to resolve issues faster.
45% more likely to reduce costs
Once an emerging threat is identified, crisis teams can jump into action to protect people, places and property. With critical communications integrated into the critical event management platform, alerts can be triggered automatically so any employees who might be in danger can move to safe ground. Response teams are also immediately activated. Fast action means risk is mitigated early, which limits any damage and cost. These modern CEM capabilities are why 45 percent of large enterprises say they’re more likely to have lower costs related to critical events.
25% more likely to see better collaboration
Coordination of relevant response teams is one of the most difficult obstacles for large organizations to overcome. If response teams in different regions or parts of the organization don’t have an easy way to communicate and collaborate, vital information can fall through the cracks and put people at risk. However, in a modern CEM platform, incident management is integrated, making it easier for teams to remain on the same page. As a result, large enterprises say they’re 25 percent more likely to see better collaboration between human resource crisis managers and disaster recovery teams.
25% more likely to resolve issues faster
Increased intelligence, streamlined communications and more powerful collaboration capabilities drive better outcomes. Enterprises say with AI-enabled CEM, they’re 25 percent more likely to resolve critical events faster – ensuring business continuity and the safety of employees.
15% more likely to be better prepared
Analytics and automation are two key advantages of an AI-enabled CEM platform. These capabilities enable large organizations to filter out the noise of critical event data and provide dynamic visibility into operations. That means they can escalate critical event information to the right people, well in advance of impact, giving teams time to plan and prepare. As a result, they’re 15 percent more likely to accurately forecast and prevent future events.
Large enterprises are exposed to a great amount of risk but they can limit their exposure and manage response more effectively with an AI-enabled CEM platform. Speed, relevancy and usability are powerful advantages in today’s chaotic world. With them, your organization can build greater resilience and drive better outcomes.
Learn 3 Ways AI Closes the Gaps for Critical Event Management.
