Recent years have seen an uptick in both man-made and natural disasters, including severe weather, domestic terrorism and cyber hacking. This increasingly complex risk landscape has caused most organizations to face a dark day. These incidents – when all or some of your critical systems are down – are devastating for any organization, but present particular challenges for government agencies.
During these times, everything from the whereabouts of your staff to the safety of your residents is unknown. Preventive measures are a must, and a strong plan to deal with the reality of critical events is a vital part of protecting your people, places and property. Let’s take a look at some of the challenges specific to government agencies, and how the right critical communications technology can help overcome them.
Unique Challenges for Government Agencies
“The most common impact of incidents on organizations is damage to the organization’s reputation, followed by operational disruption and impact to employee safety and morale.” – Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail, Forrester Consulting, October 2021
Communications and Response Time
Keeping citizens informed is one of the main duties of local, state and federal officials. When a dark day occurs, the ability to reach everyone is typically highly impaired. Especially in the aftermath of a critical event, uncertainty in the community about what happened and what to do next can result in widespread panic. This same impasse of communications also makes it difficult to activate and coordinate first responders, creating additional exposure, especially for vulnerable populations.
Operations
Government agencies are heavily reliant on technology, which means that process gaps can have a severe impact on an operational continuity. When regularly relied upon services aren’t available – bus routes, phone services, and basic utilities such as water and electricity – and you can’t deliver updates on their status or see who may need help, both the physical safety and the economic resources of your community are threatened.
Security and Trust
Given the amount of sensitive personal information housed in many government databases, breaches present a serious risk of identity theft and other forms of cybercrime. The potential for this long-tailed menace to employees and/or the general public can cause lasting damage to an agency’s reputation. Once the community’s trust is lost, it can be very difficult to get it back.
Come Out of the Dark with a Critical Event Management (CEM) Platform
“Organizations with advanced CEM capabilities were 112% more likely to credit CEM with improving employee confidence and morale and 72% more likely to say their CEM program reduces the impact of a critical event to operations.” – Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail, Forrester Consulting, October 2021
Mitigate Risk
A critical event management platform driven by AI-powered risk intelligence technology gives officials the ability to filter out irrelevant events and isolate those that represent the greatest threat to the community. This means you can work proactively to prevent smaller problems from becoming catastrophes, better protecting people, places and property.
Minimize Impact
Incident management technology enables you to mobilize response teams while simultaneously facilitating file sharing and collaboration. This improves the likelihood of a rapid recovery so you can return to normal operations sooner. Meanwhile, critical communications ensure the right information gets to the right people at the right time. Remember, forewarned is forearmed. People who can take steps to prevent damage before an anticipated event and/or limit further harm after an emergency have a better chance of staying safe, healthy and secure.
Maximize Resilience
Resilience doesn’t just happen – it’s the result of analysis, preparedness and utilization of an integrated critical event management platform. During a dark day, a CEM platform that reliably improves awareness and helps achieve better response outcomes will facilitate resilience - in your community and amongst your staff.
The right CEM platform will integrate with your existing systems and give you an immediate advantage to stay connected, establish critical communications and improve operational continuity.
Learn more about strengthening your agency’s resilience during a dark day in this ebook — When Every Second Counts™.
