A few weeks ago, we published a blog that looked at the significance of RORI (Return on Resilience Investments)—the many definitions that exist, the tangibles and intangibles we grapple with, and the significance of RORI for risk and security professionals (who often have to justify expenditures that don’t produce tangible profits).
Read Part 1 of the blog: Return on Resilience Investments: What It Means and Why It Matters
This week, we'd like to build on the topic by looking at specific recommendations to help get leadership buy-in for security solutions. The importance of a comprehensive critical event management solution may seem obvious to the risk and security professionals of the world. However, getting executive teams onboard may require reframing the need and the long-term benefits to the organization.
To get you started, here are some tips for successful C-suite negotiations:
- Show your priorities are aligned with the C-suite. Executives are looking out for the company’s top and bottom line, whether that’s financial or reputational. While resilience investments may not turn a profit, they reduce the risks that threaten their people, places and property that are responsible for increasing the company’s profit.
- Demonstrate the organization-wide need for critical event management solutions. Approach how other departments, such as physical security, executive protection, duty of care and loss prevention, can also calculate their risk and cost avoidance.
- Communicate your message consistently. Get the whole organization reviewing and talking about RORI in the same way. RORI may be a new concept for many, but understanding its value is the key to successfully justifying the investment in critical event management solutions.
- Articulate the value and RORI of your department. When specifically asked questions about quantifiable ROI, the conversation can shift to the value and return on resilience. Maybe your security measures saved a life. Perhaps knowing about potential threats saved the organization $2 million in incident avoidance. Use these numbers in combination with the less quantifiable benefits of investing in critical event management solutions to illustrate their holistic value.
Maximizing RORI with Critical Event Management
Of course, building resilience doesn’t happen overnight, and neither does the process of justifying the investment. It requires a deep understanding of your priorities and vulnerabilities to adequately illustrate the intangible value of a critical event management solution, not just its quantifiable return.
Finding the right critical event management system is the first step in establishing the RORI for your organization. An effective system limits potential damage to the business with:
- Proactive risk awareness: Know about threats sooner.
- Cross-functional coordination and communication flows: Keep all stakeholders on the same page.
- Integrated technology and systems: Remove silos that thwart real progress.
- Post-event analysis: Learn from what went right AND what went wrong.
The OnSolve Platform for Critical Event Management is a modern, integrated platform that optimizes and centralizes all of the above capabilities, leveraging powerful AI and verified data to drive seamless communications and incident management.
It allows security leaders to make informed decisions and take effective action, leading to faster responses, shorter recoveries and minimized operational losses - all ways to effectively justify any return on resilience investment.
Real-Life Investments, Real-Life Returns
For OnSolve, RORI is more than just a vague promise - our clients experience real results every day.
Typhoon Hits a Call Center: The OnSolve Platform alerted a Philippine customer call center to Typhoon Rai two days before it hit, giving them time to shift resources to a center in Manila. Not only did this keep employees safe, but it also kept operations running and ensured clients continued access to funds and transactions. Learn more
Explosion at Horizon Blue Cross: For New Jersey’s oldest and largest health insurer, the ability to deliver emergency notifications is crucial to the welfare of their 3.6 million members. After an explosion at their Newark location, company leaders were able to rapidly deploy incident management teams to evacuate the buildings and simultaneously respond to ongoing security concerns in the aftermath. Geo-targeted alerts to recipients’ preferred devices gave leaders confidence that everyone impacted was staying informed. Learn more
While it may be difficult for security and risk professionals to justify the RORI in a critical event management solution, there ARE things they can do. To better understand and communicate the tangible and intangible impacts of risk on your organization, download the Global Risk Impact Report.
