How could your organization use historical risk data? In simple terms, what happened in the past can tell us a lot about what’s likely to happen in the future.
From 2021 to 2022, more than nine million physical threats were detected by AI-powered OnSolve technology, according to the 2023 OnSolve Global Risk Impact Report.* The report also found that up to 10 physical threats can occur every minute.
When organizations have insight into risk data, including historical trends, geographical analysis and risk profiles, they can make better decisions that lead to improved outcomes. These insights provide a clearer picture of:
- Where threats have impacted operations in the past
- Which risks have repeated over time and in particular patterns
- How to prioritize current risks based on past outcomes
- How to better understand and handle risk exposure
Armed with this information, organizations can make informed risk-based decisions to protect their people, places and property and improve operational resilience. Here are four practical and proactive ways to apply risk data.
4 Uses for Risk Data
1. Assess temporary versus long-term risk.
In a complex threat landscape, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. To stay ahead of all the hazards, risk and security leaders need to think long term.
But how do you tell the difference between a blip on the radar and a major atmospheric shift? Risk insight technology can help. The ability to identify and explore trends of historical events and generate custom reports helps risk managers see more clearly. The combination of sophisticated automation, machine learning and a powerful AI engine makes it possible to sift through vast quantities of data and examine patterns of historical events for improved forecasting.
A 360-degree view of all the risk factors present during a given period of time can help leaders put past incidents and their outcomes into context. Consider a previous disruption in the supply chain due to a natural disaster. Depending on how it was handled, long-lasting effects on product development and even market position may have resulted. A detailed historical review of this critical event can provide powerful insights for implementing positive change when a similar incident arises.
By using aggregated data to distinguish between temporary and long-term threats and their associated impacts, leaders will be better positioned to:
- Adopt effective risk mitigation strategies.
- Allocate the right resources.
- Amend standard operating procedures.
- Adjust course as needed.
2. Support threat and vulnerability assessments.
Regular threat and vulnerability assessments are part of the ongoing process of maintaining business continuity and employee safety. Their success is largely dependent on an organization’s ability to determine relevant threats. Historical risk data makes for a more thorough analysis.
The aggregation of physical events over time is key to a thorough business impact analysis, especially for organizations with multiple locations across different countries. These assessments help develop a standardized approach to managing risk. But even with an experienced team and careful protocols, without the aid of technology it’s impossible to capture every factor in every time zone around the world.
By leveraging highly granular historical risk data, organizations can conduct more accurate threat and vulnerability assessments. Risk insight technology can help pinpoint:
- Threat trends in specific geographic areas
- The most relevant threats with the greatest potential impact
- Areas to prioritize for more effective critical event management
- Detailed risk profiles for specific operations and locations
- Necessary improvements for standard operating procedures
With advanced insights into historical threat data, organizations can ensure their threat and vulnerability assessments identify the most severe threats to the organization so proactive measures can be taken to reduce the impact such an event may have on business continuity and operational resilience.
OnSolve Risk Insights
Equip your security and business continuity teams with historical threat data from OnSolve Risk Insights so they can make informed risk-based decisions.
3. Conduct pre-purchase analysis and facility siting.
Location matters. Whether it’s a warehouse, a manufacturing center or a retail operation, businesses of every kind need granular data to determine the best possible location for any type of expansion. Potential locations must be assessed based on a range of shifting factors, including infrastructure status, civil unrest and even criminal activity.
Risk insight technology allows risk and security leaders to conduct a geographical analysis so they can gain a deeper understanding of the risks associated with a certain location. The ability to filter based on specific risk events that will have the biggest impact on your operations helps organizations avoid areas more likely to pose a threat.
Consider one company’s experience. After purchasing a site in the Caribbean, the company discovered it was right next to a waste dump that produces toxic fumes. Now they’re left with sunk investment costs, a non-viable property and the likelihood of selling at a loss, if they’re able to find a buyer at all.
A risk insight solution featuring geographic analysis and risk profiles could have revealed this information in advance and prevented the wasted investment and opportunity costs.
4. Guide loss prevention efforts.
Boards of directors and C-suite executives are asking security and business continuity leaders to provide risk-based recommendations for effective loss prevention strategies. Understanding historical risk data and trends is key.
Should we purchase video cameras for our stores in Charlotte to protect against theft? Do we need to increase the number of security guards around our construction site in the Philippines? Is our current fencing system sufficient protection for our warehouses in the tri-state area?
These are just a few of the questions on the minds of loss prevention managers. Evidence-based insights can help leaders better allocate resources for improved loss prevention efforts. When you can quickly filter through past risk events based on location and risk categories, managers can make more informed recommendations. The added capability to create reports and export data for use in presentations to executives further increases the value to the organization.
There’s More to be Done
The benefits of risk insights go beyond mitigating damages. Accurate historical threat analysis also helps organizations make better decisions around:
- Acquisition due diligence
- Business intelligence and development
- Capacity expansion
- Duty of care
- Employee training
- Financial planning
- Organizational resilience
- Return on investment
- Supply chain risks
OnSolve Risk Insights provides historical data and statistics to help organizations identify risks and trends. Custom filtering based on event type, severity and geographic location lets you focus on what’s important for your business, while a visual display and reporting options make the results easy to digest and analyze.
Contact us to learn more about how this innovative solution can help you make more informed risk-based decisions today for long-term operational resilience.
