Organizations today face a unique threat environment, which is forcing them to prioritize organizational resilience. However, many aren’t certain what specific technological investments that prioritization should take.
To help, we lay out the four capabilities to consider when selecting crisis management software.
The deteriorating threat environment makes the choice of crisis management software more important.
By every indication, businesses are aware of the deteriorating threat environment, from increased cyber attacks, more severe weather, consistent supply-chain disruption, and geopolitical conflict around the world.
The BCI Horizon Scan 2023, for one, charts a consistent an uptick in the number of organizations using long-term trend analysis in business continuity and resilience.
On the flip side, the same data source shows the uptake of technologies to help with risk scanning activities remains frustratingly low. What’s more, most organizations still don’t have a formalized electronic system, such as dedicated crisis management software, to manage disruptive incidents, despite the benefits to be gained from digitization.
Digital capabilities to consider in crisis management software
Which digital capabilities can bring desired efficiencies to crisis and resilience, though? We recommend the following digital capabilities when selecting crisis management software:
1. Solves multiple use cases in an integrated manner
Besides becoming more numerous, threats have also become more heterogenous, requiring a more holistic approach to resilience. Technology buyers should, therefore, be looking for software that provides a comprehensive approach to resilience.
What fits the bill? The capability best fitting this criterion is the integrated resilience workspace. Such a workspace not only manages crisis and resilience but also related solution areas, e.g., work safety, security, emergency and disaster management, business continuity, and risk.
2. Automates incident response
The trend toward more complex crises is only matched by an analogous trend toward faster crises. Organizations must counter both with crisis management software that gets incident responders on the case quicker.
What will do the job? Automated incident response can. Crisis management software with automated incident response capabilities can significantly reduce response times in critical situations. Instead of manually assessing and initiating the appropriate response, the system can do it instantly.
An example of specific functionality includes a plan categories feature that allows organizations to give plans a specific category. Based on that category and an associated workflow node, organizations will be able to automate any disruption scenario to pull through the correct plan automatically to the incident for you.
3. Makes planning dynamic
Crisis management planning itself is becoming more complex as the range of possible threat scenarios keeps changing and expanding. As a result, organizations should seek out software that doubles as plans, i.e., all the data stored in them seamlessly comes together.
Customers should also be looking for solutions that include best practices, out of which organizations can generate their own crisis and incident response action plans. Organizations should be looking for software that gives them the flexibility either to align their requirements or develop their own unique plans to effectively address specific needs.
4. Enhances exercise management
These days crisis management plans don’t mean much if they haven’t been exercised and internalized. Unfortunately, too many crisis management plans remain on the shelves until go time.
To this end, buyers should seek out technology that helps navigate users and their teams through each stage of an exercise, to ensure all parties understand what needs to be completed and when.
Advanced automation capabilities, here, can ensure the correct teams and/or personnel are invited to participate in the appropriate exercise and receive regular, workflow-generated updates.
Finally, the simultaneous accumulation and durability of critical events is forcing businesses to prioritize resilience and crisis like never before.
This prioritization needs to have a technological component to ensure organizational resilience. For more capabilities to consider, download our Resilience Management Software Buyer’s Guide.
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