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1. Implement a Business Continuity Communication System for my company
You are most likely to already have at the least, a paper based system – lists of contacts to carry out the vital tasks, through to a full staff inventory for notification of what the incident means to them. You will most likely have tested your calling cascades, picked up the phone and tried to speak with your chosen contacts with perhaps at best a mixed response and thought to yourself there’s got to be a better way.
In its simplest form, a business continuity communication system will mirror your existing manual process using contact details you already hold. The key thing here is that rather than kept on hardcopy spreadsheets, the details are imported directly into the iModus platform. You will have to of course put time aside for the regular upkeep of the data just as you would for your existing plans, unless of course you’d like us to help manage this for you, including the provision for automated data transfer from your own HR software.
Once the data is within your iModus system, you will need to carry out regular tests to ensure that in the event of an incident taking place, your incident management team will be clear of their role, the functionality of the system and the options open to them in triggering and creating messages. To make life a little easier, you will have set up a range of template messages which can be used by message senders to provide consistent and ‘to the point’ broadcasts.
Particularly if you plan to use the incredibly successful two way messaging features, you will need to ensure that the recipients are clear about how they can interact with the system so inbound messages are sent clearly and in good time. We also have available for example, testing procedure report facilities to monitor the success of your exercises and use for improving the success of the system still further.
What about your B.C. plans? By uploading them in advance into the resource areas on the web tool, you will be able to access them at any time regardless of how your own IT systems are behaving.
So with a little forward planning and help from Vocal, you will soon have the comfort of knowing that you have a system that will ensure that you respond successfully to any eventuality.
2. Manage, log, track and report on Incidents
OK, so you’re one of the first to know that an incident has taken place and it’s your job to ensure that the teams required to get normal services resumed do so as efficiently and as safely as possible. The iModus Incident Management suite makes it possible to manage multiple incidents, multiple tasks and multiple teams.
It works by linking directly with the messaging platform, well it makes sense to give your instructions and manage responses via the same resilient platform. It provides a real time ‘dashboard’ view of all tasks and incidents, letting the incident managers know amongst other things, what’s been completed, what’s outstanding, what’s overdue and who out of your teams are responding.
It also means that you have direct access to the secure document storage area, so you can keep your incident protocols and operation guides for all your teams to follow, for all eventualities.
The audit trial, reliably used for the messaging platform, comes into it’s own with all permutations catered for. For many, it’s about allowing all interested and vetted parties to be able to monitor the incident remotely, so the web access hosted solution really comes into it’s own. To us, dovetailing an incident management system with our award winning messaging platform seems the ultimate no brainer.
3. Audit my emergency communication system
With the increase in H&S legislation and litigation the need to be able to reliably and quickly report on whom you have contacted and when, becomes all the more important. For many though it’s simply all about knowing what’s happened during an incident so that your next decision is all the more informed. So by using the audit trail within iModus you can have this information at your fingertips. You can search by group, by date or even by messages to a single individual. All importantly the data can be exported for further ‘sharing’ and review.
4. Identify those staff that are safe, and those that need help in a crisis
For many, the most anxious time in a crisis is after a full staff evacuation has been implemented, so to have a fast straight forward automated process of recording their safety is an obvious remedy for this anxiety.
'Safecall' provides this little bit of peace of mind when lets say, things may be not going so well. Each and every member of staff can listen to a message recorded by you and register their personal safety, letting you know they are safe and sound, no matter what your internal phone system may be up to. Couple this with the fact that there's a live roll call within the iModus system and it’s a logical addition to the core services.
5. Ensure that I have communication if my mobile provider has an outage
The Vocal Multi-Sim has all the features of a standard SIM card, but with one crucial difference. The Multi-Sim will locate the best network signal available and connect to it. Should your network become congested or unavailable, you can select an appropriate alternative network, and regain connection.
The Vocal Multi-Sim works in unlocked phones and allows access to all UK GSM Networks including O2, Orange, Meteor, T-Mobile, Vodafone, 3 and is BlackBerry compatible. Why not use in conjunction with a ‘Dual Sim’ phone, it takes both the Multi-Sim and your existing sim giving you maximum control and flexibility. We can help you with these too.
6. Set up a Warning and Informing System for my Town or City
Since the introduction of The Civil Contingency Act some 4 years ago the pressure has been building on local authorities to develop strategies and implement communication plans for city centres, boroughs and counties alike. Most now have well developed plans but many still lack that desired step of direct communication with businesses and residents.
So for those who wish to take the step it's a well mapped process of understanding specific threats and the regions that could experience them. You will also need to address your own organization and partner agencies and understand who needs contacting in response to an incident.
The major concern for local authorities is how the public's data can be collected and managed. Vocal assist throughout the whole process, providing launch assistance, great ways of automatic data collection and management, as well as system publicity. By consulting with Vocal, a logical approach will be taken to ensure the technical and practical requirements are met. It's really a case of sitting round the table and running through the options that a Warn and Inform system can give you, making it as simple or as sophisticated as is needed, remembering of course that the scheme can be developed and tailored to the changing needs as the scheme matures.
7. Inform my suppliers, friends and families of the latest events
Once we realize that a single 6 click process can put us in touch with thousands of people, it's not too great a leap to start thinking about who we could contact outside our businesses. The ability to send a simple concise message without fear of misinterpretation to family, friends, suppliers and indeed customers seems a natural progression.
If people are kept informed there are less likely to panic or to react irrationally. By adding these communication groups to your regular iModus platform you will achieve a simple, straight forward response to crisis communications outside of your business.
8. Communicate through SMS, Voice, Pager and Email
As much as some of our colleagues would like us to, we can't always predict where we are going to be at any given time and therefore how we can be contacted. It's not usually a problem, we can call them back or see them in the office later.
When a major incident occurs this scenario clearly isn't acceptable. It's for this reason that Vocal's iModus platform instantly pushes a message to all potential devices ensuring that nothing is left to chance. More than one mobile phone? Not a problem, private and business email, work and home land lines?, not a problem. Vocal's approach also helps to ensure that reliance is maintained with the broadest possible methods covered.
9. Avoid the delays caused by communicating with Email
Email is the most common form of distance communication, and has become an integral part of our day to day lives. This in itself presents a problem when relying on email during a crisis. We all receive dozens of emails a day, and to differentiate between those that are important, social, spam or business critical is difficult. During a major incident, such as the events of July 7th 2005 or September 11th 2001, the pressure on the internet as the global population accessed major news websites caused email and web traffic to slow, resulting in delays with sending and receiving email. Recognizing that many businesses relied on email to communicate with internal staff, and that email was not a mission critical application, Vocal developed PrefMail. PrefMail is a standalone system that addresses two main problems with email, firstly identifying that the message is important and secondly that it is delivered to gain the appropriate level of attention from the recipient. PrefMail appears therefore in a dedicated pop up form, it's impact depending on the chosen level of priority. Recipients will know immediately that the message is Business Continuity related, and no application can be opened over it.