Crisis Communications

Security is about communication. That goes triple when something's gone wrong

By Derek Slater

August 01, 2004 — CSO — Crisis Communication

Security is about communication. That goes triple when something's gone wrong; in a disaster, the ability to communicate - with everyone from employees to law enforcement and first responders - becomes crucial. Of course, during extreme events, normal communication channels don't always work and locating far-flung employees (who may be away on vacations or sales calls) can be a challenge.

One standard approach to crisis communication is simply to post relevant information on a crisis hotline (usually a recorded message on an established 800 number) and on the company intranet. However, some employees and other stakeholders may benefit from messages customized to their particular needs. Those groups may require information of a more sensitive and confidential nature. And some may lack access to electrical power, the Web or phones, depending on the nature of the crisis.

A specialized set of vendors and products aims to provide broader functionality for crisis communications. Predictably, these services have experienced a dramatic uptick in demand since 9/11.Rev Interactive www.globalalertlink.comRev Interactive offers a software-based service called GlobalAlertLink, which allows companies to launch emergency communication websites with information tailored to various constituencies, from employees to shareholders to the media. It also provides a secured collaboration module to facilitate confidential interaction by crisis management team members.Strohl Systems Group www.strohlsystems.comStrohl Systems makes a number of business continuity and disaster recovery-related software products (Incident Manager, for example). The company's integrated NotiFind crisis communication module incorporates features such as a text-to-speech tool and a menu of predefined call scripts, and can generate up to 200,000 voice messages and 250,000 e-mails per hour, according to the company. Evoxis www.evoxis.comEvoxis' product in this arena is Prodigent for Corporate Crisis Management, which can distribute messages across multiple mediaincluding pagers, e-mail and voice. A key underlying technology is what Evoxis dubs "integrated voice cloning" (which can also be applied to customer self-service and similar issues). End users of the system can edit their own contact profiles, reducing the chance of outdated information derailing contact efforts during an emergency. The system can also generate messages customized to each user's profile during an emergency.

Users can host the Prodigent server themselves, let Evoxis do the hosting, or mix and match to create maximum system redundancy.MessageOne www.messageone.comLike other products mentioned, MessageOne's AlertFind also generates messages; one of its selling points is automatic synchronization with existing contact databasesincluding e-mail systems (Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange), HR software (PeopleSoft and SAP) and "generic" open database connectivity data sources. Through that synchronization, AlertFind aims to keep its contact information up to date without requiring any additional effort from users. AlertFind also allows for a "virtual roll call" for tracking the status of employees during an emergency.Mutare Software www.mutare.comMutare makes an Emergency/Event Notification (EEN) module that runs on the company's Mutare Communication Server (MCS). MCS essentially consists of a standard server with a T1 card and software for handling telephony applications (think outbound dialing, call routing and so on). Using a crisis communication system that's integrated with other messaging functions has additional benefits, notes Mutare's president, Ben Crown; a group messaging system can be used for calling an impromptu sales meeting, for example. "We try to make it easy to use [for everyday purposes] so people are familiar with it and know how to use it when an emergency does arrive," he says.