To foster a safe and connected community in an increasingly connected world, effective communication is crucial. In all types of security and community events, security teams have grown more equipped to share sensitive information.
The real-time situational awareness and a complete picture of critical events, helping control room operators manage security by alerting specific individuals or groups and pinpointing individuals who need assistance. Having reliable and automated communication allows responders to be identified and possibly even to save lives.
A large-scale event could inflict damage across multiple communities, hospitals, universities, transportation agencies, and businesses, especially when it crosses municipal jurisdiction lines. To ensure that residents and visitors receive critical information quickly and efficiently, a regional, multi-agency response approach is required that ensures communication between previously unconnected groups. This concept is called the “network effect”.
A network effect can be achieved by deploying solutions that provide emergency and public safety departments across different counties and regions with the ability to access local, verified data and coordinate their activities to make sure no conflicting information reaches the relevant parties.
As many levels of security are involved in responding to major incidents, it makes sense for regions to work together to develop a standardized approach to managing critical communications and incident response. Benefits include:
Rapid Communication
Continually assessing threats, automating incident responses, and communicating directly with residents and businesses are essential to ensuring their safety during critical events. By adopting a CEM solution, local officials ensure that they can rapidly provide important information to impacted residents and businesses during times of crisis.
The implementation of a common critical event management platform across the county will enable streamlined training, support, and administration of the solution, allowing the officials to send out emergency alerts more efficiently.
When taking advantage of a state-wide system, employees can receive internal notifications, public notifications, and cross-jurisdictional notices through the system.
Enhanced coordination between jurisdictions
Communication challenges caused by interoperability and compatibility are common among agencies joining forces with other jurisdictions. By utilizing a unified CEM platform, all agencies can better coordinate responses during emergency events such as severe weather, active shooters, fires, explosions, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks.
During high-profile events, where traffic problems, riots, and other incidents can arise at a moment’s notice, communication with attendees, stakeholders, local businesses, and residents is crucial. The use of a shared communication system provides an efficient and reliable method of alerting attendees to events and emergency information.
A central component of ensuring public safety during the weekend’s activities was the use of a unified critical event management and communications platform that facilitated secure, fast, and effective sharing of information. By implementing one system across all agencies, officials had better access to information, could communicate, respond to, and could manage a variety of incidents.
Streamlined training and support
By purchasing a critical communication system together, regions gain access to ongoing vendor support. In addition to facilitating the formation of user communities, a common platform enables agencies to better understand the system and use it to its maximum.
When large-scale events are planned, conducting live training ahead of time allows agencies to verify who gets the messages and what response they will get and to test each template for effectiveness. As a result of the training, employees were capable of using the communication system, and policy regarding public and internal communications.
Many departments and counties can be affected when large-scale events occur. Communication between these groups is often limited, to begin with. With event disruptions and IT issues, citizens are at risk even further.
By implementing the CEM platform, communities can share information on regional and industry-specific events to improve preparedness, coordination, and communications with all groups and individuals affected.
It may be possible for a country to benefit from positive network effects if it specializes in one or more industries. Consequently, a trader who specializes in a specialization gains an edge. Network effects share many similarities with external economies of scale. By leveraging the principles that drive network effects, you will be able to achieve increased profitability and business growth.
Zapoj is an integrated Critical event management platform for managing operational risks. If you are considering integrating critical event management into your security strategy or want a CEM platform, reach out to us for a demo.
