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| 3n’s Emergency Notification Service: A Key Tool For Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning > View the article as it appears on the 3n site Rapid, accurate crisis communications is most critical in the first 24 hours following a disaster As a result of disasters like September 11th, the Columbine High School tragedy, and natural disasters like the widespread 2003 Blackout, there is an increasing awareness that organizations wishing to remain competitive and successful must be able to continue profitably in the event of any serious business interruption. Whether the interruption is something as simple and temporary as an interruption of telephone service or a worst-case situation involving complete inaccessibility and inoperability of facilities and services, Business Contingency Planning must continually be capable of responding appropriately to these interruptions. But Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is not just a matter of simply protecting data and information. Whether your organization is in finance, IT, manufacturing, healthcare, government or education, you need the ability to notify on-call emergency responders, contact key business continuity team members, mobilize and inform employees, keep management abreast of developments, and notify customers and vendors of important information. Central, therefore, to Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning, is the ability to communicate to large groups of people in a quick, efficient and reliable manner in order to protect lives, reduce suffering, prevent or limit economic loss, and avoid misinformation. Emergency notification serves as the strategic and tactical bridge between response and recovery efforts. Traditional communications inadequate in a disaster Even today, most private and public organizations rely on antiquated telephone trees, call centers or email distribution lists to communicate with employees. During a large-scale emergency, these methods are extremely unreliable, as was seen during the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., when many phone networks failed due to system overloads, and the 2003 blackouts, when many telephone land lines and computers were non-functional. In fact, the inability of companies, schools, government organizations and city agencies across the country to notify people in a timely manner directly fed the speculation, miscommunication and uncertainty that prevailed during the widespread blackouts that affected as many as 50 million people nationwide on August 14, 2003. Had 3n’s automated urgent notification system been employed, notification in cases like these would have taken minutes, not hours or days: > Counter-terrorism and cyber crimes specialists spent much of Thursday afternoon contacting power companies to check for the chance of terrorist involvement > Over a dozen auto manufacturers in Michigan, Ohio and eastern Canada – who usually purchase radio airtime to notify employees in times of crisis—faced difficulty notifying thousands of workers of shift rescheduling and cancellations, as advertising was considered a non-essential service during the power outages > UPS, which moves about 12 million parcels each day nationwide, had to get in touch with drivers unable to deliver or pick up parcels in New York and other affected cities > The FAA had to contact major New York area and Cleveland airports to cancel all flights for several hours > Starbucks had to contact dozens of stores across the country as well as 150 stores in the New York area, telling them to close down so employees could get home at a reasonable time > Nine nuclear power plants were notified to shut down in New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan > In parts of Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, water customers were notified to boil water before drinking or cooking with it until water systems that had been hit by the outage had been checked out > New York’s sanitation workers were notified to work overtime through the weekend to cope with the tons of trash that accumulated on city sidewalks as residents emptied their refrigerators of spoiled food > Ottawa officials notified thousands of non-essential employees via television, radio and by having each supervisor contact their employees to tell them to stay home in order to conserve energy National Notification Network … a friend of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning Until now, the task of notifying large numbers of people in emergency situations—when seconds matter—has been extremely labor intensive and time-consuming. But no longer. National Notification Network’s (3n) proprietary automated emergency notification technology enables organizations to disseminate critical information within minutes, turning emergency communications into a fast, reliable, and simple to execute process. 3n’s “one call - reaches all” automated emergency notification system is the perfect tool to help you resume normal business activity as quickly and efficiently as possible. With 3n, your organization can send original or pre-defined notifications and instructions to specific employee groups or the entire company within minutes, not hours, by simply making one toll-free call from any phone or by accessing our web site via any computer. Notification is concurrent and continuous to multiple voice and text devices (work phone, home phone, cell phone, pager, PDA, Blackberry, fax or email), providing unparalleled reliability for your Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning communications. 3n applications for Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery 3n’s notification system has a wide variety of potential uses to assist with the demanding business of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery. Here are some of the ways in which 3n’s service could save time, alleviate stress, hasten productivity, and ensure a quick return to normal business operations. > Terrorism. Alert employees of changes to the Homeland Security terrorist threat warning level > Blackouts. Notify employees, customers and vendors without the need for working electricity, land lines or computers > Emergency Responders. Notify emergency response teams and public safety organizations (police, fire, EMT, Hazmat, etc.) > Building Evacuation. Relay notices to specific floors, buildings or entire campuses after major disasters (earthquakes, fires, domestic terrorism, etc.) > Weather Alerts. Send emergency communications related to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, lightening, wildfires, etc. > Personnel Scheduling. Mobilize additional workers to meet demand, reschedule or cancel shifts, shut down facilities, etc. > Remote Roll-Calling. Verify safety and location of employees with active feedback feature (Press 1 if you are at home; Press 2 if you are at the off-site facility, etc.) > Executive management communications. Disseminate critical information and status reports to senior execs > Activate Response Teams. Ensure rapid notification of security personnel and business continuity teams > Routine Notification. Deliver office messages; contact security personnel & business continuity teams; send follow-up emergency communications To learn more about the 3n automated emergency notification system, please contact us today at toll-free (888) 366-4911, or send us an email to: info@3nonline.com |
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| Anne P. Sharp |
| Anne P. Sharp Los Angeles CA, USA Telephone (310) 600-9247 |
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