For business continuity, the Crisis Management Team (CMT) is charged with the responsibility of managing responses to disruptive events. The CMT includes senior management (with the authority to manage active crisis events) and is responsible for:
- Gathering facts and analyzing conditions regarding a crisis
- Making decisions during a crisis
- Allocating internal resources
- Obtaining needed external resources[1]
For a CMT to be effective, members must be able to 1) assemble rapidly (possibly virtually) when a crisis event is identified and 2) communicate in real time to make decisions regarding proper response initiatives.
Perhaps these needs are why CMT mobilization is one of the most frequently cited scenarios associated with mass notification services. Mass notification services allow organizations to alert CMT members to the situation within seconds where it previously took minutes or hours. Mass notification also opens a communications channel between team members while providing real-time collaboration.
Consider the following tips for utilizing your mass notification service to effectively mobilize a CMT:
- Ensure your notification service database contains all CMT members, and be sure their contact information is up-to-date. Also be sure to have a custom field or some other method within the database to identify each contact as a CMT member.
- Create a predefined scenario for mobilizing the CMT. First, you’ll want to create a dynamic group of CMT members (dynamic groups allow you to select everyone who matches a certain criteria). You’ll also want to create a saved standardized message that indicates the alert is associated with an emerging crisis event.
- Ensure CMT members know what to look for when a mobilization occurs. Consider standardizing the “From” name and “Subject” so everyone will recognize the alert as a CMT mobilization.
- Make sure the alert utilizes the system’s conference calling capabilities. This feature is simple but powerful. When utilized, it allows call recipients to simply press “1” and be transferred immediately into a conference bridge. This eliminates the headaches and wasted time of setting up external conference calls.
Utilizing scenarios within your mass notification service, you will be able to notify your Crisis Management Team members within seconds while assembling everyone on a conference call for a collaborative discussion.
[1] https://rothsteinpublishing.com/bcrm/pdf/bcrm-chapter2.pdf
