MissionMode Corporate Blog

Welcome to the new MissionMode blog

Welcome to our new redefined MissionMode blog. We want to make sure you have the best, first hand knowledge of crisis management, incident management and emergency notification news. Spreading the word is what MissionMode is all about. We welcome any comments or feedback that you may have and will maintain a level of professionalism that you've come to expect from MissionMode.

You'll be hearing from us!

Don't let the crisis take control of your business. Take control of the crisis with Missionmode.

www.missionmode.com

Supply Chain Security Threats: 5 Game-Changing Forces | The Industry Standard

As any CSO knows, it's not enough to mind your own business. You have to look after your business partners as well, across all links that connect to your supply chain--whether that chain is physical or virtual. And that goes double in times of rapid change and high stress.

When a company experiences a crisis, they need to quick identify and assess the situation and bi-directional communication between the crisis managers and the event itself.  It is important to review your corporate crisis plans for gaps in the plans and operations before you are in the middle of a crisis that could impact your business continuity adversely.  It is important that the corporate crisis plans address more than the key supply chain nodes and specific scenarios but also emerging security vulnerabilities.

Read more...via www.thestandard.com

www.missionmode.com

Emergency operations planning vs disaster planning

The Critical Incident Management blog has posted an article about the difference between emergency operations planning and emergency preparedness in the healthcare industry.  In fact, many corporations outside of the health care industry have the same misunderstanding of the difference.

The fact is that developing an emergency operations plan (EOP) is simply one component of an effective emergency management program to insure preparedness. In the healthcare industry, there are two different scenarios that must be addressed: 1) the organization serves as response agency or 2) the organization must prepare the instance where they are a victim of the incident.  The EOP must address both of these circumstances.

The EOP is a concept document that can be thought of as a leadership guidebook to manage the consequences of a disaster that delineates what response operations and functions will be performed or achieved by what department, agency, or organization and under what circumstances.  The EOP is not a detailed reference document to be used as a standard operating procedures manual by response personnel during a crisis.

There are 15 basic issues that are important when developing the healthcare EOP:

• Notification - an emergency notification system that alerts the existence of the disaster and continues to inform throughout the management of the crisis.
• Decontamination - Who, where and how the decontamination will occur.
• Facility physical protection - in addition to the actual victims, expect asymptomatic, possibly exposed individuals, to also present for care.
• Evacuation - must be prepared to rapidly evacuate, identifying the transportation sources and receiving facilities.
• Shelter-in-place - if there is no time to evacuate, existing facility must be prepared to manage the load.
• Detection - usually the weakest link in emergency management and response, several methods of observation must be available.
• Identification - Detection is different from identification; identification determines the response path.
• Triage - standard triage methods will have to be modified if the entire community is affected.
• Treatment options - depending on the health risk being addressed, the options will vary
• Surge capacity - measures that allow increasing capacity if needed.
• Prophylaxis - who will be the recipient of actions to prevent or address disease.
• Fatality management - resource management (facilities, personnel, etc.) for mass-fatality internment procedures
• Counseling services - responders and employees, as well as victims, will need counseling assistance, maybe even more so than other medical needs.
• Horizontal and vertical integration - integrating health services with other local or regional response organizations.
• Law enforcement and incident forensics - from identifying criminal acts to maintaining chain of custody, law enforcement will be involved throughout all phases.

For the full article, read more...

www.missionmode.com
www.missionmodefastresponse.com

H1N1 reveals gaps in nation's emergency health preparedness efforts

The seventh annual Ready or Not? report on Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism was released on December 15, 2009 by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the results exposes some troubling gaps in the country's ability to respond to public health emergencies.  The economic crisis isn't helping as it strains the public health system.

There are 10 key indicators of public health emergency preparedness and the report found that 20 states scored six or less out of the 10 indicators.  Nearly two-thirds scored seven or less.

Deputy Director of TFAH, Richard Hamburg, said, "The H1N1 outbreak has vividly revealed existing gaps in public health emergency preparedness.  The Ready or Not? report shows that a band-aid approach to public health is inadequate."

Although the report indicates that investments made in pandemic and public health preparedness over the past several years has dramatically the readiness of the U.S. for the H1N1 outbreak, concerns for some key infrastructure issues were uncovered.  These issues include:  lack of real-time coordinated disease surveillance and lab testing, outdated vaccine production capabilities, limited hospital surge capacity, and a shrinking public health workforce. 

For more information, read more...

www.missionmode.com

Why a business continuity plan is necessary

A business continuity plan is developed in order for a business plan a reaction strategy to be used in the case of a disaster.  This reaction strategy is designed for crisis events including accidents, terrorism, hacking, earthquake, typhoon and other natural disasters.  Without a plan to manage crisis, the business risks that it cannot continue when faced with such disasters.

The article from Technology Toolkit explains that a business continuity plan isn't only valuable in preparation for "World War IV or for the eradication of the entire human race," but failures in the security or information systems, as well as temporary and short-lived power failure also require crisis planning and preparedness.  Even minor difficulties can create major difficulties for a business.  Read the full article...

www.missionmode.com

The value of crisis communication

Since the economic crisis began to impact the world economy, many businesses have enhanced and expanded their crisis communication strategies with the hope of alleviating the fears expressed by workers and to project corporate confidence to clients and shareholders.

In late 2008, consulting firm Watson Wyatt reported that survey results indicated 77% of employers had nor were planing to send out internal communication addressing the impact of the financial crisis. Sixty-nine percent of those businesses stated that reducing employee anxiety was one of their top two goals for crisis communication and 32% are attempting to capture employee trust.

The Institute for Public Relations states that crisis can come in the form of these three threats that are often related:

• Public safety risks
• Financial losses
• Damage to a reputation

This article makes further recommendations for emergency planning, targeting the following areas:

• Employees - explain how the crisis will affect their jobs
• Management - provide all the information managers need to protect the interest of the company, employees, clients and vendors
• Public - tell the public how the company is managing business affairs during the crisis and how it may affect the community
• Customers - to avoid damaging relationships, let customers know how products and services will be delivered during the crisis
• Government - in case it is necessary to interface with governmental agencies determine if assistance might be needed to continue business activities
• Other companies - it may be necessary to communicate with other businesses to inform them how the crisis may impact their business as well.

For more information, read the full article.

www.missionmode.com

New Book: Crisis Management in the European Union

Crisis Management in the European Union:  Cooperation in the Face of Emergencies is a book that seeks to provide a much-needed overview of disaster and crisis management systems in the EU.  The book addresses several issues:  how the EU policy evolved to its current position; the EU's crisis management mandate; and it offers a concise description of the most central crisis management arrangements that need to be addressed.  For a full review...

Stefan Olsson, editor of Crisis Management in the European Union, said, "Based on our experience, we have come to understand that knowledge of the features of the EU crisis management system is not widely spread...is still being developed and basic information on how the system works is not easy to obtain."  This awareness created the desire to write the book, which represents a comprehensive source of information for anyone involved in the EU crisis management system.  This book can be purchased from Amazon.

www.missionmode.com

Market-wide Exercise 2009

The MWE 2009, scheduled to take place from November 17 - 20, 2009, will explore the impact of natural disasters such as a severe weather and flooding scenario.  This exercise also include disruption to several key infrastructure providers and moves forward from the outcomes of both the MWE 2006 and the Resilience Benchmarking Project.

According to Financial Sector Continuity, "This year's exercise will explore the effects of geographical concentration; dependence on suppliers; practicality of remote working; reliance on telecommunications; use of recovery site; cash distribution and the return to business as usual."  Read the full announcement...

www.missionmode.com

The slow death of landline phones

In recent article, the BBC News Magazine addresses the issue of the prevalence of mobile phones and the demise of landline phones.  In mid-November, an exercise called White Noise, the "public switched telephone network" was disabled to test the response of government and the communications industry to a potential nationwide communications failure caused by a natural disaster or cyber attack.  Read the full article...

Similar exercises have been regularly carried out for other scenarios such as terror attack or nuclear leak or other such disasters.  In the White Noise exercise, Internet access was still available in the total absence of the public-switched telephone network (PSTN).

Geoff Smith, the head of communications security in the Department of Business, said, "We will learn whether we can respond in real time." He added "We'd be reduced to carrier pigeons and semaphore if we didn't have some form of communications."

In an article, Mobile Phones Gradually Taking Over from Landlines, from Mobile News Direct, the question is raised:  "...could we do without landline phones completely?  what would happen if there is a national emergency and landlines were knocked out altogether?"

Figures for households relying solely on mobile phones go from 15% in the UK to 63% in the Czech Republic and 61% in Finland. 

www.missionmode.com

Omniflight Helicopters selects MissionMode Solutions

Omniflight Helicopters Inc., a leading national provider of air medical services, has chosen MissionMode Solutions as its virtual command center and alert notification platform for both daily operations as well as for crisis management, incident management and emergency notification.

Omniflight recognized that MissionMode is able to enhance their communications functions and the delivery of emergency-related information to those in need within their operations.  "MissionMode's solutions both reduce our ongoing operational costs as well as strengthen our service provision."  Read the full story...

www.missionmode.com

Unconventional Cooperation

The September 2009 issue of Security Management has a cover story on Event Management about how Denver established a public-private partnership through which business, government and private-security entities could work together during the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

In a remarkably well-planned coalition effort, the Denver Police Department, businesses in the private sector and several security company worked together to support the city's emergency operations center (EOC).  Communication links were set up using an emergency notification system developed by MissionMode.

With the help of the Department of Homeland Security, preparation began with training with various courses for the private-sector security managers.  The training was thorough and included the fundamentals of security methods taking place both in the classroom and at the potential on-site targets for problems during the convention.

The Colorado Emergency Preparedness Partnership (CEPP) was established in the spring of 2008.  The biggest issue recognized by CEPP was the gap between what businesses would do and what the public-safely sector would do during the DNC.  It was during a DNC tabletop exercise that this lack of communication became painfully obvious.  Fortunately, Robert Edson, MissionMode Solutions' vice president for the western US, was in the audience and was able to step in with the perfect solution using their customizable web-based information-sharing and crisis management tools.

The result was the Business Emergency Operations Center (BEOC), a secure, virtual, invitation-based online forum where all participants in the security activities would receive instant alerts from the EOC and be able to respond with appropriate feedback, keeping everyone fully informed.

Conclusions and challenges

The biggest challenge was the coordination of communication between the two sectors, the police department and the private sector security businesses.  The major communications hurdle between the public-private partnership was overcome quickly through the arrangement between the CEPP and MissionMode.  In addition, the partnership reached out to the DHS to provide the necessary training to the private-sector security officers at no cost to the participants.

The result of this well-planned crisis preparedness effort was a resounding success during the DNC.  The BEOC is still activated from time to time for events such as wildfires, responding to the swine flu and during major civic events.  The program has a large membership of business and security partners in the Denver metro area.

As successful as this operation was, the challenge facing Denver now is maintaining a level of preparedness once the convention was over.  "The most challenging aspect is just getting people involved when there's not a major situation that's doing down," says Lt. Rob Rock of the Denver Police Department.  People just "want these systems to run in the background" until they're needed, he notes.  Read the full article.

www.missionmode.com