The current crisis is placing demands on each of us: The double burden on parents, who have to watch their children in addition to their daily work. Self-employed people who are fighting for survival. Companies that don't know whether they'll be able to maintain operations.
Crises hit business customers in a variety of ways. Employees can get sick. Production capacities have to be adjusted at short notice. Factories are shut down from one day to the next. Supply chains break down. Customers can't be supplied on time. Demand for goods and services collapses. Important trade fairs are postponed or canceled. In many cases, companies are flying by the "seats of their pants" right now. But how can they make their facilities more resilient? What can help them deal with the crisis better?
Never lose sight of the emergency
"There's no blueprint for dealing with the coronavirus," says Martin Schuster, expert for individual service solutions and products at Deutsche Telekom. He and his team have developed a digital Crisis Handbook, together with startup Serinus. "In a crisis, it is important to notify the right players, coordinate with them, and implement the appropriate measures as quickly as possible. Good emergency and crisis communications are decisive in determining how quickly you can get a grip on the situation."
When the bank's IT crashes, security at an airport is breached, or a carmaker has to launch a recall campaign, every minute counts. Because speed limits the damage and its impact. Handbooks are only of limited help, however. In an emergency, crisis teams at the company meet several times per day. They coordinate the many emergency managers. They notify employees, customers, suppliers, and business partners about the current situation. And they still have to keep track of the big picture.
Alert, notify, collaborate
Deutsche Telekom's digital Crisis Handbook can help with fast damage mitigation in an emergency. It builds on existing concepts and strategies. It automates all emergency and crisis communications. Regular drills are supported and extensive reports help with continuous optimization. The Crisis Handbook is available in the cloud and can be deployed quickly: in an emergency, all the necessary units within the company and externally are alerted through a central user interface. The necessary emergency plans and processes are defined online. Versatile collaboration tools simplify work between the crisis team and the responsible specialist departments. Customers, suppliers, and business partners can be notified via email, phone, app, or text message. An information hotline can be set up with little effort, directly in the user interface. All the names and corresponding contacts of the active persons are in the cloud, as are the workflows for handling the crisis.
The basic version of Deutsche Telekom's Crisis Handbook includes all important emergency packages, plus service hotline and remote maintenance. Additional modules can be added effortlessly, thanks to a building-block concept.
For more information, visit www.telekom.de/business-continuity-solutions (only in German)
