Using Intranets in Emergency Management

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Using Intranets in Emergency Management
Presented by Steve Davis Principal, All Hands
Consulting
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Communicating During an Emergency

• During an emergency, we need to communicate two
  basic types of information
• details on the situation
• live, needs to be generated in real time
• procedures on what to do
• reference, should have been prepared long in
  advance

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Typical Approaches

• Real time
• Face 2 Face
• Conference Calls
• Loudspeakers
• Voice mail
• E-mail
• Hallway Meetings

• Reference
• Manuals
• Forms
• Contact lists
• Inventories
• File Server
• Intranet
• Internet

Wouldnt it be great to combine the two?
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Emergency Messaging SystemCan you get your staff
the information they need during an emergency or
crisis?

• There's an emergency in your building.
• You use an announcement to put your staff on
  standby for evacuation.
• Employees wait at their desks, wondering what's
  going on, trying to remember what they're
  supposed to do for this evacuation scenario.
• They dont know what they did with that emergency
  procedures leaflet that you sent everyone six
  months ago, after their last miserable
  performance on an evacuation drill.

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What do staff need to know?

• What is going on
• What they need to do
• Event status
• Company procedures
• Situation reports
• Current information
• Corporate response to the event

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How do they find out now?

• Print Announcements
• Bulletin Boards
• E-mail Messages
• Intranet Surfing
• Face-to-Face (Hallway Elevator)
• Rumors and Gossip
• Staff Meetings

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Printed Materials

• Portable and flexible
• Does not rely on technology
• But its
• Slow, expensive to produce and distribute
• Wastes paper
• Easy to overlook or ignore
• If updates are needed, must reproduce

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Print what people say

• "Our company newsletter is interesting, but by
  the time I get around to reading it, most of the
  stuff is out-of-date."
• "We find posters good for promoting the corporate
  values, but they are expensive to print and
  disseminate, and eventually people stop 'seeing'
  them."
• "We are trying to promote occupational health and
  safety without bombarding people with emails, so
  we use more "passive" means - cups, posters,
  pens, books, etc. We use striking designs to
  attract attention, but it's expensive and quite
  inflexible."

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E-mail, Pros and Cons

• Pros
• cheap and timely
• easy to create and distribute
• most staff have skills
• can be forwarded with comments
• environmentally friendly
• targeted at subgroups
• hyperlinks and attachments
• can indicate priority

• Cons
• easy to overuse - email overload
• easy to ignore
• requires action (file, delete)
• priority settings often not used by sender
• high potential to use staff time unproductively
  and create stress
• can clog up system resources

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E-mail what people say

• I seem to spend hours every week going through
  messages which are totally irrelevant."
• "People don't act on the urgent messages because
  they can't find them amongst the junk."
• "If we send only one email about a new procedure
  it doesn't seem to have much impact if we send
  it out multiple times they complain!"
• "Our network resources are running out because
  there are so many 'all staff' messages, and
  people don't delete unwanted messages."

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Solving the Primary Communication Challenge

• To be effective, internal communication needs
  multiple exposures.
• We need to create continuous, low cost internal
  communication campaigns.
• You want to reduce the number of emails and print
  materials bombarding your staff, while increasing
  the effectiveness of your internal communications.

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We are in the 21st Century

• Staff connected through computer networks
• Information stored on company intranets
• We just need to expose staff to the information
• "If only we knew what we know
• - COO, Dell

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New Approaches in Using the Net

• Push information
• Warnings
• Alerts
• Reminders
• Pull information
• Plans
• Resources
• Intelligence

• Training
• Drills
• Exercises
• Simulations
• Documentation
• Plans
• Incident Logs
• Checklists

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New Concepts in Intranet Usage

• Sending pop-ups for warnings
• Publishing to Screen savers
• Sending alert messages that link to resource
  materials

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Things You Can Share

• Threat Assessments
• Tip of the Day
• Server Status
• Planned Outages
• Virus Alerts
• Training Reminders

• Forms
• Timelines
• Contact Lists
• Inventories

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Using the Intranet for MessagingAn integrated
approach

• Send instant messages as Pop-Ups to all or
  selected computers
• Interrupts whatever staff are doing
• Gives them real-time information
• Include a link to material on the Intranet
• Link to evacuation plan while waiting for the
  signal to go
• Updated Threat Assessments

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Alert Features

• Bypasses normal e-mail system
• useful in virus alert situations
• Appears instantly on all computer screens
• Can give multiple staff the ability to send
  messages (password protected)
• Display who sent, and who authorized, the message
• credibility, minimizes risk of hoaxes

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Alerting all employees - viruses

• A new computer virus is discovered. Maybe it's
  already in your network. You need to tell your
  staff about it quickly what it looks like, what
  to do, and most importantly, what not to do.
• You usually do all-staff communications via
  email, but chances are, some people will open
  infected messages before they read your email
  warning. Your best communication tool is
  compromised.

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A safer way of dealing with viruses

• Network alerts lets you send instant messages
  across the network without using the email
  system.
• They pop up on everyone's screens, no matter what
  theyre doing, so there's no delay.
• You can give people the vital information they
  need. And you can link it directly to an existing
  intranet page on virus procedures.

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Intranet Pros and Cons

• Great for reference material
• Can store lots of information
• Flexible in size, can have small to large
  documents
• Can be environmentally friendly (depending on
  whether people print)
• But Its
• Passive, not a "push" technology we need to use
  another means to promote the contents of the
  Intranet

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Intranet what people say

• "We put all this great resource information on
  our intranet, but people just don't know it's
  there."
• "The search engine on our intranet is great, but
  if I don't know that something is there, I don't
  think to go searching for it."
• "The company has just decided to promote what's
  on the intranet. I've seen a few pages of
  interest to me, but I'm sick of going through all
  the e-mails

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A Better Way-Pushing Content

• Turn every computer in your company into and
  emergency broadcast system.
• Use pop-up messaging.
• Convert "dead" screen saver time into an internal
  advertising system.
• Every time the screen saver activates, your staff
  will see important company messages.

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How the Intranet can Deliver

• Push
• Replaces "all staff" e-mails and print circulars
• Saves money
• Effective for messages which need repetition
• Timely or can be scheduled ahead of time
• Complements static material
• Promotes pages without being annoying
• Easy to highlight different areas at different
  times

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When Do Staff See Messages?

• During / after a phone call
• After going to see the boss
• After talking with a colleague
• After making a cup of tea

• After a "comfort break"
• After going to the printer
• After going through their paper in-tray
• After reading some papers

Are your other communications seen this many
times?
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Content

• Company news page
• Training Material
• Company strategy and direction
• Company mission vision
• Industry and project updates
• Human resources information
• People and recognition
• Safety guidelines

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Promote your Intranet

• Your intranet site is a great resource for your
  staff. But do they know what's there?
• How do you promote the content of your site to
  the people who should be using it?
• How do you remind them of the many tools and
  resources they can now access?

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Internal Communication Tool

• Raising awareness of new procedures
• Creating cultural change
• Promoting company vision and values
• Reminding people of coming events.
• Creating community at work
• Employee of the month announcements

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Continuous Education

• The Intranet can be used as a vehicle for
  creating a learning organization, by
• Reminding people of training schedules
• Promoting the value of learning and continuous
  education
• Providing knowledge and skills about working
  effectively

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Plenty of Vendors

• iManage WorkSite
• ePortal
• PointCast
• Agentware
• BackWeb
• InfoMagnet
• Castanet

• Smart Delivery
• WebCast Pro
• Centra
• Miramba
• SmartPage

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Example - ePoster
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Pop-ups
Real-time information pops up over whatever
is on your screen
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Brings up Related Information
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Contact Information

• Steve Davis, Principal
• All Hands Consulting
• Steve_at_AllHandsConsulting.com
• AllHandsConsulting.com

Presentation will be available at DavisLogic.com