BCI publishes Emergency and Crisis Communications Report 2023

There has been a continued rise in the use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. SaaS is now used by 81% of organisations for emergency communications. Indeed, SaaS solutions are now eclipsing the use of on-premise installed software, with this change driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in hybrid or remote working options.

Much of the widespread usage of this technology is down to its flexibility, with organisations able to deliver effective communications through a range of devices while in various locations.

The BCI’s report also finds that SaaS enables a faster speed of response and activation of crisis communication plans, as 78.2% of organisations who used SaaS were able to activate their emergency communication plans within 30 minutes, set against 58.6% of responding companies using an on-premise solution.

Popular tools and devices

In terms of the most popular tools and devices for emergency communications, mobile phones are still the most prevalent device for managing emergency communications, partly due to their ability to access corporate emergency communication tools through SaaS.

The increased functionality of smart phones – which are effectively micro-tablets by design – means the use of traditional tablets in emergency scenarios is falling fast (this year, in fact, by some ten percentage points). They are now less popular than desk phones.

For its part, e-mail is still the most popular means of communication in a crisis, while the second most popular mode of communication was through enterprise software (ie Teams, Slack and Skype, etc), with 66.1% of organisations surveyed using this method.

However, with platforms such as Teams experiencing major outages in the past 12 months, many organisations are now switching to specialist tools in order to manage emergency situations. As such, 33% of organisations are now using emergency communications management software, while 24.6% have a secure messaging app which is dedicated for use within emergency situations.

Activating the plan

Across the last 12 months, the main trigger for emergency communication plans has been adverse weather, with disease outbreak (itself the primary trigger in the previous two years)now slipping to fifth place. An IT or telecoms incident was the second most common event at 43.3% (up from 42.0% last year).

When faced by these triggers, organisations are becoming faster at activating their emergency communications plan. Indeed, 73.1% are able to initiate their response within 30 minutes. As a result of these faster speeds and improving emergency communications technology, many organisations are now lowering their activation target times, with the ‘golden five minutes’ becoming a more appropriate target than the previous ‘golden hour’.  

However, the average number of times organisations achieved their expected response levels in 2023 was 74.3%, which is slightly down on 2021 and 2022.

In a similar finding to that exposed in previous reports, the primary cause for not meeting expected response levels was due to people and not technology, although interviews have shown that organisations are now testing themselves more with shorter response times expected. This year, almost half of organisations surveyed have attributed their failure to meet response times to the lack of accurate staff contact information.

Challenges seen by organisations not meeting their expected response levels could be targeted and addressed by staff training and through exercising their emergency communications plan. Therefore, this year it’s positive to see the increased frequency of training in this area and an uptick in the number of organisations who exercise their plans twice a year or more.

In other findings, 70.5% of organisations are now using digital tools or software to manage their emergency communications within crisis scenarios. At 85.9%, the most valued feature of an emergency communications tool remains its ability to quickly alert and organise a high number of individuals.

The implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices within emergency communications plans is becoming more popular, with 39.1% of organisations now using IoT devices.

Importance of training

Commenting on the document, Rachael Elliott (head of thought leadership at the BCI) observed: “This year’s report continues to demonstrate the importance of training and exercising emergency plans such thato response times can be met. It’s certainly encouraging to see a marked increase in the frequency of training and exercising this year.”

Elliott continued: “Developments in technology and software are also helping to move the emergency and crisis communications sector from one in which one-way communication was key to one which is collaborative, informative and critical when it comes to driving an effective response to a crisis.”

Benjamin Jansen, senior vice-president for sales (ENS/CM) at F24, responded: “Organisational environments were characterised by disruptions and crises of intense and versatile nature in the past year. Given the expectation of continuing crises, it’s encouraging to observe an increasing number of companies taking appropriate measures by relying on software-based solutions or executing emergency training on a regular basis. The report’s results underline once again that digital solutions are now an indispensable part of developing organisational resilience if a company is taking the subject seriously.”