When we talk about incident response, we think about first responders and company leaders making decisions they deem best for the safety and security of individuals. But rarely do the majority of people think about how information is shared across — and beyond — an organization when dealing with an incident in real-time. That is, unless you’re an operations manager.
More and more, the focus on a common operational picture (COP), which is made up of all of the incoming information from a variety of sensors and sources (such as cameras, applications, imagery, and more), is crucial to an organization’s risk assessment and plan implementation. Here are three reasons why extending these efforts beyond the four walls of your control room can mean better outcomes for your organization:
Improved Collaboration
Rarely are incidents cut and dry. But funneling key pieces of information to stakeholders outside of a control room can help move the needle in that direction. Creating a COP by sharing this info with everyone involved in the response to an incident brings more awareness about what’s happening in the field, thus improving the ongoing collaboration between internal and external departments.
Better Decision-making and Responsiveness
Control room operators are trained to respond in a manner that is becoming of the organization, but many times they must do so quickly and efficiently. Aligning multiple stakeholders and sharing information accordingly can help this process by allowing operators to call on the expertise of first responders to act. This can create an opportunity to deploy a quicker response and a greater chance that a given incident is safely and securely mitigated.
Greater Compliance
Reporting and information sharing is a crucial part of incident response, but an organization has the responsibility to ensure they are meeting the guidelines for sharing information and meeting local, state and federal mandates for this process. Control room leadership must look at the risks involved and ways to keep this information safe from threats by establishing best practices for the use of the information and enforcing those protocols.
Of course there are more reasons to work toward a COP for incident response, but we go into that later. Join us for a broader discussion about the implications of designing a GSOC with these things in mind at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 25, as part of the third installment of our virtual Vistacom Tech Expo 2020. Register here to attend.
