In the IT world, new processes and solutions are released every day that promise to overhaul systems, streamline activities and generally make life easier for the department. But the problem is these disparate plug-and-play patches are often not designed to serve as holistic solutions.
Instead, they’re meant to solve a single problem such as monitoring and diverting service tickets or watching for unusual activity on a server. And this also means that when emergencies arise, resolutions are held up because your staff is fighting with rigid systems.
The Problem with Patchwork Solutions
At the time, when you onboarded a “plug-and-play” solution, it seemed like a good idea. That specific software was designed to tackle a very unique concern and your staff agreed that for that problem, it worked to streamline processes. However, that individual software doesn’t integrate neatly into the rest of your operations. So, you may find that you experience the following issues.
Information is Trapped in Silos
When an issue arises within one of your products, it suddenly becomes a process to rally the troops and get the problem fixed. For example, the sends you an alert, but that alert is limited to the system. So unless a team member is actively monitoring the interface, no one else knows what happened. So, tickets or emergencies languish. If you’re only fighting a single system with this issue, you might feel like it’s not a big deal.
But it’s not uncommon for a company to rely on multiple programs to maintain daily operations. So if an organization relies on even just four independent programs that are all treated as unique information silos, critical information can easily get lost or overlooked. Correct this issue by implementing one overarching solution that brings all of these individual programs to heel. By creating a truly integrated network, communication flows freely, and the chances of overlooking mission-critical issues are significantly lower.
Redundancies are Required to Address Problems
Even if you do have a dedicated team member monitoring a platform, relaying emergencies isn’t convenient. Instead, someone must manually import data into an overarching system to provide pertinent information to others. Again, this is one way to manage tasks, but it’s inefficient. By contrast, what you need is a system that automatically pulls system alerts from the fragmented products your company is leveraging.
Similar to information silos, if you have to manually pull alerts from one system and enter them into another, this isn’t efficient. By contrast, a truly automated integrative system can seamlessly relay information to relevant parties, ensuring that the right individuals are alerted when problems occur.
Additional Workflows Slow Response Times
If it hasn’t been stated enough, getting bogged down in manual workflows for addressing emergencies is problematic. When you have to rely on a staff member to manually review tickets and direct alerts to selected individuals, you’re wasting time. What happens if the first point(s) of contact doesn’t respond? How long should the designated employee wait before reaching out to additional members? By contrast, a system that’s preprogrammed to know which individuals should be alerted based on the type of issue that arises, and has preset timelines before triggering either follow-up or ticket escalation is efficient.
Poor Communication Outreach
While it might not be directly related to any individual solution, poor response times to an emergency can compound any of the issues listed above. If you’re still relying on a single communication strategy to rally the troops when a problem arises, you’re creating an inefficiency that can create confusion and delays.
For example, maybe your business leverages an intra office chat tool such as Slack for quick communications during the work day. While convenient, a single communication channel is also a red flag that can turn into a roadblock to emergency response times. What happens if an emergency occurs and the key employee that can fix it is away from their desk?
By contrast, opting for a holistic communications solution that leverages multiple communication channels such as intra office chat, SMS text, and even email can ensure that relevant parties are quickly notified through the most likely communication options available to them. In turn, this translates to faster response times, and less confusion as employees aren’t stuck relying on a single channel to manage communications.
Don’t Get Stuck in the Past
Disparate systems might have been how organizations muddled along in the past, but it’s inefficient, delays response times, and ultimately costs your business money. HipLink’s software is an emergency response system that leverages automated text alert software. This allows you to remove irrelevant redundancies that improve response times for emergencies. More importantly, support for full customization means only critical departments or individuals are contacted when situations occur.