Every BC, CM, Risk, Safety and Security Needs Relevant Situational Alerts…
There is too much new and changing information to monitor it manually. You must put yourself in position to discover the ‘needles in a haystack’ before the competition.
Listening tools can make the difference between being disrupted or being the disruptor. I suggest you consider using automated alerts, situational awareness, business and marketing intelligence tools. These automated tools can keep you in front of what is happening in our rapidly changing digital world.
My favorites use cutting edge technology including artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to make sense of torrents of public and/or proprietary data in real-time. Rather than simply passing you raw data, great automated tools add value to the data with filters and algorithms so the results match your business needs. They then push these insights to you, rather than you having to log on and pull the information.
When I first started writing about Situational Alert Tools it was before the reality of artificial intelligence, machine-learning and natural language systems. Well, these digitally infused tools are now a reality and I have tested them. They can potentially be life and business life and death. Add SYSTEM ??? MARTY
When I started using these magical types of tools, I became so excited I passed on some of the insights to my friend who is a supply-chain professional. She told me it took her at least half a day of manual effort to discover what the tools produced in seconds. She would never have stumbled across the information that was automatically fed to her by the system.
Some savvy investors use intelligence tools in very creative ways. For example, a tool that provides weather information meant for crisis management may be useful to predict weather patterns. Perhaps, it can predict an upcoming freeze that will affect corn or wheat crops and subsequent prices. I use these tools to learn, in near real
time, of crisis events and to predict the likelihood of future events by researching their database of historical events. In some time-sensitive cases, the intelligence you receive seconds or minutes before the competition can be monetized. Never has this been possible on such a grand scale. Intelligence tools also empower you to peer into the future. That can produce a competitive advantage for smart and creative companies that learn how to customize and creatively use the information.
Think about it, in a crisis such as a tornado wouldn’t even a few additional seconds or minutes warning be potentially life-saving for your employees? During a recent tsunami ocean sensors coupled with notification systems saved many lives. I certainly would value that extra time to get my employees to higher ground and safety. It can be life saving priceless information.
The information you act on must be accurate: Inaccurate information whether by mistake or ‘fake news’ can be worse than no information. My advice is unless it is from a credible source, you should dig deeper to insure the information is accurate.
There are many digital tools that can tip you off to threats and opportunities. A few that can provide value are:
Google Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) is a free resource that enables you to discover valuable ideas, news, contacts and trends. It searches millions of online resources on an ongoing basis and pushes precise information, that meets your criteria, to you in real-time or batched (sent in groups during at a specified time). You can set up multiple alerts on different keywords and text strings.
Hootsuite (hootsuite.com) enables you to monitor social platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. It can be used in creative ways such as to generate ideas, monitor competitors, detect potential disruptors, collect information, automatically post content, analyze what people are saying about your company, discover career opportunities and anything else you can imagine.
Sendible (sendible.com) pro-actively monitors countless conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms. This empowers you to discover what people are saying about your brand, company and competitors and allows you to respond timely and appropriately.
Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/)is a powerful free trend discovery tool that enables you to learn what people are searching for, what is hot and what is not. It has valuable trending charts that enable you to anticipate what and when products will trend in the future. You can also use that information to discover disruptor opportunities.
NC4 (NC4.com) provides you with real time intelligence on man-made and weather threats. It is highly customizable by the type and severity of alerts. You can map threats to your assets. Although, it is focused on safety and security the alerts can be beneficial in many areas. For example, they can help you decide where to locate an office or store and where not to.
Early Alert (https://www.earlyalert.com/) is an excellent weather alert tool that is especially strong providing comprehensive management quality weather special reports during large events such as hurricanes.
RiskPulse (https://riskpulse.com/) has deep knowledge of weather and enables you to understand risks before you ship products. Threats can be mapped to stationary locations and mobile vehicles. Their weather information including forecasted freezes and major events can also be used to identify opportunities.
Twitter (https://twitter.com/search-home) is a gold mine of instant information but has historically been difficult to search. Their current search feature is a vast improvement over previous version. Twitter is a great tool to discover what is trending and the experts you want to follow.
If you are interested in learning more about using Intelligence tools in new creative ways I suggest you subscribe to my Digital Success Newsletter newsletter MARTY