Microsoft has issued a warning about “active attacks” targeting certain SharePoint server software used for document sharing within organizations, Reuters reports. The company urgently advises customers to implement security updates immediately. This is alarming news for thousands of organizations, as the damage from such an attack can be extensive. Effective crisis communication is crucial, particularly in situations like these. In this article, you’ll learn why effective crisis communication matters, the characteristics of strong crisis communication, and how to prepare your communication for any type of cyber crisis.

Effective crisis communication prevents further damage

Good communication ensures that a (potential) crisis remains under control and does not escalate further. When employees are not informed promptly and thoroughly, uncertainty and confusion arise. This can lead to panic, undesirable behavior, and additional harm to the organization.

Traditional channels such as intranet and email are unsuitable as crisis communication tools. They are often overlooked or noticed too late and can even become compromised themselves, leading to further problems. The alternative? Omnichannel push communication. This allows you to immediately deliver information to all employees, regardless of their location, utilizing all available screens: TVs, PCs, and mobile devices.

It is essential that this communication instantly captures attention, immediately takes priority over other messages, and enables employees to confirm receipt. Various tools are available for this purpose, such as Alerts—prominent messages that appear directly on top of all other communications on TVs, PCs, and mobile phones—and Tickers: scrolling information bars immediately visible above all open applications on PCs. These ensure warnings, information, and instructions are not overlooked, enabling employees to clearly understand the situation and the required actions to prevent further damage.

Create redundancy and prepare your communication for any cyber crisis

How do you ensure employees are reached quickly and effectively during any cyber crisis? By creating redundancy. Redundancy is crucial for every organization’s digital survival. It simply ensures that one or more communication channels are always available during a crisis, regardless of the circumstances. Communication should be possible even if the internet has completely failed. By leveraging multiple channels—from communication via TV screens, PCs, and mobile apps, to even SMS messaging—you significantly reduce the risk of a communication failure and, consequently, additional harm.

Prepare yourself to prevent chaos

A crisis demands swift and decisive action, including thorough preparation. Don’t wait until it’s too late; ensure you are ready now. Do this by having the right tools to communicate effectively in the manner described above. Additionally, it is essential to prepare as many different scenarios as possible in advance and to pre-set corresponding messages, allowing quick action during any type of crisis. Every second counts during a cyber crisis; there is no room for improvisation. Solid preparation, the right tools, and fast, thoughtful communication make the difference between a manageable situation and total chaos.

Start improving your crisis communication today. Schedule a no-obligation consultation with one of our experts or discover the power of our crisis communication software yourself through a brief demo.

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“In times of crisis or potential crisis, effective communication is essential. It ensures that a situation is managed rather than escalated. When employees are not informed timely, honestly, and completely, a vacuum forms, quickly filled with rumors and uncertainty. This leads to panic, loss of trust, and unnecessary damage to the organization.” – Frank Hoen, CEO and founder of Netpresenter

A global trade war and looming recession are causing layoffs, mergers, and budget cuts. What once seemed distant is now a harsh reality for organizations worldwide. Pressure mounts, financial survival strategies unfold, and internal crises loom. Precisely then, effective communication becomes indispensable. Communication or escalation? The choice is yours.

How communication makes the difference

Effective employee communication significantly impacts crisis situations. Facts supporting this:

• Avoid panic caused by lack of information: According to CDC guidelines, people automatically assume the worst when they don’t receive information, fueling panic and exacerbating chaos during crises. Effective communication addresses this by providing clarity and alleviating concerns.
• Speed prevents rumors: If internal communication moves too slowly, employees often learn important news first from external sources or colleagues, increasing the risk of misinformation or incomplete facts. When organizations communicate promptly, they remain the primary source of information, building trust and preventing unnecessary unrest.
• Increase trust and retain talent: Effective communication does more than prevent unrest—it strengthens trust in the organization. This trust pays off. According to Sci-Tech Today, organizations with good employee communication are 50% more likely to retain their employees.

The battle for attention: how can your communication compete against Big Tech?

How do you communicate effectively in an age of information overload and fierce competition from platforms like TikTok? The harsh truth is Big Tech also wins in your workplace. Employees spend nearly 2 hours per workday on social media, according to ElectroIQ. The intranet, however? Often just 15 minutes per week, reports Swoop Analytics. While you’re trying to convey a crucial internal message, external platform notifications and algorithms constantly distract your employees.

“We must dare to admit: email and intranet alone no longer meet today’s communication realities. The solution? Create your own communication bubble within your organization,” says Frank.

Just as employees find themselves in social media bubbles, you can create an internal communication bubble. This bubble:

• Shows essential information through push notifications, bringing it directly to employees’ attention;
• Reaches all employees via channels best suited to their roles and locations—such as TVs, PCs, and mobile phones;
• Displays updates tailored by person, role, or team to prevent information overload and unrest;
• Gathers feedback continuously, improving communication and processes;
• Scales up messaging when urgency demands, ensuring necessary actions are taken;
• Sends immediate alerts during highly urgent crises to minimize damage.

Lessons from AMBER Alert and RijnmondVeilig

As co-developer of AMBER Alert Netherlands, Frank knows the power of effective communication: “A single urgent message can mobilize millions within minutes. At Netpresenter, we now apply this technology more broadly—including for RijnmondVeilig. The result: 1.2 million residents can be informed about incidents and required actions within seconds, before rumors spread. If entire regions can be rapidly informed, why leave your own employees in uncertainty?”

The successes of AMBER Alert and RijnmondVeilig demonstrate how effective rapid and accurate communication can be—an eye-opener for many organizations. With the Netpresenter platform, we offer companies this powerful solution, enabling internal crises to be quickly and effectively managed, preventing escalation.

Improve your communication before it’s too late

The conclusion is clear: communication is key to effective crisis management. Good employee communication can either amplify or control a crisis. It’s time to provide clarity and build trust, especially during challenging periods. By investing now in a culture of openness and a robust communication platform, your organization can not only withstand a crisis but emerge stronger.

Sometimes one conversation or demonstration makes all the difference. Perhaps your organization is ready for it. Our experts are here for you—whether you need advisory support or a no-obligation demonstration. Whichever first step your organization chooses, it starts with the decision to take communication seriously.

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Recently, a worldwide computer outage occurred on Windows computers due to a Crowdstrike update. The result? “Blue Screens of Death” on approximately 8.5 million computers globally, according to microsoft. Airports, hospitals, and other important organizations faced an IT crisis, significantly impacting their operations. Many companies don’t know how to reach their employees in the event of an IT crisis. This is a crucial part of IT crisis management. If systems and PCs are still online, employees are often informed via email or the intranet, which almost guarantees that not everyone sees the warning (in time). If PCs, the network, or both are offline, many organizations are at a loss. It’s time to create redundancy.

Create redundancy with Netpresenter

In IT crisis management, it’s crucial to quickly warn, instruct, and inform employees. To do this in any type of IT crisis, redundancy in communication tools is essential. This means that employees are always reachable, even if PCs and/or the network are down. It’s vital that an organization doesn’t rely on just one solution. Working with isolated tools increases the risk of using the wrong communication tools or having a complete lack of communication options in a crisis.

The solution? An omnichannel platform with various tools for different situations. With years of experience in crisis communication with organizations like Amber Alert, Netpresenter offers the right mix of robust tools. Let’s look at the situations and corresponding tools.

Situation 1: PCs and network online

When PCs and the network are online, the best way to communicate during IT crisis management is through the PC. This is where employees are active and will see warnings, instructions, and updates first. Two highly effective tools for directly informing employees via PCs are the Desktop Ticker and Desktop Alerts.

Desktop Ticker
The Desktop Ticker is a scrolling text bar that appears at the bottom of employees’ screens, above all other applications. This tool quickly grabs attention with its automatically moving character, making it ideal for quickly and clearly communicating important messages without fully interrupting employees’ work. It enables to spread warnings, give brief instructions, and keep employees updated on developments.

Desktop Alerts
Desktop Alerts are pop-up notifications that appear directly on employees’ screens, regardless of the application they are using. This tool is very effective for getting employees’ attention immediately in a crisis, ensuring crucial warnings are not missed. With pre-set scenarios, alerts can be sent out within seconds. Buttons can also be added so employees can acknowledge the warning or view further information.

Situation 2: PCs and/or network offline

If PCs and/or the network go down, mobile devices can take over communication during IT crisis management.

Employee App
For mobile communications, app notifications are the most suitable tool. App notifications are push notifications sent directly to employees’ mobile devices via the employee app. This tool ensures that employees are immediately aware of important updates. Like Desktop Alerts, buttons can be added for more information or read acknowledgements.

Text messaging
But what if some employees don’t have the app installed? There’s always text messaging. Text messages sent directly to employees’ mobile phones effectively inform all employees. It doesn’t matter how old someone’s phone is; as long as you have their number, you can always reach them. This ensures that important information is received quickly and directly, even if no app is installed.

Prepare for optimal IT crisis management

As you can see, an omnichannel platform with various tools is crucial for effective communication during IT crisis management. By building in redundancy, you ensure that you can always reach your employees in the event of any IT crisis. This leads to an adequate internal response and limits the damage.

Prepare for an IT crisis. Request a free demo now to get a good impression of our solutions and discover how we can help your organization.

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Every organization has its risks and dynamics, depending on the country, the sector, and the organization’s size. By working out protocols on several A4 sheets, you guarantee speed and decisiveness. You can always refer to the crisis communication plan, which, for example, contains tone-of-voice and ready-made statements.

The bundle consists of the following communication protocols, which you can use or as an example when creating your own specific protocols:

✔ Roles and responsibilities
✔ Cyberattacks
✔ Bomb Threats or Explosions
✔ Fire
✔ Pandemic
✔ Extreme Cold
✔ Thunderstorms & Tornadoes
✔ Power Outage

Download the free communication protocols below

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A well-constructed crisis communication plan can significantly reduce response time, as all important elements have been gathered in advance. Additionally, it helps create an efficient and organized response.

To help organizations prepare for crises, we have put together a checklist that will help you set up a crisis communication plan. It consists of the most common elements in a crisis communication plan, as well as practical tips.

Download the free checklist below

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As people collectively work remotely because of the coronavirus, good internal communication is more important than ever. While there are numerous communication tools out there to chat with your colleagues, there are more powerful solutions available for company-wide communication, such as SharePoint to create your own intranet. With just a small modification, SharePoint becomes a crisis-proof communication tool.

SharePoint is already available on every device via the web and apps. This makes SharePoint a handy tool, especially if you’re currently forced to work mainly from home. However, there’s also a disadvantage to SharePoint: employees must visit SharePoint to see the information, which can form a barrier. This makes SharePoint less useful for sharing important company news or real-time updates. After all, you don’t know when or how fast employees read the news items – for all you know, they don’t read them at all.  SharePoint adoption is a problem we notice many companies struggle with. That’s why we created the SharePoint Integration.

SharePoint Integration

One of the biggest pros of the SharePoint Integration is that people no longer need to navigate to your SharePoint: the integration brings Sharepoint to them. Whether you use digital signage screens, or only desktops and laptops – messages you publish on SharePoint will automatically appear on every screen in your organization. The content even appears on your employees’ mobile phones. If necessary, people can immediately click through to SharePoint from their laptop or phone to read more.

It also enables you to reach people who don’t work with a computer. Think of nurses in a hospital, or warehousemen. Even visitors can get access to (curated) content on your intranet via digital signage screens, something that is otherwise impossible (hey, it’s called the intranet for a reason). Especially for organizations that still welcome visitors or patients, working from home isn’t an option. For these organizations, hygiene and contact regulations are now more important and stricter than ever. The SharePoint Integration allows these organizations to easily distribute the latest hygiene regulations amongst everyone, both employees and visitors. This is essential under the present circumstances, especially in the healthcare sector.

Meanwhile, well-structured communication continues to be essential for employees who are working from home. All of their communication now suddenly takes place via digital channels.  Whether your employees communicate via Slack, Teams, Skype or e-mail, the number of digital messages someone receives when they’re working from home can be overwhelming.   When you publish company news through these communication channels, all you’re doing is contributing to this information overload. You might want to avoid this.  We think distributing your company news via SharePoint and the Sharepoint Integration is a lot more efficient: you don’t flood people with more information while they’re trying to get some work done (while also still adapting to suddenly working from home all the time). In addition to that, if there’s really important news you want to get to all of your employees instantaneously (for example, when everyone can work at the office again!), you can reach everyone at the same time via a push notification.

No extra work

We understand you don’t want to deal with any more fuss in the current situation. That’s why we made it easy to transfer your SharePoint messages to your digital signage screens, your PCs and your mobile phones: The integration automatically does it for you! This way, you don’t have to manage your content in multiple places. You just keep managing your content on SharePoint, the only difference being that now you’ll genuinely reach your staff when it matters the most. And just like that, your SharePoint is now a crisis-proof communication tool!

Want to know more about our SharePoint Integration? Or see the functionality in real life? Feel free to contact me. You might also find our free Infographic with 5 tips to boost your SharePoint adoption an interesting read.

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In healthcare, fast and effective communication is vital. If employees in healthcare facilities are not aware of the latest hygiene guidelines and safety measures, it can have serious consequences for the health of patients and staff. Unfortunately, some scenarios, such as the outbreak of a virus, may not always be preventable, and emergencies can sometimes be difficult to avoid. In such cases, it is crucial to inform medical personnel as quickly as possible about the correct procedures to prevent or minimize serious consequences.

A wide range of safety and hygiene procedures ensures the safety of patients. However, such a vast array of procedures and guidelines also demands a large amount of information retention from medical personnel. To ensure that hospital staff remains informed about all these procedures, the power of repetition can be utilized. Studies show that continuous repetition of important information and training is much more effective than a single training session.

Read, remember, apply

Netpresenter easily applies the power of repetition: safety and hygiene procedures can be efficiently and effectively brought to the attention of medical personnel through screensavers on inactive computers and large narrowcasting screens. Even staff members without fixed workstations come into contact with these important procedures on a daily basis in this way. Frequent repetition of this important information ensures that employees not only read such procedures but also remember and apply them in their daily work. Emergency situations can be easily prevented in this way.

Prevention impossible?

Then swift recovery! In most cases, prevention is better than cure, but in some cases, prevention is more challenging than in others. If an emergency occurs despite all efforts, alert notifications can be rapidly disseminated via Netpresenter on computer screens, mobile phones, and TVs. This way, hospital employees are immediately informed about the correct procedures to follow during an emergency, and serious consequences can be minimized or even entirely avoided.

Many hospitals, such as Erasmus MC and VCU Health, already make use of these capabilities and successfully utilize them daily to inform, train, and alert their employees. This helps their medical personnel make challenging tasks a little easier in a simple way!

Do you also need an effective way to inform your hospital staff? Contact us for a free demo. Or download our checklist on preparing for a crisis.

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