Surviving Covid19: The role of Location Intelligence in Business Continuity
Ndilisa Didiza, CEO, Kgothatso Innovations
The Covid-19 Pandemic, that caused the world to stop, has not been dissimilar to when a vehicle, with occupants in, is suddenly forced to stop. In worst cases life threatening injuries occur and at best we are left disoriented with our hearts in our proverbial mouth. This has been the case for the majority of businesses in South Africa both large and small. The sudden suspension of economic and business activity has left most having to bear ongoing operational costs without corresponding income. Even though government has put together measures to cushion the blow, some businesses will be knocked out and yet for those that survive, great opportunities await.
Which are the businesses that survive?
In Disaster situations the likes of which we are now faced, it is those businesses that prove to be adaptable, flexible, and intuitive in responding that will have the best chance of surviving. This implies having insight into the nature of the disaster and utilising technology as a key instrument in how business is conducted, and decisions are made. How the technology is to be utilised and in what ways to allocate resources are questions best answered by Enterprise GIS.
What is Enterprise GIS?
Enterprise GIS allows use of mapping software throughout the business; maps give context and add richness and depth to business decisions. Now more than ever, when business is confronted with disaster, it needs to know that all the plans are in place and the business has contingencies to mitigate unexpected events. Most businesses have been left exposed because they have always been conducting business as usual and ignored, or worse, forgot about the importance of having a Business Continuity Plan, and not just any plan, but a Geo-centric Business Continuity Plan.
Executive dashboards can be built using real-time news feeds and notification systems. An example being the Covid-19 Dashboard on your right, built on an Esri Platform.
Real-time data feeds can be combined with mapping and GIS analysis.
Tracking applications can be installed on the Web-Viewer that can trigger notices and map views for the business continuity manager
Example of a GIS Web Viewer Portal
Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre
A Business Continuity Plan?
A Business Continuity Plan gives you the how to, in the event of a disaster or unexpected business disruption. It enables an organisation to mitigate risks that may cause disruptions in areas such as health and safety, loss of productivity from downtime, loss of work to competitors, failures within the supply-chain, penalties from regulators, and higher resultant insurance premiums. Regardless of industry or size, all companies have responsibilities from a compliance standpoint. A Business Continuity Plan assists in monitoring and tracking compliance from these perspectives.
What If I have Multiple Sites?
Each site has unique characteristics that are influenced by its location. Businesses that have operations in multiple sites across a city or country, require a geocentric Business Continuity Plan. It helps to strengthen and formalise organisational preparedness and response to disaster, enabling timely and cost-efficient response while reducing the cost of business disruptions on human lives, operations, assets, and financial resources.
Source: Kgothatso Innovations Mapping Division
Joburg Metro Covid19 Cases Map View
A Geocentric Business Continuity Plan utilises the Map for:
- Understanding locations of highest risks
- Identifying employee households at risk
- Understanding centres of social unrest and increased risk
- Locating the closest health centres such as clinics or hospitals for employees
- Identify safe areas where business can continue to operate
Kgothatso Innovations and ABMI have developed a geo-centric business continuity management solution that not only integrates the attribute-based maturity index (ABMI) practice guideline D3 with BCP best practice but does it on a GIS platform. Kgothatso’s ABMI inspired GIS, can develop event scenarios and map outcomes efficiently, allowing seamless responsiveness.
Geocentric – BCP Flow chart
Our Solutions cater not just for big enterprise clients but also for small to medium scale operations that need Business Continuity Solutions that fit within their budgets. To this end we have an Outsourced GIS office that would provide the skills and manpower required to support geocentric decision making without the prohibitive labour overheads that can strangle the business’ capacity and responsiveness.
https://kgothatsoinnovations.co.za/outsourced-office/
Kgothatso Innovations understands how geographical information systems can add value to your business.