Are You Staying Alert for Changes in Your Supply Chain?

When a factory in Reddi-wip’s supply chain suffered an explosion, little did they know that in a couple of months the resulting shortage of their popular canned cream brand (produced by ConAgra Foods) would blow up online.

By December, just as the Christmas season got into full swing, terms such as "Whippocalypse" and "Creamageddon" began trending on social media. The lack of canned cream for apple pie and pumpkin spiced lattes was causing an uproar online in the US.

What could ConAgra have done to prevent this?

Corporations like ConAgra should have active monitoring in place for their entire supply chain, to help ensure they are notified of any incidents and can take action as quickly as possible.

This gives additional time to help mitigate risk and prepare crisis comms to both staff, their distribution network and the community.

In some cases, early alerts give corporations enough time to initiate a plan B, avoiding a crisis altogether.

Is your corporation monitoring their supply chain?

If not, here are just a few more good reasons they should:

• Your executive team will be praising you for the early "heads up"
• You're ultimately protecting forecast revenue and future business opportunities
• Your executive team will have more time to initiate a plan B, or at least put together a solid PR plan
• Your operations team will have more time to redistribute their production line workers onto other tasks

Don't be the last to find out critical information. Ensure you know everything that's going on with your supply chain and be the first to know when news of a crisis breaks online. Gather situational awareness from Open Source Intelligence to stay one step ahead when disaster strikes.

6 Ways Gatlinburg Emergency Teams Could Have Increased the Safety of Residents After The Wildfire

Whilst 14 lives were tragically lost during the Gatlinburg wildfire, this number may have been higher without  many residents posting photos and videos of the blaze online.

In the past, this sea of information in and around a disaster zone did not exist. But in today's world it brings with it an opportunity to save lives through insight not previously available.

Here are six easy ways emergency responders could have used this information in order to increase safety in the community during and after the wildfire.

1. Monitor for instances of online vitriol and hate speech (especially as there was possibly a suspect behind the incident):

2. Monitor ‘vigilante justice’ and ensure any manhunt-style posts are kept both accurate and under control:

3. Corroborate online updates that include photos and footage of the incident, to increase situational awareness – all of which could help fire investigators after the fact.

As arson was suspected, these posts could also be used to help find witnesses:

4. Monitor posts informing when the town would be reopening

It is important to keep an eye on these to ensure they are accurate and to pinpoint any misinformation before it spreads.

5. Stay informed as to what complementary agencies are communicating to the public and other public service announcements, to ensure statements are both accurate and align with your efforts

6. Stay informed of public opinion on how agencies are responding to the disaster

If you’re not monitoring social media during a disaster, you are missing out on important intelligence and don’t have the full picture.

To see how Signal can help you be more situationally aware during an emergency, watch the short demo or request a full demo from one of our team.