Most organizations have done extensive planning for contingency operations, however, they fail to consider the need for situational awareness and the critical role played by intelligence in forming a timely and accurate picture to facilitate decision making by top management.
Introduction to Intelligence Fusion Centers
Business Contingency Planning or BCP has received significant attention in the wake of natural disasters such as Hurricanes and the like. Typically the focus is on developing a nest of plans that would guide the organization’s operations when management declares that an incident is of sufficient magnitude to warrant activating the plan and the teams it calls for.
The issue of situation awareness is often ignored even though a solid awareness of the situation is a prerequisite to optimal decision making. The US Army defines situational awareness: “Knowledge and understanding of the current situation which promotes timely, relevant and accurate assessment of friendly, competitive and other operations within the battlespace in order to facilitate decision making. An informational perspective and skill that fosters an ability to determine quickly the context and relevance of events that are unfolding.” (http://www.army.mil/armyBTKC/focus/sa/about.htm)
A key element within situational awareness is the analysis of all available intelligence. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has advocated the use of Intelligence Fusion Centers. As of March 2008 there were 58 such centers set up by cities and states in order to effectively process and analyze the intelligence associated with natural disasters and manmade incidents such as terrorist attacks. They key functions of intelligence fusion centers according to DHS are: 1. Help with the flow of classified and unclassified information, provide a central repository of specialized expertise, coordinate with local law enforcement and other agencies, and provide local awareness and access. (http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/gc_1156877184684.shtm)
Other organizations need to emulate the examples of Cities and States and should develop their own intelligence fusion capabilities. Many organizations already have bits and pieces of intelligence fusion capabilities through their competitive analysis department, investor relations, and/or industry analyst relations. Establishment of a commercial intelligence fusion center should expand the purview of analysis to collect and analyze appropriate information from global sources and to be able to rapidly analyze this information in such a way as to provide top management with an easy to understand picture of events that are likely to effect the operations of the organization.
Best Practices
A key aspect of commercial intelligence fusion centers would be to blueprint the nature of law enforcement organizations that are likely be involved in the event of major incidents effecting the organization. This compendium should include the law enforcement organization’s charter, jurisdiction, and key contacts. Individuals within the commercial organization should be designated as liaisons to smooth the lines of communication between the commercial organization and law enforcement.
The intelligence fusion center should also be able to assimilate rapid fire news information from a number of sources. Since most incidents must be dealt with locally, it is of paramount importance to have solid connections with local media. These connections will be information conduits with information passing from the commercial organization to the media and vice versa. The fusion center should also develop sources of information that will track the plans and actions of government entities. The fusion center must have trained individuals who are keenly aware of the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) National Incident Management System (NIMS). This training is essential to understand how FEMA efforts will be organized during an incident and to be able to interface with the various elements employed to ameliorate the effects of the incident or disaster. A good starting point would be http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/index.shtm, the National Integration Center’s Incident Management System’s home page.
The principle purpose of any intelligence fusion center is to provide analysis and recommendations to senior management. These analyses and recommendations should be the result of standardized and rigorous continuous operations. Fusion centers need to be on going, they cannot just stand up to address particular incidents. This requires a commitment from top management and the recognition of the importance of these efforts.
In general, intelligence fusion centers need to report directly to top management. Whether the center reports to the CEO, the COO or other individual is a function of the nature of the organization, its industry, size and probably headquarters country. The center needs to have this streamlined reporting structure is necessary in order to afford the high level access needed to insure that critical intelligence gets to the top level executives and that top level executives have a ready resource at their disposal to develop special analysis or complete special projects in line with the needs of the organization.
Resources and Training
Fusion centers will need significant resources. Highly trained and experienced analytical personnel are the keystone of any successful intelligence center. These personnel should be managed by executives with analytical instincts of their own so that they can provide crisp feedback on product content and format to help improve the nature of center operations and the work product over time. Analysis will require state of the art information technology tools. Center IT may need to be separated from the organization’s mainstream IT so as to have maximum access to needed sources. As an example fusion centers should be exempt from many of the web access restrictions placed on rank and file employees.
Having said all this however, fusion centers require oversight and training. In particular significant attention needs to be paid to the rules of privacy and confidentiality. Health care organizations in particular should be very sensitive to the constraints of HIPAA and other laws/regulations. It would also make sense to have periodic audits and inspections by appropriate individuals outside the fusion center to insure that the center has complied with legal and administrative mandates.
Conclusion
Contingency operations take place under pressure. Locations effected by negative incidents are dealing with the exigencies of the organization’s operations, and simultaneously with employees’ own personal situations. Often employees may not be able to leave their residences in order to get to the fusion center, consequently contingency plans need to be made for employees to work at home and for them to deal with their own personal and family situations.
Intelligence fusion centers and their ability to provide organizations with timely and accurate situational awareness will pay handsome dividends in terms of improved decision making under the adverse conditions. Commercial organizations should consider implementing fusion centers as a key component of their business contingency planning.