According to the ITIL, the framework of best practices for delivering IT services, there is a recommended process flow for how to handle major incidents. Clearly, the IT community would be well served to follow the ITIL’s systematic and professional approach, whose benefits, according to CIO Magazine, include the following:

• Reduced IT costs
• Improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes
• Improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery
• Standards and guidance
• Improved productivity
• Improved use of skills and experience
  
  

The ITIL on Managing Critical Incidents

When it comes to high urgency incidents, the ITIL framework first offers a priority matrix that incident managers can use to prioritize the incident response flow. The matrix helps these managers assign a priority score as based on various impact parameters, such as cost, customer satisfaction, productivity, and more.

Once the incident has been identified, the process flow that is recommended by the ITIL for diagnosing and managing includes the following steps:

• Incident logging and categorization;
• Escalation to 2nd-level support;
• Notifying the incident manager;
• Forms the Major Incident Team (MIT, made up of IT managers and technical experts, many from within the company but some potentially from outside), who will work together to resolve the incident;
• Once a workaround is discovered, reporting the incident to problem management for future investigation and for developing a permanent solution;
• Capturing data from the Major Incident Management process and using it to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization's Incident Management practices.
  
  

But, Is That Good Enough?

However, there are several other key enablers that are not covered by the ITIL, and which are critical for ensuring that every critical incident is handled with clarity, structure, and speed.

Namely, ensuring that:

• All the relevant stakeholders are onboarded immediately;
• All roles and responsibilities are clearly defined;
• Everyone is always “on the same page”;
• Every completed and outstanding task is updated in real time and communicated to the entire incident management team;
• There is access to a unified interface for incident command and control, collaboration, and situation analysis;
• There is an opportunity and process for tabletop simulations and training to ensure greater efficiency and efficacy with how forthcoming incidents are handled.

Now imagine, all this was possible – and that all the notifications, workflows, and task assignments were automated; and that the status of the incident and all tasks were graphically represented through an easily accessible, intuitive interface.

Well, you don’t have to imagine. Because, this is what we do at Exigence.

How Exigence Raises the Bar

At Exigence, we have developed a cloud-based solution for effectively and efficiently managing critical incidents. Our solution immediately engages and onboards all the right stakeholders across the company as well as third party partners. It streamlines workflows, ensuring that the right action is taken in real time, and that all domain experts and parties of interest are providing optimized remediation efforts at peak performance, and that they are aligned and informed throughout the process.

To find out how you too can ensure clarity, structure, and speed the next time a critical incident hits, we invite you to reach out and schedule a demo at info@exigence.com.