About Us
Crisis situations require swift and well-coordinated action. Ommelander Hospital Groningen found that traditional crisis management using Excel and paper flipcharts was too slow and confusing, so in 2016 it switched to CrisisSuite. Marcel Scholte, business continuity advisor, shares his experiences:
"It used to be difficult to keep track of everything, especially for crisis team members who weren't physically present. Looking up information turned out to be time-consuming, and only one person could work on the Excel file at a time."
"One of the biggest improvements is the ability to work in a network-centric manner. All members of the crisis team have immediate access to the information entered into CrisisSuite during a crisis meeting. This means that decisions and actions are visible in real time and no longer need to be communicated after the fact."
Thanks to CrisisSuite, the crisis team can immediately record actions and assign them to the responsible individuals. "Instead of someone having to follow up after a meeting to assign tasks, responsibilities are forwarded to the appropriate people in real time. This saves a lot of time. During the next meeting, we can easily see which actions have already been carried out. This allows us to move through our crisis meetings more quickly and leaves us with more time for scenario planning."
In addition, the software is also used to scale up our crisis response organization: "When a crisis occurs, we use the CrisisSuite Alert module to quickly and efficiently inform or mobilize crisis teams and staff via text message."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, CrisisSuite was an essential tool. "We used it for the daily meetings of the Crisis Policy Team (CPT) and collaborated with multiple operational teams, each of which focused on a specific issue. Decisions made by the CPT were immediately visible to the operational teams, ensuring that everyone was quickly informed of the measures to be taken."
In the event of unexpected incidents, such as a power outage, CrisisSuite once again proved its worth. "When the power supply from our provider was interrupted and we were left without electricity, we were able to immediately activate our emergency procedures and document them in CrisisSuite. This gave us a clear overview of the decisions made and the individuals responsible for them."
CrisisSuite also proved invaluable during the CrowdStrike crisis, when many organizations were temporarily unable to access their systems. "Because CrisisSuite operates independently of our own IT environment, we were able to continue using it as long as we had an internet connection. Even while our IT systems were down, CrisisSuite remained operational, allowing us to manage the situation effectively."
The system also plays a role in the annual "Black Building" test, during which the hospital is disconnected from the power grid to verify that all emergency systems are functioning properly. In addition, the system supports large-scale IT updates, which may cause disruptions to operations.
Ommelander Hospital views its partnership with Merlin very positively. "Merlin is a reliable partner that responds quickly to questions and suggestions. They are open to ideas from clients and take a serious approach to making improvements. If an idea fits within CrisisSuite, it is often implemented."
