CFATS Exercise Demostrates Technologies Role in Fighting Terrorism

The CDC thinks the threat of a human influenza pandemic has greatly increased over the past several years, because of the emergence of H5N1 avian flu strains. They just don’t know when. This morning at ESS EXPO.08, we held a session on “Planning for a Pandemic.” No one likes to think or plan for these kinds of emergencies, but the federal government has required that industry must use the information on both the CDC site and the Homeland Security site on how to go about this. We are trying to help our clients prepare for this. John Gargett, our product manager, led this session.

You would be surprised at how much preparation is involved. Food and agriculture, emergency services, national monuments and icons, chemical and hazardous materials, energy, emergency services, and transportation are only some the industries that could be involved.

The World Health Organization has a schedule of Alert States that goes in six stages, from no incidence, to many sick people. And our government has one, too — and they don’t coincide! There are response phases, however, during which you can respond and prepare. Gargett advises that you set a Google Alert for a pandemic alert period, and if you receive an alert for a pandemic in Thailand, you still want to start preparing. (There was a SARS alert in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, and people started leaving, which just causes more potential for transmission.)

Add comment April 14th, 2008

CFATS Terrorist Exercise at ESS EXPO Shows Why Responders Need Crisis Technology

At ESS EXPO.08, we are doing something truly unique this year to point out the need for responders to be ready for terrorist attacks against chemical facilities. We are sponsoring a demonstration, focused on the Homeland Security’s (DHA) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) that shows why responder organizations need a crisis management system to manage any crisis.

During this exercise, named “Green Scorpion,” responders will handle a simulated terrorist attack on a chemical processing facility, which is taking place in the midst of a major pandemic. A second exercise called “Sand Dollar,” will feature responders mitigating damage at a scene where an Amtrak train has been blown up. Responders will run all three exercises with Essential Emergency™.

While the action takes place on the front lines, the exercise will be managed from a makeshift emergency operations center, which will really be an EXPO conference room, where a command team will manage real-time information to and from the site. Data will be imported into the system from an unmanned aerial vehicle, video, and injects from a simulation system, provided by our partner, SAIC, which will feed data from multiple sources to Essential Emergency in real time.

CFATS Director Brian Harrell will speak about the DHS standard and the role for a public/private partnership in its implementation. Our exercise has captured significant attention at DHS because it is perhaps the first public/private conference to address the topic and conduct a field demonstration. DHS is apparently thrilled with what we are doing, and we may very well be setting the national standard here for exercises.

An effective crisis management system is made up of three components – Teams, Techniques and Technology. Teams are the people in an organization, techniques are the processes they use to respond, and, of course, the technology is a Crisis Management solution like Essential Emergency.

Let’s say an organization has a crisis management system in place. In order to be effective during a crisis, after the three T’s are in place, responders need to practice response techniques under real-time conditions to ensure they will be ready if — or, as experts believe, when — an actual emergency incident occurs.

1 comment March 31st, 2008

ESS EXPO.08 to Provide Latest Trends, Innovative Solutions for EHS Software Users

If you haven’t already registered, here’s a personal invitation from me to join us at ESS EXPO.08 from Sunday, April 13 - Tuesday, April 15, at Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort outside Phoenix, Arizona.

ESS EXPO.08 is the largest software users’ conference of the year dedicated to Environmental, Health & Safety and Crisis Management. Attendees will see the latest technology innovations from ESS – with up-close looks at new versions of our software (Essential Suite™ version 7.1 and the browser-based version of Compliance Suite™) as well as quick tips and in-depth explanations from the experts who design, develop and support those tools. In addition, our training team will offer training courses that address key regulatory compliance issues and best practices.

Participants will hear the latest news about a variety of Governance, Risk and Compliance issues and information management challenges. Sessions like “Corporate Sustainability: Helping People and Businesses Reach Their Potential” by Microsoft and “REACH – Understanding and Implementing for Compliance” by PTK, Ltd — the firm that co-authored the regulation — provide a brief sample of the topics that will be discussed at this year’s ESS EXPO.

At ESS EXPO, you can meet your peers, exchange best practices and meet keynote speakers Simon Jacobson of AMR Research and racing icon Kyle Petty. Jacobson will provide an overview of enterprise trends, while Petty, of course, plans to talk about NASCAR and business success.

Our business partners will show how they can enable ESS users to achieve even greater success with complementary solutions and services. And finally, ESS software users will benefit from sharing their own ideas and experiences while networking with other top professionals from a wide variety of vertical industries.

ESS EXPO.08 continues the tremendous success of previous EXPO events, which have attracted hundreds of EHS and Crisis Management professionals.

Add comment February 13th, 2008

Rising Tide of Terrorism Against Energy Companies Impacts Global Markets

Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about the price of oil and its impact on global markets. Rising prices can, in part, be attributed to social and political instability in a growing number of oil producing nations. For example, an article recently published in the Washington Post served as a sobering reminder that consumer demand isn’t the only factor that has been driving up oil prices to record levels.

Royal Dutch Shell recently took a $716 million charge against earnings because of a major security breach near a key oil export terminal near the Forcados River in Nigeria. Insurgents initially attacked the facility in February 2006; and after several failed attempts by Shell officials to restore operations, the company was forced to shut down production. Damages during the subsequent period included thousands of barrels of crude oil, as well as the company’s 435-mile pipeline infrastructure. However, the most significant impact is the loss of an estimated 475 million barrels of oil per day that isn’t reaching the marketplace — at the same time that U.S. government officials are calling for OPEC member nations to increase production of petroleum products to keep domestic oil prices steady.

Terrorism impacts both global energy industry leaders and emerging companies on nearly every continent. For some time, executives of oil companies have been telling me that they are very concerned about the rising tide of terrorism against facilities around the world.

So is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which now mandates that companies have an emergency plan that is both complete, and exercised. In fact, John Gargett, ESS’ leading Crisis Management expert, has pointed out that enterprises — particularly energy companies — are becoming more vigilant because of the potential for increased attacks against their facilities. They are now conducting training exercises, often coordinating with local or regional emergency management agencies. Several of our customers have developed global crisis management programs, supported by the latest integrated information management technologies, to ensure companies can execute a robust response in case of acts of terrorism, major weather-related events or catastrophic operational incidents such as fires, workplace injuries and hazardous material spills to name a few.

While there is no way to prevent these kinds of incidents, investors aren’t jumping ship, even while energy companies’ assets are at significant risk. That’s because companies are doing more than ever to protect their interests and employees, as well as the interests of consumers worldwide.

Add comment February 12th, 2008

Russians Call for Stronger Regulation of Ships After Major Oil Spill

Although Russia will likely become wealthy over the long-term because of its oil reserves, the Russian government is going to slow that process to make sure no more oil spills happen like the one that caused $267 million in damages to the Kerch Strait earlier this month. A major oil spill in the Baltic Sea polluted a 30-mile stretch of water, killing birds and fish.

As a result, Russian officials will limit oil products shipped by river in 2008 by disallowing barges that are more than 25 years old. Because Russia has an industrial economy dating back to the Soviet Union, much of the oil industry’s equipment is aging.
“The fleet must be young. We will subject ship owners to such conditions that it will become unprofitable to use barges older than 25 years,” Alexander Davidenko, head of RosRechMorFlot, the river navigation agency, told Reuters.

According to oil industry spokespersons, this move will cut shipments by 70-80 percent below the customary 5-million ton level. The oil industry is not happy, suggesting that the government may be overreacting to the spill by over regulating the industry without doing sufficient research. They believe that there may be other ways to deal with the fallout without requiring major investment in new equipment.

Many of the oil companies we deal with have already put in place an integrated EHS software platform that enables managers to monitor and report such spills and correct problems with equipment before those problems erupt into crises.

Even though major oil spills are rare, organizations still need to be prepared to provide rapid and robust emergency response in order to minimize the potential ecological impact from these kinds of incidents. There’s plenty of motivation to do so, as investors are always closely examining companies’ ability to prevent or mitigate operational risks. Having a proactive crisis response plan, supported by a crisis management technology, can go a long way to protect the interests of the company and the community.

There are also rumors of a coming ban on floating storage facilities. When Russian rivers freeze in the winter, oil is stored in floating facilities until the spring thaw when it can be transported again. These facilities, if they are monitored correctly with crisis management reporting systems that support measures to prevent spills, could have their useful life extended without endangering rivers and seas.

If oil company barges would use the right kind of reporting and monitoring systems, it would be good news to the developed world, because we need the oil and the Russians need to sell it.

Add comment November 26th, 2007

ESS Crisis™ Enables Teams to Streamline Response at Major Terrorism Exercise

Several months before OPERATION TOPOFF 4, an incredibly complex terrorism preparedness exercise, the Tempe, Arizona Fire Department selected the on-demand version of ESS Crisis™ to manage its daily planning and emergency event mitigation at the city’s emergency operations center. Tempe Fire Department was an important customer win for us, not only because our own headquarters is located in Tempe, but because it gave us a chance to try out our SaaS product in a very important context.

TOPOFF 4, which took place October 15-24 at several venues in Arizona and Oregon, was designed to strengthen the nation’s capacity to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The exercise provided an opportunity for local, state and federal agencies to coordinate emergency preparedness efforts among 10,000 participants, including officials from Arizona and Oregon; overseas support from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Guam; and with the full-scale tests of collective preparedness and interoperability.

During last month’s exercise, imaginary radiological incidents occurred in Tempe/Phoenix, Portland and Guam. Local officials were tasked with coordinating and executing proper responses to the incidents using effective communication and coordination among various levels of government agencies and private responders. Federal, state and municipal agencies had to work together in this test. Once the exercise was complete, the Department of Homeland Security evaluated the Tempe responder team’s performance and gave them a report card in an effort to improve the City’s preparedness and incident management.

A growing number of local first responders like those in Tempe and Gilbert, another Phoenix-area suburb, have automated their pre-event preparedness and onsite coordination. Exercises like TOPOFF 4 are a powerful reminder that interagency coordination and system interoperability will be key factors to ensure that future terrorism response efforts are to be successful. Departments both large and small will need automated tools like Crisis to ensure they will be ready when a major incident occurs. In a real crisis, it could turn out to be a lifesaver.

Add comment November 15th, 2007

Overseas Companies Looking for Health & Safety Solutions

I’m back in Asia, having meetings during the past week with customers and potential customers in the Philippines. I have found that companies that are not ready to tackle environmental problems are quite interested in health and safety solutions, especially software that is integrated with emergency management modules. Most executives had no idea that EH&S solutions existed that were part of a single platform devoted to Prevention, Mitigation, and Performance, appearing on their portals as unified data. The emergency management piece, which is part of our Mitigation offering, drew particular attention.

One of the most pressing issues around emergency management is the coordination of communications, and we were told repeatedly about needs in this area. I’m glad we’ve got something good to offer.

This is a long way from compliance, which is where we started building our software. We are now into the larger areas of operational risk, as part of governance, risk and compliance. When I look back, I have seen that our horizon has been expanding over the past ten or twelve years.

We are just following the lead of our customers who have begun to see their needs from a more strategic perspective. This week I learned from an article in the New York Times that many large corporations are now including a CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) in the executive suite. The compliance officer reports to the CSO. I predict that this move from Compliance to Sustainability will be a fast-growing trend.

1 comment July 5th, 2007

Security is a Major Concern for Energy Company CEOs in Asia

I have just come home from a month-long road trip to Australia and Asia. While I was traveling in Southeast Asia, I found a common issue was dominating the minds of responsible individuals and leaders in these organizations: Terrorists in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have been targeting oil and gas industry assets more frequently in those countries. So are the Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka. Once again, I am struck by the serendipity of our product development. Before I took the trip, I was glad we included a real time emergency response component in Essential Suite, but I never predicted how it might be most effectively used.

Now I know first-hand that not only do these organizations need to minimize operational risk, but much more critically, they have to deal with the risk of terrorist activities shutting down their facilities and with the potential for massive environmental exposure
from successful attacks. Security has become the biggest issue for them, and a real time emergency response is a real requirement for EH&S and Crisis Management systems all over Asia.

Earlier this week, the Tamil Tigers bombed two fuel facilities in Colombo, forcing the partial shutdown of the airport as major carriers decided only to fly there in daylight or not at all.

Here’s the story from Reuters Net Alert:

This security issue is a big concern of both local and multinational oil and gas companies and energy companies operating in Southeast Asia. I heard it repeatedly from CIOs and EH&S executives on this trip.

1 comment May 3rd, 2007