How to Strengthen Organizational Resilience During an IT Outage

Organizations today depend heavily on external technology solutions for communication, operations, and customer service. But what happens when these systems go down? Many companies discovered the answer firsthand during the CrowdStrike outage, which not only disrupted internal operations but also prevented external-facing services from functioning. In one high-profile case, a major organization found itself unable to email, message, or coordinate with its employees and customers. The only communication channels left were out-of-band methods such as mass notifications via SMS and phone calls to reach their employees, customers, supply chains, and other individuals. 

This event, along with other major outages, has forced business leaders to reevaluate their communication strategies. When technology fails, organizations must have a backup plan to help eliminate confusion, reduce downtime, and ensure business continuity. 

When an IT outage occurs, organizations need an immediate and effective way to reach employees, partners, and customers. Relying on a single method such as email creates a single point of failure. A multimodal mass notification system ensures that messages reach stakeholders through multiple channels, including SMS alerts for instant mobile communication, phone calls for voice instructions, push notifications through a dedicated mobile app, desktop alerts for internal communications, and social media or website updates for external audiences. 

By implementing an enterprise-wide mass notification system, organizations can maintain operational resilience, keeping employees informed and customers engaged even when primary communication systems fail. 

It’s difficult to predict how long an IT outage will last. While some disruptions are resolved in minutes or hours, others, like the CrowdStrike and AWS outages, persist for extended periods, forcing organizations to find alternative ways to operate. A resilient organization prepares by defining communication protocols in advance, ensuring staff knows where to receive critical updates and how to respond, conducting regular drills to test mass notification systems, and leveraging mobile adoption by encouraging the use of mobile apps instead of relying solely on SMS.  

Another critical consideration in outage preparedness is customer and supply chain communication and coordination. Many organizations rely on third-party service providers for IT infrastructure, cloud services, and cybersecurity. When an outage occurs, clear communication with critical stakeholders is essential. Mass notification tools can be used to alert customers and/or supply chains about the impact of an outage, and keep customers informed about expected resolution times. Proactive communication with these stakeholders helps prevent misinformation and builds trust during a crisis. 

During the CrowdStrike outage, organizations that had enterprise-wide mass notification solutions in place were able to maintain operations despite their internal systems being compromised.  

One major enterprise, whose services rely heavily on digital tools, faced a complete operational shutdown. Fortunately, they had a robust out-of-band communication strategy that allowed them to keep employees updated, provide clear messaging to customer-facing teams, and continue engaging with key stakeholders via SMS and phone calls. 

Similarly, when an enterprise email outage left a global organization without access to its primary communication tool, it had to rely heavily on mass notification to coordinate internally and externally. Without this backup strategy, employees, customers, and supply chain would have been left in the dark, causing delays, confusion, and possible reputational damage. 

IT outages are inevitable, but communication failures don’t have to be. By investing in a mass notification system that supports multiple use cases—IT outages, security incidents, emergency response, and business continuity—organizations can maintain open lines of communication with employees, customers and other stakeholders, enhance their resilience, and drive operational efficiency.  

Learn more about leveraging multimodal mass notification technology to maintain communications during an IT outage.