When corporate crises are triggered by personnel

"Corporate crises must be kept under control," warns Kay Wolf, IT consultant at Paragon Systemhaus GmbH. Wolf cites the outsourcing trend in particular as a source of danger: "When company issues are outsourced, ignorance arises, either due to insufficient technical know-how, insufficient knowledge of one's own internal processes or a lack of know-how about the customer's processes. But even service providers, such as the cleaning lady, can pull plugs due to carelessness. The staff is and remains simply the linchpin," says Wolf.

Causes of emergencies wide-ranging

But a failure in production can also have technical causes. For example, the incorrect use of software can be seriously dangerous for running processes. This assumption is confirmed by 41 percent of the experts surveyed via the system house. "In fact, it is an absolute disaster for an online shop, for example, if software stops working. Or if, for example, billing by a bank service provider can no longer take place because a software interface is missing," explains Wolf. These or similar faulty software components can lead to "upsets" in systems. The cause is often programming errors. Sometimes the reason is even that elaborate tests were not carried out. But tests are quickly vital, otherwise the exchange of data may even become impossible afterwards.

Observe the interaction of all components

In general, companies should always consider the interaction of all company-relevant components. A malfunction in the interaction of hardware and software, for example, can have fatal consequences. But business decisions should not be underestimated either. They rarely have a direct impact, but are quickly decisive in the medium to long term. They can be influenced by the implementation of legal requirements, material and financial constraints or, for example, a change in strategy. However, only 9 percent of respondents are aware of this fact. Finally, about one in seven sees processes that are out of touch with reality as the cause of difficulties in the company. "A crisis can be triggered in many ways and usually various factors come together.

For the company management, it is above all important to keep all possible challenges in view at all times. This is the only way to protect the living organism that is a company from potentially serious consequences," says Wolf.

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