What if you could take a number of existing technologies you already have in your enterprise, add a bit more technology on top of them, and come up with a new application that boosts productivity and ROI while at the same time reduces business risks? This application can bring innovation, agility, auditability and collaboration into your institutionalized processes.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

I'm talking about implementing an Enterprise Level Notification System (ELNS). Business continuity and disaster recovery planners are already familiar with ELNSs. Now it's time for business managers to learn how such a system can be applied to business processes to create a competitive advantage.

An ELNS uses existing forms of communication - phone systems, e-mail, instant messaging, faxes, etc. - to notify a specific audience of an urgent situation. The best of these systems are able to reach an extensive global network of people, such as employees, partners and customers, using multiple languages and across numerous time zones.

We typically think of these systems as useful in times of crisis, and they are. For example, during hurricane season, an ELNS can be used to notify employees of the conditions or closures of work facilities that might be in harm's way. Or, in the case of a product recall, a company might send an urgent communication to its channel partners to notify them of a situation that affects customer safety. The partners can be instructed to immediately stop all distribution and sales of the product.

Creative managers, however, are realizing that urgent communications aren't just for emergencies anymore. Here are a few examples where immediate broad-based communications could be useful.

* A sales team has been working on a large customer bid for weeks. The bid has been submitted, but the client asks for clarification on a few more details. It's Friday afternoon, and the responses are due Monday morning. An urgent communication can pull the team together to promptly address the questions over the weekend.

* A large insurance company with thousands of independent agents across the country needs to distribute a new policy to agents, and get confirmation that the agents have received and acknowledged the policy. An ELNS can provide an audit trail to show who has acknowledged receipt of the message and who hasn't.

Linda Musthaler is a principal analyst with Essential Solutions Corporation.