When there is a disturbance in the services, e.g. in mobile network, the most important thing is that the fault can be fixed quickly. Especially when it comes to a large telecommunications and mobile network provider, like DNA, up-to-date contact information, quick communication and reaction to the situation play a significant role. Secapp helps DNA’s control room to reach the right people quickly and reliably.
DNA is a part of Telenor Group, which is a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics and a globally major operator in telecommunications sector. DNA is one of the leading telecommunications companies in Finland. Their 4G network covers 99% of Finland’s population and 5G already over 80% of the population. DNA is also the market leader of fixed-network broadbands in Finland. DNA has about 3.6 million subscriptions in its fixed and mobile communications networks in total.
“We wanted to get the people essential to major incidents and their contact information in one place instead of the former scattered excel sheets.”
DNA has been using Secapp almost ten years for documentation and reporting. Secapp’s platform can be customized for the organization’s needs and different functions can be enabled as needed. That is why the solution is also easy to start using, taking functions in phases and as needed. DNA has expanded the use of Secapp step by step, and from the beginning of 2022 they implemented Secapp communications and alerting modules to nationwide use in multiple different use cases.
Secapp has proven to be an important tool especially in making things easier and saving time in communication and managing personal’s contact information.
“We wanted to get the people essential to major incidents and their contact information in one place instead of the former scattered excel sheets. Our second goal was to get a secure communication tool to our organization – data-secure chat tool, so any other chat applications would not be used for things it should not be used for”, tells Tomas Lång, Head of Process Development and Authority services at DNA, about their goals for Secapp’s communication module.
Secapp is a part of everyday preparedness and critical communication
As Software as a Service (SaaS), Secapp is an easy solution for customers. In addition to that, DNA finds another very good reason for using SaaS-service.
“Using Secapp as a SaaS-service is a part of everyday preparedness – since the tool is for critical communication, we want it to be as independent as possible from DNA’s own infrastructure. This ensures that if there is a failure in DNA’s own infrastructure, the critical communication will not be disrupted.”
– Using Secapp as a SaaS-service is a part of everyday preparedness – since the tool is for critical communication, we want it to be as independent as possible from DNA’s own infrastructure. This ensures that if there is a failure in DNA’s own infrastructure, the critical communication will not be disrupted, says Tomas Lång.
Secapp’s platform helps DNA to increase preparedness, decrease response time and forming quick situational awareness related to different incidents and crises. These operations are led by network operations control room, security and management teams and responded by different operational teams and individuals.
The different situations where DNA utilizes Secapp communication include following topics:
- Extreme weather conditions / large scale disruptances
- Service failure incidents: mobile data, voice, prepaid subscriptions, tv services are not working or are working with lowered quality of service
- Network infrastructure failures: e.g. radio and core networks, transmission, device premises failures
- Cyber and information security incidents
- Business support system incidents
- Office infrastructure failures: IT systems, electricity input, water distribution, air conditioning failures
- Internal system failures: communications, monitoring, reporting systems
- Server premise incidents: e.g. server monitoring systems, virtualized environments, physical servers, ISP
Centralized user management keeps contact information up to date and helps to reach the right people
The centralized user information is integrated automatically so that up-to-date contact information is always available through Secapp. When needed, Secapp is being used to send alerts utilizing different pre-defined message to groups and individuals.
Secapp users at DNA are satisfied that they can trust that the alerts will reach the right people reliably and quickly. When the user information is integrated automatically, no one has to worry about manually updating the contacts to Secapp. When an employee quits or starts at DNA, there is no need to add or remove a person to Secapp, because the data updates automatically from DNA’s background systems. There is always an up-to-date group of users from their own organization.
Before Secapp, there were various excel sheets with different lists of contact information. That caused uncertainty about where to find the latest version and whether responsibility areas and personal contact information were correct.
Tomas Lång tells an example of a situation where Secapp has brought great help:
– For example, if there is a major incident in the mobile network, one person always takes the main responsibility for coordinating and leading the situation. Before Secapp, the responsible person handled the communication by phone, e-mail, and other channels to multiple different people. This took a lot of time, as the personal contact information of different groups and individuals had to be retrieved from various places. Where can you find the latest list? Is it even up to date? Is this person still even responsible for this kind of matter? What is the best way to reach the person?
Thanks to Secapp, this is all automated, as all contact information flows automatically into Secapp, so both people and their contact information are always up to date.
“Reachability of people and groups through one app is really good and fast. In Secapp, the contact information is in a secure place, and you can also call the person directly from the app”.
Situational management speeds up with Secapp’s message templates
By utilizing Secapp, DNA has been able to create pre-defined templates for different incident scenarios mentioned earlier in this article. Templates contain default priority, who will be alerted, instructions what to do and how to respond along with other relevant details to minimize the human errors and speed up response to those incident situations when needed.
Today, the entire situation awareness can be handled via Secapp, and it has significantly freed up time. In addition that the contact info is up-to-date, with the help of predefined message templates created in Secapp, it minimizes possible human errors and information about the failure can be sent to different parties at once with just a few clicks. The employee in the control room no longer has to spend time reaching people – he can trust that the same message will reach all.
The alerts will be delivered to recipients using different communication channels, including apps (data), desktop, sms and emails, to guarantee robustness of delivering information to all relevant stakeholders no matter where they are and which devices they are using.
“Coordinating a large-scale disruption and starting operations has sped up enormously. This also saves a lot of time in the control room for other work. One push of a button, and things start rolling.”
Secapp also demands immediate response from the user giving the dispatcher a quick situational awareness picture who can respond to each situation and more detailed coordination can be continued in the secure Secapp chat.
This, for instance, replaces traditional procedures which required calling through people individually. Moreover, capabilities of Secapp being able to work offline provide valuable additions in situations where the data connections are down.
Thanks to the immediate responses, the necessary group can be gathered very quickly, and they can start investigating and correcting the case.
“Coordinating a large-scale disruption and starting operations has sped up enormously. This also saves a lot of time in the control room for other work. One push of a button, and things start rolling,” rejoices Lång.
Centralized secure communication in one place
At DNA, Secapp has been found a good tool for centralizing critical communication in one tool, which also reaches all critical persons quickly. Secapp can keep all important information in one place, so there is no need to slip into other channels. Reaction to situations has been significantly faster when both contact information, and all relevant critical communication stays in one place and can be trusted. Pre-defined message templates and automation makes it easy and quick for the users.
“If there are many different communication channels in use, there is a risk that the information will be scattered in different places. In that case, the contact information and contact persons won’t stay up-to-date, and communication easily slips into other chat-applications, which are not as secure.”
“If there are many different communication channels in use, there is a risk that the information will be scattered in different places. In that case, the contact information and contact persons won’t stay up-to-date, and communication easily slips into other chat-applications, which are not as secure, and the groups may include people who have already left the house,” knows Tomas Lång.
Jouni Granlund, who works as a Specialist at DNA, mentions, that when a failure occurs, most important is to get the services back working for the end users. There centralized and fast communication plays a big role. Also, with help of Secapp’s alerting and dispatching features, DNA can automate their communication.
– For example, if the person does not respond to the received message, the automation makes sure that the message will be sent again, for example twice. If the person does not react to the message in any way, the situation can be escalated further, and the message will be sent to a different person next.
Both Granlund and Lång raise the fact that the information stays in one place and keeps everyone involved up to date. Many organizations are familiar with the fact that the data is scattered in different places – and the challenge is where can you find the right information when you are in a hurry. Both are satisfied with Secapp’s reliability in this matter.
It is also possible to add instructions to Secapp, so they are also in the same place in addition to communication.
“Communication is safe, fast and easy to use. Secapp has also proven to be very reliable. I don’t remember that there has ever been a break in the system during our use”, says Lång.
Secapp offers best practices and listens their customers’ voice
DNA’s wishes have been heard in Secapp’s product development. Their needs and suggestions have been well implemented into production. Of course, everything cannot and is not intended to be completely customized, but a lot can be done according to the customers’ needs.
“The answer has never been in the form of ‘it won’t work, forget it’, but we have always received support and suggestions for solutions”, praises Lång. Their suggestions for product development have also often been beneficial to all customers, so it’s a benefit also for Secapp company.
“The system has a lot of possibilities, which is a good thing. As an admin user you have Secapp’s skilled and expert support helping how to take advantage of the program’s possibilities.”
Tomas Lång thanks Secapp’s support team, which has been a big help in planning and implementing various functions.
– The system has a lot of possibilities, which is a good thing. As an admin user you have Secapp’s skilled and expert support helping how to take advantage of the program’s possibilities. Once we’ve told the support what we need, we get help quickly, and also concrete advice and additional suggestions on best practices, how it should be implemented.
Both Lång and Granlund see as a positive thing that the system has many opportunities to expand its use, but it is not necessary to eat the whole cake at once. You can start with the tools you need most. Expanding can be done in baby steps like DNA – in stages and according to the needs of your own organization. Same time as you are planning your own organization’s practices, also Secapp’s users and ways of use can be increased.
ABOUT DNA
DNA is one of the leading telecommunications companies in Finland. The company offer connections, services and devices for homes and workplaces, contributing to the digitalisation of society. DNA’s customers are continuously among the world mobile data usage leaders. DNA has about 3.6 million subscriptions in its fixed and mobile communications networks, and DNA is also the market leader of fixed-network broadbands in Finland. The company has been awarded numerous times as an excellent employer and family-friendly workplace. In 2021, DNA’s total revenue was EUR 956 million and the company employed about 1,600 people around Finland. DNA is a part of Telenor Group, a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics.
More information: www.dna.fi, Twitter @DNA_fi, Facebook @DNA.fi and LinkedIn @DNA-Oyj.
Webpage link: https://corporate.dna.fi/
When there is a disturbance in the services, e.g. in mobile network, the most important thing is that the fault can be fixed quickly. Especially when it comes to a large telecommunications and mobile network provider, like DNA, up-to-date contact information, quick communication and reaction to the situation play a significant role. Secapp helps DNA’s control room to reach the right people quickly and reliably.
DNA is a part of Telenor Group, which is a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics and a globally major operator in telecommunications sector. DNA is one of the leading telecommunications companies in Finland. Their 4G network covers 99% of Finland’s population and 5G already over 80% of the population. DNA is also the market leader of fixed-network broadbands in Finland. DNA has about 3.6 million subscriptions in its fixed and mobile communications networks in total.
“We wanted to get the people essential to major incidents and their contact information in one place instead of the former scattered excel sheets.”
DNA has been using Secapp almost ten years for documentation and reporting. Secapp’s platform can be customized for the organization’s needs and different functions can be enabled as needed. That is why the solution is also easy to start using, taking functions in phases and as needed. DNA has expanded the use of Secapp step by step, and from the beginning of 2022 they implemented Secapp communications and alerting modules to nationwide use in multiple different use cases.
Secapp has proven to be an important tool especially in making things easier and saving time in communication and managing personal’s contact information.
“We wanted to get the people essential to major incidents and their contact information in one place instead of the former scattered excel sheets. Our second goal was to get a secure communication tool to our organization – data-secure chat tool, so any other chat applications would not be used for things it should not be used for”, tells Tomas Lång, Head of Process Development and Authority services at DNA, about their goals for Secapp’s communication module.
Secapp is a part of everyday preparedness and critical communication
As Software as a Service (SaaS), Secapp is an easy solution for customers. In addition to that, DNA finds another very good reason for using SaaS-service.
“Using Secapp as a SaaS-service is a part of everyday preparedness – since the tool is for critical communication, we want it to be as independent as possible from DNA’s own infrastructure. This ensures that if there is a failure in DNA’s own infrastructure, the critical communication will not be disrupted.”
– Using Secapp as a SaaS-service is a part of everyday preparedness – since the tool is for critical communication, we want it to be as independent as possible from DNA’s own infrastructure. This ensures that if there is a failure in DNA’s own infrastructure, the critical communication will not be disrupted, says Tomas Lång.
Secapp’s platform helps DNA to increase preparedness, decrease response time and forming quick situational awareness related to different incidents and crises. These operations are led by network operations control room, security and management teams and responded by different operational teams and individuals.
The different situations where DNA utilizes Secapp communication include following topics:
- Extreme weather conditions / large scale disruptances
- Service failure incidents: mobile data, voice, prepaid subscriptions, tv services are not working or are working with lowered quality of service
- Network infrastructure failures: e.g. radio and core networks, transmission, device premises failures
- Cyber and information security incidents
- Business support system incidents
- Office infrastructure failures: IT systems, electricity input, water distribution, air conditioning failures
- Internal system failures: communications, monitoring, reporting systems
- Server premise incidents: e.g. server monitoring systems, virtualized environments, physical servers, ISP
Centralized user management keeps contact information up to date and helps to reach the right people
The centralized user information is integrated automatically so that up-to-date contact information is always available through Secapp. When needed, Secapp is being used to send alerts utilizing different pre-defined message to groups and individuals.
Secapp users at DNA are satisfied that they can trust that the alerts will reach the right people reliably and quickly. When the user information is integrated automatically, no one has to worry about manually updating the contacts to Secapp. When an employee quits or starts at DNA, there is no need to add or remove a person to Secapp, because the data updates automatically from DNA’s background systems. There is always an up-to-date group of users from their own organization.
Before Secapp, there were various excel sheets with different lists of contact information. That caused uncertainty about where to find the latest version and whether responsibility areas and personal contact information were correct.
Tomas Lång tells an example of a situation where Secapp has brought great help:
– For example, if there is a major incident in the mobile network, one person always takes the main responsibility for coordinating and leading the situation. Before Secapp, the responsible person handled the communication by phone, e-mail, and other channels to multiple different people. This took a lot of time, as the personal contact information of different groups and individuals had to be retrieved from various places. Where can you find the latest list? Is it even up to date? Is this person still even responsible for this kind of matter? What is the best way to reach the person?
Thanks to Secapp, this is all automated, as all contact information flows automatically into Secapp, so both people and their contact information are always up to date.
“Reachability of people and groups through one app is really good and fast. In Secapp, the contact information is in a secure place, and you can also call the person directly from the app”.
Situational management speeds up with Secapp’s message templates
By utilizing Secapp, DNA has been able to create pre-defined templates for different incident scenarios mentioned earlier in this article. Templates contain default priority, who will be alerted, instructions what to do and how to respond along with other relevant details to minimize the human errors and speed up response to those incident situations when needed.
Today, the entire situation awareness can be handled via Secapp, and it has significantly freed up time. In addition that the contact info is up-to-date, with the help of predefined message templates created in Secapp, it minimizes possible human errors and information about the failure can be sent to different parties at once with just a few clicks. The employee in the control room no longer has to spend time reaching people – he can trust that the same message will reach all.
The alerts will be delivered to recipients using different communication channels, including apps (data), desktop, sms and emails, to guarantee robustness of delivering information to all relevant stakeholders no matter where they are and which devices they are using.
“Coordinating a large-scale disruption and starting operations has sped up enormously. This also saves a lot of time in the control room for other work. One push of a button, and things start rolling.”
Secapp also demands immediate response from the user giving the dispatcher a quick situational awareness picture who can respond to each situation and more detailed coordination can be continued in the secure Secapp chat.
This, for instance, replaces traditional procedures which required calling through people individually. Moreover, capabilities of Secapp being able to work offline provide valuable additions in situations where the data connections are down.
Thanks to the immediate responses, the necessary group can be gathered very quickly, and they can start investigating and correcting the case.
“Coordinating a large-scale disruption and starting operations has sped up enormously. This also saves a lot of time in the control room for other work. One push of a button, and things start rolling,” rejoices Lång.
Centralized secure communication in one place
At DNA, Secapp has been found a good tool for centralizing critical communication in one tool, which also reaches all critical persons quickly. Secapp can keep all important information in one place, so there is no need to slip into other channels. Reaction to situations has been significantly faster when both contact information, and all relevant critical communication stays in one place and can be trusted. Pre-defined message templates and automation makes it easy and quick for the users.
“If there are many different communication channels in use, there is a risk that the information will be scattered in different places. In that case, the contact information and contact persons won’t stay up-to-date, and communication easily slips into other chat-applications, which are not as secure.”
“If there are many different communication channels in use, there is a risk that the information will be scattered in different places. In that case, the contact information and contact persons won’t stay up-to-date, and communication easily slips into other chat-applications, which are not as secure, and the groups may include people who have already left the house,” knows Tomas Lång.
Jouni Granlund, who works as a Specialist at DNA, mentions, that when a failure occurs, most important is to get the services back working for the end users. There centralized and fast communication plays a big role. Also, with help of Secapp’s alerting and dispatching features, DNA can automate their communication.
– For example, if the person does not respond to the received message, the automation makes sure that the message will be sent again, for example twice. If the person does not react to the message in any way, the situation can be escalated further, and the message will be sent to a different person next.
Both Granlund and Lång raise the fact that the information stays in one place and keeps everyone involved up to date. Many organizations are familiar with the fact that the data is scattered in different places – and the challenge is where can you find the right information when you are in a hurry. Both are satisfied with Secapp’s reliability in this matter.
It is also possible to add instructions to Secapp, so they are also in the same place in addition to communication.
“Communication is safe, fast and easy to use. Secapp has also proven to be very reliable. I don’t remember that there has ever been a break in the system during our use”, says Lång.
Secapp offers best practices and listens their customers’ voice
DNA’s wishes have been heard in Secapp’s product development. Their needs and suggestions have been well implemented into production. Of course, everything cannot and is not intended to be completely customized, but a lot can be done according to the customers’ needs.
“The answer has never been in the form of ‘it won’t work, forget it’, but we have always received support and suggestions for solutions”, praises Lång. Their suggestions for product development have also often been beneficial to all customers, so it’s a benefit also for Secapp company.
“The system has a lot of possibilities, which is a good thing. As an admin user you have Secapp’s skilled and expert support helping how to take advantage of the program’s possibilities.”
Tomas Lång thanks Secapp’s support team, which has been a big help in planning and implementing various functions.
– The system has a lot of possibilities, which is a good thing. As an admin user you have Secapp’s skilled and expert support helping how to take advantage of the program’s possibilities. Once we’ve told the support what we need, we get help quickly, and also concrete advice and additional suggestions on best practices, how it should be implemented.
Both Lång and Granlund see as a positive thing that the system has many opportunities to expand its use, but it is not necessary to eat the whole cake at once. You can start with the tools you need most. Expanding can be done in baby steps like DNA – in stages and according to the needs of your own organization. Same time as you are planning your own organization’s practices, also Secapp’s users and ways of use can be increased.
ABOUT DNA
DNA is one of the leading telecommunications companies in Finland. The company offer connections, services and devices for homes and workplaces, contributing to the digitalisation of society. DNA’s customers are continuously among the world mobile data usage leaders. DNA has about 3.6 million subscriptions in its fixed and mobile communications networks, and DNA is also the market leader of fixed-network broadbands in Finland. The company has been awarded numerous times as an excellent employer and family-friendly workplace. In 2021, DNA’s total revenue was EUR 956 million and the company employed about 1,600 people around Finland. DNA is a part of Telenor Group, a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics.
More information: www.dna.fi, Twitter @DNA_fi, Facebook @DNA.fi and LinkedIn @DNA-Oyj.
Webpage link: https://corporate.dna.fi/
