The recent O2 data outage is another example of why companies must understand their connected business exposures argues Russell Group

The shutdown which hit over 25 million customers who use the UK’s second largest network, also hit customers on Sky, Tesco, Giffgaff and Lycamobile which run on O2’s platform. The company in a statement stated that the issue was due to a third-party supplier, which it was working to solve.

The fallout from the outage later widened to include Ericsson, which provides mobile software equipment and also Japanese owned Softbank, whose mobile infrastructure, Y!Mobile was interrupted. Furthermore, Transport for London, which relies on O2’s network for the electronic timetables, used at bus stops experienced disruption too.

Such an event reinforces how truly inter-connected and dependent organisations are within their supply chains. Therefore, organisations must understand their exposures throughout their business network.

Taking this a step further, if an organisation such as O2 could measure and score certain key suppliers within their supply chain, then they would be able to be more proactive in mitigating the effects of future events.

Otherwise, without such a system in place, organisations in today’s connected world will suffer the inevitable reputation loss in the form of angry social media traffic, leading to falls in share price. The message is: know your exposures before they shut you down.