Old Guard vs. New Tech: Modernizing Travel Risk Management within Mature Security Operations
Organizations often invest in travel risk management (TRM) technology expecting better threat insights, faster response times, and a more structured approach to duty of care overall.
For many established security teams, however, integrating a new TRM system can be a source of significant frustration because it requires a cultural shift away from “how things have always been done.”
Without a thoughtful integration strategy, misaligned expectations and operational bottlenecks can cause serious disruption. To navigate this transition effectively, security leaders must take a methodical approach, preparing people and processes to evolve in tandem.
Talk Before You Tech
Prior to purchasing flashy new technology, it is crucial to identify the actual needs of your TRM stakeholders, from travelers themselves to those responsible for wider risk mitigation.
A listening tour—focused interviews with colleagues across your organization—can provide invaluable insight. What are their pain points and nightmare scenarios? Where do current TRM processes break down?
A listening tour helps ensure you invest in solutions to real problems, not just platforms that look impressive. It’s also a great way to get early buy-in from seasoned security team members, tapping into their expertise to define feature requirements and to facilitate smoother adoption.
Map Out SOPs and Workflows
Many mature security operations rely on long-standing protocols shaped by institutional history. The introduction of a new TRM platform requires these frameworks to undergo critical review.
Mapping out how processes fit together allows teams to visualize existing SOPs alongside the capabilities of the new system, highlighting gaps and conflicts to iron out ahead of implementation.
Key questions to consider include:
- Are hidden redundancies and inefficiencies slowing response times during traveler emergencies?
- Do your escalation procedures and workflows still make sense?
- How will the new system’s features or automations change travel risk decision-making at critical junctures? How should your team prepare?
- What is the best way to ingest and act upon traveler tracking data, if available?
- Where might the new system add unnecessary complexity, and how should you avoid that?
- Which functions can be automated, and which still require human oversight?
- How will the platform integrate with other security tools and communication channels?
Even the most advanced TRM system will be unable to fix fundamentally bad processes. Critically reexamining established SOPs helps teams make full use of their new platforms’ capabilities while building out better workflows.
This process is also an excellent opportunity to demonstrate specifically how the new system would help your team manage operations more efficiently.
Audit Your Mechanisms of Transmission
High-performing security teams may assume that a lack of major incidents means travelers are getting the right information at the right time, but that is not always the case. Failures in transmission often only come to light when a crisis has already occurred and mitigation opportunities have passed.
Even installing a travel risk alert dissemination platform will not on its own guarantee that all important updates will be received, understood, or acted upon by the right people.
Security teams should conduct an audit to understand how effectively travel risk-related information is being received and absorbed. Consider how employees are engaging with security briefings and updates. Is the volume of alerts manageable, or is information overload causing critical warnings to go unnoticed?
A successful audit should reveal not only gaps in transmission but also ways to refine messaging, adjust alert thresholds, and streamline communication channels.
Review How Lessons are Learned
Mature security operations tend to have robust debrief and after-action review processes, yet these must also evolve alongside new TRM systems. Your platform’s data analytics and post-incident reporting functions can provide enormous benefits to TRM programming, but only if they are properly integrated into your workflows.
Set aside time to consider which metrics you would want to capture, as well as how and when they should be reviewed. Ensure that:
- Incident reports are duly analyzed for trends and used to refine policies.
- New system data feeds into ongoing risk assessments and training.
- A structured feedback loop has been set up both for travelers and for security personnel.
Reference ISO 31030 Throughout
The ISO 31030 Travel Risk Management Guidance for Organizations sets global benchmarks for TRM programs, but the mere act of deploying a new traveler tracker or alert management platform will not suffice to ensure full alignment with its principles.
Instead, the ISO 31030 Guidance mainly calls for robust TRM policies and risk mitigation measures to be sensibly integrated into existing business operations. Regular structured self-assessments for alignment with ISO 31030 can help even the strongest security teams better fine-tune internal regulations, procedures, and training.
The TRM Program Modernization Checklist
To facilitate the process of enhancing your TRM program with modern technology, be sure to:
For highly experienced security teams, the challenge in modernizing TRM lies in matching the right tools with the right processes while maintaining core effectiveness. The best TRM system is one that seamlessly integrates into existing workflows, enhances decision-making, and ultimately makes travelers safer.
With a sensible approach, security leaders can and should navigate this transition smoothly, avoiding costly pitfalls and maximizing the benefits of modernization.
Alexandra Delgado is the founder of Terrain 9, which designs customized solutions for travel risk management, field security, training, and compliance for international operations. Delgado is a member of the ASIS Travel Risk Management Community Steering Committee.
© Alexandra Delgado
