Putting BCM into practice: COVID-19

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Safeguarding your organisation as best you can in the midst of COVID-19, through the RegTech and Business Continuity Management lens.


The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has caused a tremendous strain on many businesses and disrupted the operations of organisations. With panic setting in globally, Alyne’s CFO, Matthias Danner, firmly believes that it is “Better to be prepared than surprised.” During this critical period, Alyne has reassessed and reviewed our Business Continuity Management Framework to identify and understand our internal and external dependencies for the best pandemic response.


With the total number of cases increasing exponentially, it is vital for all organisations to have a reliable BCM system in place to remain compliant. A well-elaborated and designed framework will ensure that organisations remain agile and resilient in times of crisis.


Without a doubt, the outbreak has disturbed the equilibrium of countless businesses across the globe. It has forced many organisations to adopt more flexible working policies that encourage remote work and virtualisation. Over the past week, a stream of established tech organisations, globally such as Twitter, Apple, Google and Amazon have rolled out orders for office closures and executed their Business Continuity Management Framework by restricting international travel and asking their employees to work from home and avoid unnecessary public interaction. Read the full list of tech companies from
Stayinghomeclub here.


Similarly, at Alyne, the team have had a series of intense discussions around the potential risks and scenarios that we are likely, and are already facing, as an organisation:

Some scenarios include: 

  • Borders being closed off and employees stuck at home, or on vacation abroad.
  • Kindergartens and School closure, forcing parents to be at home with their children.
  • The chance of a staff member/s contracting the COVID-19 Virus and unknowingly spreading it to the entire in-office workforce.

With a plethora of possibilities, it is almost clear that having an efficient, comprehensive and highly configurable BCM framework may be the key strategy that empowers you to respond and manage threat, vulnerability and incidents in a timely manner. During this period, it is advisable for organisations to optimise their business value and protect the well-being of your team (and the greater population) by having policies in place that support flexible and remote working.

 

Alyne has included some tips on how to embrace remote work in your organisation:
Ensure that everyone has access to stable and powerful internet connection and the correct tech. A fast and reliable internet connection is a minimum requirement for remote work, to ensure business runs as usual. This includes chargers, headsets, mobile phones. All employees should be able to communicate with each other and clients as easily as they can in person, and do their work and without interruption or excuse.

1. Instant chat tools for the whole organisation

The key to a successful team is over-communication. It is always essential to minimise assumptions to ensure that everyone is on the same page. While over-communication may seem like unnecessary and undesirable to some, it is especially important in an established organisation where there is a distributed time zone work schedule, as it ensures that everyone has the same understanding of a subject matter. 

2. Video Call Software

Faces are always better! Being able to schedule unlimited video meetings provides a greater connectedness between teams that work remotely. Ensuring that your company has reliable video conferencing software provides the face-to-face connection you need, when you can’t actually be, well, face-to-face.

3. Collaboration and status tools

Collaboration tools ensure real-time updates on projects, and greater remote project management. This critical feature allows any team member to take over responsibility immediately, at any given time – and with the correct knowledge of what came before. A collaboration tool reduces lead time and enhances employee productivity, and is a crucial application for any organisation to have, regardless of working remotely or not.

With the sudden explosion of the novel coronavirus, many companies have had to scramble to adopt remote work policy in order to protect the well-being of their employees. However, with minimal remote work structure in place previously, some companies struggle to deliver the same quality of service.

During this period, the ability of individual organisations to react and respond to crises has become obvious. Effective Business Continuity Management is undoubtedly beneficial and advantageous as it actively creates a working environment which supports critical communication mechanics, employee safety and critical business processes.

While different business structures should have different BCM frameworks in place to ensure enterprise continuity due to varying profiles, we have identified a few takeaways that are applicable to most organisations.

Book a demo to learn how Mitratech’s Alyne can tailor a BCM framework for your organisation.