IT departments need to develop a pandemic response plan NOW.
COVID-19 has been classified as a pandemic. It’s overwhelming for IT leaders who may not be prepared for the fallout of such a global health crisis. While it’s daunting for sure, Info-Tech is here to help. Our expert analysts and advisors, coupled with our best-practice research, can help you get started. We’ll follow through and help you prepare for what seems inevitable. Don’t panic: prepare!
What you need to know about COVID-19 and what can you do to prepare NOW
Take action immediately with Info-Tech’s guidance on the key issues of employee absenteeism, travel restrictions, and downstream impacts.
1. Start with a crisis management plan. The most important thing
you can do is communicate to internal and external stakeholders. Be
transparent, communicate clearly and frequently. Pre-plan for this likely
crisis to improve your ability to respond to a pandemic and implement a
structure that can be applied to a wide range of other potential crises.
Implement Crisis Management Best Practices
2. Plan to support remote work. Working from home will not be
optional during a pandemic, and IT needs to be able to support hundreds or
thousands of remote workers. Equip managers and employees with information and
guidance to set them up for success and address key implementation issues and
cultural barriers.
Develop a Balanced Flexible Work Program
3. Have a solid business continuity plan. If you don’t have a
BCP, you should get one in a hurry. If you have one, we can review it with you.
We’ll help you streamline the traditional approach to make BCP development
manageable and repeatable.
Develop a Business Continuity Plan
4. Be ready to implement a disaster recovery plan. You’ll need
it for a pandemic scenario if mass absenteeism is going to bring your business
to a screeching halt. Cost-effective DR and service continuity starts with
identifying what is truly mission critical so you can focus resources
accordingly.
Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan
5. Ensure your network is robust. Make sure your network is
ready for the crushing demand that remote workers will put on internet
bandwidth, network, and VPN infrastructure. This is the time to solidify the
business case for your network modernization project by demonstrating and
quantifying the hard dollar value it provides to the business, which in the
case of a pandemic response can be the difference between weathering the storm
and sinking the ship.
Modernize the Network