Is your business pandemic ready? There are a number of things you can do to prepare in case the COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation gets worse that will avoid you having to shut down operations.

In our business, we have setup our technology so we can continue running seamlessly even if no one is in the office. Our business continuity plan works for a pandemic situation and ensures we can continue supporting our clients.

Here is a checklist of what you should have in place as the technology part of your pandemic plan:

• Laptops for everyone – put all critical staff on a laptop and have them take it home at night.
• Hosted applications/services – Have tools available to employees from whatever device they use so they don’t need to be at the office to get work done. It’s even better if you can eliminate VPN.
• Cloud-hosted phone system – Not only can your email and files be accessible from everywhere; businesses can now use software to rout office telephone lines to laptops and mobile devices. You shouldn’t need to be dependent on your office being online for your phones to work.
• Modern collaboration technology – Microsoft Teams and other collaboration software allows people to work just as effectively remote with screen sharing, video conferencing, persistent chat and other project management capabilities.
• Test it – Run a full test to make sure everything works as planned and your team is ready.

If you need help with the technology side of your pandemic or business continuity plan, please let us know!