COVID-19: Don’t Panic – Prepare

Author(s): Mark Tauschek

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


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