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Really just to assure you that GTB has an active Health and Safety Plan and for the last few weeks has had a current Pandemic Response Plan.
Our plan is flexible to any developing situation, but our firm intent is to remain open and providing IT services during any pandemic or epidemic, if one occurs.
Our target market is primarily ‘professionals and practices that need their IT to work’ and this includes a substantial number of medical centres. If things get to the situation that we are seeing in other countries, then you will still need your IT and we know that.
To do this we have several policies, to protect both ourselves and you, including:
Protect our workplace – we have spacious, light, airy offices that are very well set up what we do (e.g. triple ergonomically mounted monitors for all staff). We have steps in place to be able to work safely here. Most of our work is already done remotely from our offices to your premises, and we will do even more remotely if the situation worsens
Onsite Protection – if our team need to come to your premises, we have steps to protect ourselves and we will liaise with you to fit in with what you are doing to ensure the safety of your own staff
Home working – GTB staff are setup to do almost everything we do from our offices from their homes. Our systems are almost all in the Cloud in one way or another, so if GTB staff need to self-isolate as a precaution, they can still work effectively and securely
Cover – firstly, we will have Sarah back at work part time this coming week. Each of our three techs are a 'senior tech' with at least 25 years’ experience in our industry (SMEs). We have been working over the last couple of months (since Callum started in November) to ensure everyone can do everything, within reason. So, to a large extent we have resilience in our ability to cover for each other and handle absences
Prioritisation – the bottom line is we have identified our priorities for providing service, so we can be clear who we have to say ‘no’ or ‘please wait’ to in the event that we have sick staff and more demand than we can handle. If you are on this email, then you are NOT at the bottom of that list and should be reassured by this preparation! Our highest priorities will be keeping services going which we are contracted to provide, for example hosted servers, SureIT Full helpdesk support, client backup and disaster recovery systems, etc. If we had to make a choice, we would keep our clients up and working before we actioned new projects. Hopefully it won’t come to this, but at least you know we are prepared.
Hardware availability – factory closures in China and other disruptions especially in the East Asian region are flowing down through supply chains. There will be some disruptions and we are starting to be informed of the first of them now. For example, if a component for a computer is made in a factory in an affected area which has been closed, then that will eventually affect supplies of those computers in NZ needing that component. Our main suppliers have been increasing their stock levels over the last month or more; but just to let you know there may be delays in being able to obtain some hardware and/or an impact on price. I’m not saying “buy now” because we don’t know what will happen or what will be affected, and it will only be temporary – but if you have an urgent need coming up where a delay would not be acceptable, maybe you should think about it.
Get in touch if you’d like to discuss.
YOUR REMOTE WORKING
If you have any concerns about your own staff’s abilities to work from home, or if you would like to improve or extend those abilities – please get in touch sooner rather than later.
