Advises clients to put business continuity plans in place.
Even as global health organisations and the European Union are cautioning people not to panic over the impact of the H1N1 influenza (swine flu), Indian IT majors with centres in Mexico have activated their business continuity plans.
This development comes at a time when analysts are exhorting IT firms to revisit their business continuity management (BCM) and disaster recovery (DR) plans to counter such situations.
A true pandemic (if it occurs), according to analysts from research and advisory firm Gartner, could cause an absenteeism rate of 40 per cent or higher for enterprises and their business partners and suppliers, resulting in severe operational disruptions.
Indian IT firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro have asked their employees to work from home as the Mexican government announced a five-day shutdown. Global IT player IBM and TCS have already put in action their BCM plans.
All the major firms have a BCM plan that allows operations to run smoothly. Some of the scenarios include technology failure, natural disaster and workplace accident, among others.
Analysts believe that all IT majors will be having their BCM plans in place and in case the situation does get worse, will be taking adequate measures.
“Customers did have concerns on the business continuity plan but IT vendors have said that operations will not be impacted. All the large players have their BCM plans in place and will also have a contingency plan,” said Diptarup Chakraborti, principal analyst, Gartner.
He further said in a worst case scenario, some core work will be shifted to other centres. “But in case there is business development work happening at these centres, like marketing, sales etc., then those operations can get impacted severely,” added Chakraborti.
IT majors like TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro have sent advisories to their employees at their respective centres in Mexico.
“Our BCM plan is very much in place. We will be following whatever the local government asks us to do. As of now, we have asked employees to work from home. But none of this has impacted operations and they are running fine. Besides, our centre in Guadalajara is away from the epicentre of the epidemic,” said a TCS spokesperson. The company has close to 1,400 employees in Mexico.
Infosys, having close to 200 employees in Mexico, has asked its employees to stay at home as the company moved the work to other centres. “Operations will not be impacted. We have shifted the work to other centres,” said a spokesperson from the company.
As for Wipro, the company has stepped up the use of video conferencing to be in touch with its employees. “We are aware of the developing situation of swine flu cases across the affected areas. Our employees at the locations of high alert are safe as of now. We are in the process of providing required travel advisories, education on swine flu, precautions to be taken and information on emergency assistance,” said Laxman Badiga, CIO, Wipro.
The company also confirmed that some of its employees are working from home, but there are many who are still coming to the centre in Monterrey.
Analysts say this is an opportunity for IT firms to check on their BCM and DR plans. “Enterprises in all regions and across all industries should complete the review of their BCM/DR pandemic response plans and fill in any missing elements by the end of this week. IT managers should plan, test, and add capacity to ensure the sustainability of what is likely to be a predominantly work-at-home environment,” asserted Roberta Witty, research vice-president at Gartner.
Firms, according to Gartner, should keep in mind that access of data to key officials is not impacted, and that organisations are prepared to allow employees to work from home, data connectivity and security among others.
Companies should also identify existing and projected critical skills shortages; initiate necessary cross-training, testing or certification of personnel; determine which business operations are sustainable, and at what level, and the likely downtime for normal business operations during periods with an absenteeism rate of 40 per cent or higher.
They need to prepare for travel restrictions to be significant in the event of an epidemic and near-universal in the event of a pandemic; and implement a communications programme that ensures that all personnel are aware of the enterprise’s pandemic response plans, as well as measures they can take to limit the spread of the disease, including practices as simple yet effective as regular hand-washing.
