Statement About Our Response to COVID-19

During this time of unprecedented uncertainty, we are focused on the safety and well-being of our families, employees, customers, and partners. Our hearts go out to everyone around the world who has been affected by COVID-19, either directly or indirectly.

We take the threat posed by COVID-19 seriously, and we are taking appropriate measures to ensure we communicate with and continue to provide our customers with our services.  Our Global Business Continuity Planning team is continuously monitoring our approach to our customers and our personnel. Despite the current challenges of the developing global situation, we remain focused on your success.

We are reviewing and monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and our approach is based on the guidance from the following sources:

In order to manage the risks and challenges posed by COVID-19, Smart Communications employees are now working remotely to ensure their safety. This will last for as long as necessary to manage the situation and to best support the efforts of our governments and public health organizations.

The shift to remote working has been a smooth transition and we continue to deliver the highest levels of service, performance, availability, and security.

Further details of the specific measures Smart Communications has taken to manage and mitigate the risks posed by the current situation are set out below for your information.

Business Continuity

  • We have carried out an in-depth risk assessment of the effects of COVID-19 to ensure policies and procedures are in place to continue to provide our services to our customers.
  • We have invoked our Global Business Continuity Plan and have a dedicated Crisis Management Team continuously monitoring and assessing any risks for the following key areas:
    • People
    • Technology
    • Offices
    • Supply Chain
  • If there are any significant developments that impact our ability to manage our core business functions or to meet corporate, customer, and stakeholder obligations, these will be communicated through the appropriate channels.

 

Key Business Decisions Taken

  • Working Remotely: All Smart Communications offices have been closed and our employees are working remotely. We are leveraging technology solutions to establish remote connections which enable our employees to work remotely and effectively.
  • Business Travel: All international and cross border travel has been suspended until further notice to protect the health and safety of our employees and our customers.

 

Cloud Services

  • Our SaaS Co-Lo data centres are operating as normal and provide for a number of contingencies should the current situation escalate.
  • Our Public Cloud hosted environments in AWS/Azure operate under resilient Business Continuity Plans.
  • We can manage our SaaS services remotely. This is facilitated through the use of a Global VPN solution with posture checking and two-factor authentication.
  • Patching the current release of our cloud services will continue as normal.
  • Our software development can be undertaken remotely, and we remain on track for our next major release.

Support, Consulting and Training

From a Support, Consulting and Training delivery perspective, we have taken the following measures:

SUPPORT

  • Our Global Support Team will continue to operate a 24×7 service to support our customers.
  • Please continue to use our community page to keep updated and get self-help through our knowledge base.
  • Please continue to contact our Support Team through normal support channels.

CONSULTING

  • Our Global Consulting Team will deliver services remotely.
  • Should on-site consulting services still be required, we will work with our customers to reach appropriate decisions based upon the health and safety of all concerned.
  • Existing on-site consulting engagements will transition to a remote working model, your consultant/project manager will take the lead on this discussion.

TRAINING

  • Our Instructor-led training courses will now be delivered remotely, through our virtual training platform.

Your Smart Communications account team will proactively reach out if there is any additional advice, information, or support we can provide in these unprecedented times.