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* Diego Souza

Coronavirus is a family of viruses that cause respiratory infections. The new Coronavirus (COVID 19) was discovered on 12/31/2019 after cases recorded in China. One month after the first registration World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international importance, which generates social, operational and economic impacts, being:

  • Social Impacts: Restrictions on agglomerations, such as public transport, events at convention centers, etc .;
  • Operational Impacts:I Restriction / isolation for people with suspected contamination for 14 days, obstruction of the right to come and go due to the closure of borders and cancellation of flights in critical regions;
  • Financial Impacts: Stock Exchanges reaching historic falls, foreign currencies at great highs, etc.

 

Impact for companies

Organizations must be prepared for the long-term impact. The consumption routine of people has changed drastically, with the reduction of the opening hours of shops, restaurants and cinemas to the flies, in addition to tourism having cooled down a lot.

Part of the preparation of companies for these situations involves the establishment of a crisis response process, through which strategies are developed to increase resilience and decrease the impact on the operation of their business. Being reactive at this moment to everything that is happening will further delay the recovery, favoring the increase in response costs, which can significantly affect the business to the point of generating irreversible impacts.

Understanding and planning the main impacts on the business are fundamental.

But where to start?

The Business Continuity Plan (PCN) aims to create procedures in order to guide the organization to have the least possible loss with a stoppage and, how to recover, resume its activities and continue its business processes in the shortest possible time, in order to generate the lowest financial losses .

The following are some recommendations that can help to get around the situation and minimize the impacts:

  • Start a communication immediately, recognizing the pandemic issue and outlining the plan the company is following to assess and address the possible threat. Maintain a single communication channel;
  • At the slightest sign of the flu, guide the employee to seek medical help and keep them away from their activities in order to avoid contact with more employees;
  • If possible, adopt the policy of home office, the lower the exposure of people, the better the fight against the crisis;
  • If possible, adopt digital collaboration tools with security controls and network support;
  • Change face-to-face meetings, business trips, use call and / or web conference;

 

Conclusion

Although NCP bring many benefits to companies, in most cases the initial investment occurs due to regulatory or market demand, that is, the initial concern is in fact to meet the established requirements, by customers or by the market. Until the moment it is necessary to activate the plan and the real value of the plan proves to be much greater than the investment in its elaboration.

Although corporate operations are heavily based on IT resources and services, a lesson to be learned from the current situation is that the importance of the people who run the business processes cannot be overlooked.

Want to know more about Business Continuity? Talk to Safeway Consultoria and one of our specialists will contact you to clarify your doubts.

* Diego Souza is GRC and Information Security Manager at Safeway

 

Regarding the [SAFEWAY]

THE SAFEWAY is an Information Security company, recognized by its customers for offering high added value solutions, through Information Security projects that fully meet business needs. In these years of experience, we have accumulated, with great pride, several successful projects that have earned us credibility and prominence in our clients, which constitute in large part, the 100 largest companies in Brazil.

Today through more than 17 strategic partnerships with global manufacturers and our SOC, SAFEWAY is considered a one stop shopping with the best technology solutions, processes and people.

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