Ensuring that our operations remain unaffected while keeping the employees safe, as we deal with COVID-19…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire team of Pace Wisdom, along with the families, have pledged to stay home and stay safe. All our offices are closed for operations, but our team world over is 100% in action,  diligently devoted and available to deliver the best to our clients as ever.

For the past many years, we already had tried and tested processes and a code of conduct in place, and our team had been extending remote services to our clients all along. Hence, adapting to this sudden pandemic situation and implementing the work-from-home at the organisational level and ensuring productive, compliant and continuous output has been quick & easy. Therefore, we reassure all our clients that we are well equipped and capable of effectively continuing our work even during a complete lockdown.

Our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a set of simple guidelines and processes that has enabled us to execute seamlessly even during the current COVID-19 crisis situation. According to this, function-specific instructions are given to every employee for maintaining business continuity.

Our BCP implementation, in brief, is as follows:

1) IT / Server Infrastructure:

– Our entire infrastructure is on the cloud across multiple providers.

– Our version control system is also privately hosted on one of the cloud providers.

– An efficient CI/CD process to control deployments for all projects.

– Centrally run logging and tracing infrastructure.

– No project teams have direct access to the infrastructure.

– Disaster-Recovery is setup on all key infrastructures, and the rest are converted to code templates to be able to bring up in a short span of time.  

– We have evaluated cloud remote desktops to address cases of  rarity when an employee runs into problems with their systems.

2) Individual Assets:

– All team members are provided with portable and controlled work laptops.

– Provision of cloud virtual desktops is under evaluation to address scenarios of laptop malfunctions.

– Laptops are frequently scanned for unauthorized services. We are working with a vendor for active remote scanning of laptops.  

 – Some laptops have enterprise MDM software installed based on client/project requirements.

– All codes are always checked into the central VCS.

3) Engineering Workflow:

Our workflow was always designed to support remote collaboration:

 – All code related collaborations happen on the version control system

– Issues and features are well documented to track changes.  

– We ensure that project knowledge is always held with multiple resources to avoid dependency during an emergent crisis.

– The version control system is closely monitored and repository access is restricted to team members only.

4) Project Management:

– We have an instance of Redmine running on the cloud. But since we work as our client’s extended team in most cases, we use client resources for the same.

– Each team and customer has its own functional process, but it is always on a managed service.

– Project teams strictly follow daily standup meetings to ensure that the progress is closely monitored. Additionally, the version control systems monitor developer productivity.

5) Network Connectivity:

 – Having stable internet connectivity at employees’ residential locations is one of the main criteria for our employees to avail work-from-home option. We have had this verified arrangement for a few years now.

– The company also provides Data Dongles to employees who are working on critical assignments, which they are supposed to carry at all times.

6) Active DevOps Team:

– Our DevOps team runs critical infrastructure, not just for us internally, but for several clients too.

– The team is available round the clock. We have a tried and tested on-call model and ticket system to support internal teams and clients.

7) Emergency Contact:

– We have communication details of all our employees, including their emergency contact numbers.

– We have circulated our key vendors’ contact details to our employees, based on their function. We have SLAs in place with these key vendors for any emergency situation like fire, internet breakdown, infrastructure backup, license renewals, emergency/night transport, building security, etc.

8) COVID-19 Specific ‘RED TEAM’:

– We have recently set up a core ‘Red Team’ consisting of Company Directors, Managers and the HR to ensure that our employees get any help that they require and to ensure stead continuity of work from their homes. 

– The Team is in regular touch with account managers and project managers (on a daily basis nowadays) to check on employee safety and to assess & adapt workflows.

9) Employee Health:

– The Corporate Health Insurance coverage provided to our employees has now been updated to cover COVID-19 as well.

Despite having these set of guidelines, we are always open for feedback, with agility being the cultural core of our company.