Business continuity is nothing new to Supra ITS; it’s something we help our customers with so they can be ready for a disruption. The Covid-19 pandemic means those business continuity plans are being tested, and ours in play right now.
Because providing business uptime services is already a Supra key service offering and something we must maintain internally to a high standard, we’ve been able to shift gears to deal with the disruptions our customers are facing now. This includes our operations team working remotely for the foreseeable future as we are confident in our own regularly-tested operational preparedness—for us the transition was smooth and hopefully invisible to you, our customers.
Now that the Supra team is working remotely, we have shifted our support model that recognizes that many “nice to have” projects are being put on hold and the focus is on maintaining mission critical systems and data protection. The current support model recognizes that most of our customers are now working from home, so Supra has recalibrated to prioritize on end-user / access related issues so we can continue to deliver a reliable and stable an environment so your employees can continue to work remotely.
Because so many people are working from home, service providers such as Supra or remote collaboration services are seeing an increase in support requests, bandwidth utilization and requests for services. The global surge in telephone outages and conferencing system disruptions is to be expected, so just as everyone is being asked to flatten curve of Covid-19 cases through social distancing, we would ask that customers help us with “flattening the IT curve” with the following recommendations:
1) For Supra support, use email (Support@supraits.com) or our portal, whenever possible.
2) For phone support, our support team will take your request and then to move quickly to a different communication platform, including mobile, to reduce our load on the phone systems.
3) We have implemented some internal limits on the time we spend on a support call. This does not mean we reduce how much time we dedicate to your support issue, only that we are now cognizant that a limited resource (phone lines) are in short supply.
4) If your issue is not urgent, please indicate that it is not urgent, and we will prioritize those issues during non-business hours.
5) If you have closed your office, please send an email to Support@supraits.com, indicating that your office is closed. We can adjust our monitoring, response and remediation processes to reflect the fact that this location is no longer staffed until it re-opens.
For obvious reasons we are limiting onsite visits for the foreseeable future. Support teams will assess each onsite request, with management approval. If deemed urgent and necessary, we will continue to support you 100%. If the request is not urgent or there is a work-around, our team will work with you to schedule an alternate date for an onsite visit that is safe and complies with Government of Ontario recommendations.
We’ve already received a few questions from you, our customers, so we’ve created a quick FAQ to help provide further information and will update as needed. Also bear in mind that any time of uncertainty, scammers, criminals and crooks will try to take advantage of the situation. Remain vigilant, and especially on-guard for email related hoaxes or malicious content.
