IntraPower’s Communications Plan for the Swine (Mexican) Flu Pandemic

Announcement Date 11th May 2009

The current Pandemic alert level has risen to Phase 5. The declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short. The Australian Government has issued guidelines that all business should follow and IntraPower has supplemented these with various helpful planning measures.

IntraPower has a well developed plan that will ensure business continuity. In the following we provide key information that will help you, your employees and your organization complete a Phase 5 plan that will protect your employees and ensure the continuity of your business in the event that the government raises the alert level to Phase 6 and/or someone in your organization contracts the flu forcing your offices to be vacated and employees to work from home.

Communication: The key to business continuity and employee security during a pandemic

 Your communications during a pandemic are mission critical – they can provide the medium for you to coordinate action, communicate with your employees, colleagues, partners and customers.

Any effective pandemic action plan must therefore include a secure communications base and the ability for an organisations employees to work from home with effective tools to communicate with colleagues, partners, suppliers and customers.

In the following is some key information to keep in mind during your planning.

Core Network Communication services

IntraPower Customers and Partners that are operating on the IntraPower High Availability Network (IHAN) will enjoy the benefits of our carrier diverse network that simultaneously leverages the infrastructure of all top tier carriers dynamically switching traffic between carriers if one should experience a failure. The IHAN is architected to ensure the highest level of service continuity. It is built with high levels of redundancy, no single point of failure and professional grade resilience that will help secure high levels of continuity of service during situations like the current pandemic. In addition to resilient, fault tolerant systems that operate on auto-pilot IntraPower has a plan in place to secure network management operations during Phase 6 of a pandemic. Click here to read more about the IHAN and contact your Account Manager to check which of your services are on the IHAN if you do not already have this information.

Telephony and Voice Services

If you are currently utilising IntraPower's Hosted Voice or SIP Connect services, you have the opportunity for employees to work from home without disruption or loss in continuity of business services. Employees simply need to take their IP desk phone home and connect it to their home Internet service to make and receive calls as though they were operating from the office. There are no changes to office phone numbers and there are no additional call plan fees. In addition, this avoids your dependence on mobile phone services that will be severely over loaded in a pandemic but are also are very costly as compared to IP based telephony.  To check whether you are on the IntraPower Hosted Voice or SIP Connect service, please contact your account manager or click here to read more about these options.

Customers should be aware that the option for employees to use their office equipment to work from a home or remote site would only be allowable as an emergency and temporary measure in the event of the pandemic because the Telecommunication Act states that phone lines must only be used at the address to which they are assigned to ensure emergency services tracking. If however you would like your business services extended to remote or home office users, we do have permanent services to assist you. Please contact your account manager to find out more.

Redundant Last mile services

The IHAN provides highly resilient core network services but all business are connected to core networks through last mile services. Typically these services are from a single last mile provider and as a result are a single point of potential failure. If you have offices or mission critical employees who would work from home during a Phase 6 that are critical to your business you should consider contracting for redundant last mile services if you do not already have these in place. This will ensure that if your last mile services fail you have an alternative connection. Redundant options vary from fixed line services for as little as $65 per month to 3G wireless services for $29 per month. Contact your Account Manager for more information.

Home / Remote worker connectivity

In the event employees are forced to work from home or other locations it will be critical to provide them with the technology to link with your data systems and communicate effectively. IntraPower can offer secure private network home / remote office connections for as little as $29 per month that don’t require complicated VPN’s to be configured. And because this all runs on a private IP Network your data will never touch the Internet! Contact your Account Manager for more information.

3G Mobility

IPX Anywhere provides businesses with a truly high speed 3G mobile broadband service, enabling your employees to remain connected to your corporate information whenever and where ever they need it. IPX Anywhere can be used by employees that are temporarily out of the office and on the move with no direct access to a traditional land based network. There is no need to remain connected to the corporate network. All your employees need to do is simply connect our USB 3G network card to their laptop or mobile device to gain immediate access to all their office information through secure private network connections. And because this all runs on a private IP Network your data will never touch the Internet! Click here to read more about these options.

Business On-Demand

With the next generation of Software as a Service (SaaS) from IntraPower, your business can operate as usual even if your employees, customers and suppliers are forced to work from home or elsewhere. All your employees need is a data connection, a basic PC, Laptop or Thin Client Terminal. All your Software and Communications needs are delivered as a Service from secure data centres and charged per user per month. Click here to read more about these options.

Checklist

The following checklist outlines the information and equipment your employees may need to take from the office so that they can work from home or a remote site in the event of the Pandemic lockdown.

• Ensure that appropriate software is installed on your laptop or remote PC to remotely connect you to the office network
• Create instructions on how to remotely connect to your network from your home office or remote site
• Create a list of all URL’s, login’s and passwords for remote access
• Make sure the data you need to access is stored centrally on the network for ease of access
• Take home your laptop, keyboard, mouse, ethernet cables, IP Desk phone and power supply and to connect to your home network  

Once connected to the IHAN or the Internet from your home office or remote site, your will be able to access all of your voice services as though you were working from the office.

Point of Contact

IntraPower has appointed a dedicated pandemic coordinator and a support team to assist you where appropriate. Your dedicated IntraPower Pandemic Coordinator is Tim Ware who can be contacted on a central phone number 1300 136 741; a direct phone number 07 3032 3000; or on email tim.ware@intrapower.com.au. 

Further Information

Click here to go to our website www.intrapower.com.au for more information on pandemic planning and preparation.

Click here for the useful The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing Business Continuity Guide and Small Business Kit.