As concern grows over the spread of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) our clients want to be sure that we have plans and capability in place to mitigate the risk this poses and to be able to continue to provide the services required. The following key elements describe Pinnacle’s approach to mitigate not only the impact to business from COVID-19, but the steps we have taken and refined over recent years to ensure we have plans for continuity of services in instances such as this where business continuity is essential.

Homeworking policy and capability

Pinnacle’s employees and contracted staff are contracted to work remotely from home and set-up with the access to do so. Even those who occupy the small number of Pinnacle offices are set-up with the capability to work from home and do so routinely. This allows services to be provided remotely and does not make them reliant on specific locations or being able to work in set office space. If our staff are impacted by Coronavirus and there is a need to self-isolate then they are set- up to do so and can continue to work during that period. The majority of our staff provide client support and services remotely already.

Collaboration tools

We provide and use both Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams to collaborate and share information remotely within our Pinnacle teams and with our clients. This enables us to work and support our clients remotely without the need for on-site access or work.

Infrastructure

The majority of our systems and services are cloud based reducing the risk of having to access physical components. This allows us to hold data and documentation securely for our teams and our clients and off site with associated back-up. We do have some physical infrastructure for internal systems and development environments but these are backed up using industry standards and Pinnacle have plans in place to manage without the physical elements of our systems if required to do so.

We already support our clients remotely and so the working practice and system access required for business continuity is already in place and working as our business as usual practice.

In essence, Pinnacle could run their business with all staff working from home in isolation which by its nature provides a business continuity foundation.

Employees – Policy and Communication

Pinnacle have produced and communicated a specific set of guidelines and policy for employees in relation to the current COVID-19 situation that ensures that government advice is being followed and updated and communicated to our teams regularly via our senior management. The guidance relates to travel, self-isolation and reporting process via internal channels and has been created not only for the safety of our staff but with the purpose of being able to continue to operate our services for clients and to maintain operational activity. We have access to up to date staff contact details and communicate any updates via established communication channels internally. If any clients wish to see our internal guidelines for the current COVID-19 situation, we would be happy to share this.

As well as the above components, we regularly assess both our own financial and our client contractual status to ensure we have capacity to operate if any of our clients fall into difficulty due to the COVID-19 risks.

If there are any specific questions that relate to any of the above areas or is further detail is required then please contact your key Client Account Director who can ensure that any questions or concerns are answered or further steps taken to ensure we meet client requirements.

Tony Pullman

Principal Consultant and Team Lead
E: tony.pullman@pinnacle-oa.com
M: +44 7585 507246
W: www.Pinnacle-oa.com

A copy of this document can be downloaded here