IT and ITes companies to function in the Red Zones

As per the recent government announcement, considerable relaxations have been provided for IT and ITes companies even in the Red Zones. Commercial and private establishments that have been allowed in the Red Zones include print and electronic media, IT and IT-enabled services, data and call centres, and so on as long as they strictly follow the required Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of social distancing. Basis this Neelesh Kripalani, Senior Vice President and Head, Center of Excellence (CoE) at Clover Infotech has shared his views on IT and ITes to restarting operations. Please find it below for your reference.

Opinion about the Government of India allowing IT and ITes companies restarting operations with 50 percent workforce

“Government is taking all the necessary measures to combat the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus. The Indian IT industry has been a leading sector in terms of growth and has contributed significantly to the country’s export revenue and GDP over the last couple of decades. Moreover, technology is the biggest enabler for critical services industries such as banking and insurance. Hence, it is essential to ensure that end-users do not face any hindrance while availing these services. Taking all this into consideration, the IT sector is expected to start working from offices only in phases, with the initial focus on delivering mission critical projects that cannot be serviced from home due to various reasons.

Enterprises are consistently supporting government’s initiatives to prevent the spread of the virus. As per recent reports, IT firms are ensuring that as many as 85% of their employees are working from home, even while servicing global clients.“ Neelesh Kripalani, Senior Vice President and Head, Center of Excellence (CoE) at Clover Infotech

Feasibility of the option and the challenges expected to face while reopening organizations

“While there are multiple challenges to resume work from offices in a world affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, it is essential for businesses to continue to serve its customers. The key here is to enable work from home for maximum number of employees, wherever possible. This ensures that only the employees who must go to office for reasons such as for working on systems wherein remote access is not shared, or in cases where the client has not allowed work from home. There could be various reasons for this but if only 10%-20% people work from office, it could enable the office administration to maintain social distancing norms, ensure temperature checks at entry, avoid crowding at general areas such as cafeteria to ensure that the employees in office are not impacted because of the virus. In fact, companies in IT are making certain changes such as restructuring workstations and cubicles to ensure that the distance between every employee is maintained as required. The floor managers and the administrative staff are also working with a set of guidelines such as ensuring hand-sanitizers wherever possible, keeping vigil on the floors and ensuring that there is no crowding at areas such as conference rooms, printers etc.” Neelesh Kripalani, Senior Vice President and Head, Center of Excellence (CoE) at Clover Infotech