Q: In what ways has your company played a part in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 crisis?

Our priorities throughout the pandemic have been the safety and wellbeing of our people, and to save every job by ensuring business continuity.

Providing a stable work from home (WFH) platform for every employee was a crucial part of ensuring this continuity. We focussed on the health of the company by taking measures internally to shore up our cash reserves, expand business development activities to new markets and introduce new services.

As an added precaution, the shareholders ploughed funds into the company to ensure a six-month cash reserve, which greatly mitigated any immediate risk. We also took specific measures to support our employees through these uncertain times.

And we’ve been successful in these endeavours – so much so that we have virtually on-boarded many new employees over the last three months and even signed on new clients during this period.

This provides the much-needed stability both to our employees and the industry as an established organisation in the local IT sector.

Q: As far as the workforce is concerned, how did your organisation assist people during the extended curfew?

Our WFH arrangement was rolled out to all employees even before the curfew was imposed to minimise travel especially on public transport. The required infrastructure was provided for them in their homes with arrangements to reimburse additional expenses.

The 99X Technology support teams worked around the clock to iron out any issues experienced by our people as well.

Additionally, the company doctor was ready on call; and in case an employee experienced any symptoms, the doctor would visit him or her at their home and make the necessary arrangements together with our HR team.

Acknowledging the toll these circumstances could take on employees’ mental wellbeing, the company counsellor was also on call during this period.

However, the most important factor during the curfew was our level of communication.

The management and corporate leadership were in constant contact with all employees, checking on their wellbeing, keeping them up to date on the company’s operations, rolling out surveys to understand their WFH situation and rectify issues, among other such initiatives.

This strengthened the workforce and has been a key factor in being able to maintain our business continuity.

Q: Has your organisation participated in any community assistance endeavours – and if so, could you outline them?

In addition to the financial and other means of support extended to those in need, one somewhat different community activity we embarked on at the very early stage was the creation of a COVID-19 Action Centre.

We understood that many organisations weren’t equipped to withstand the effects of the pandemic. And therefore, through this online portal, we shared guidelines, tips, readymade questionnaires, flyers and other useful content to help organisations ensure business continuity through the pandemic.

This initiative was white labelled by SLASSCOM and widely circulated among the business community to assist organisations in need.