The spread of pandemic coronavirus and the resultant lockdown for a longer period are throwing up not only tough challenges – work-from-home for all staffers – but also opens up new vistas to IT industries the world over and India, one of the largest service providers, is no exception. The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Ahmedabad-based global IT firm, Zealousweb Technologies Private Limited, Kandarp Bhatt, shares his first-ever experience of keeping enterprise clients’ critical support services functioning against all odds and the IT industry’s expectation from the government to sustain it as it is one of the largest forex earners.
Edited excerpts of the interaction :
With the pandemic coronavirus spreading its tentacles the world over, including India, all public sector and private sector companies have been ordered by the government to allow their staff to work from home till the situation improves. The IT sector is no exception. How do you implement this govt order in your company?
In the beginning, when COVID-19 was limited to China, we had no idea that it would have a devastating impact on the entire world one day. Slowly and gradually, when it started spreading to other countries and began to claim lives in large numbers, as a business owner who has a team of over 160 competent professionals, it did start bothering me. And although its impact was not that visible in India, I was always very concerned about the safety of my team members. So to cut a long story short, even before the Indian government started announcing lockdowns in different cities, we had begun analyzing the option of work from home. And by the time the Government announced the lockdown, we were almost prepared for it.
And as far as implementing government order is concerned, it’s quite simple; we are making our team members available with all the necessary tools and devices. For example, we have provided them with laptops and desktops.
In Digital India, we are boasting of high-speed Internet connections and highly skilled IT manpower working from the office so far. Suddenly, they have been forced to work from home. Do all your staffers have net connectivity at their homes? If not, whether they could get broadband connectivity immediately as the entire country is locked down.
As I have just discussed with you that we were thinking of implementing work from home for the safety of our team members and for preventing COVID-19 from spreading further for a couple of weeks now.
During that time, we were trying to find solutions for all the possible obstacles that we might face while working from home. So, for example, when it comes to maintaining good internet connectivity, approximately 70% of our team members are using broadband connections. The rest 30% are managing by using their mobile data, and to avoid poor connectivity, we have asked them to use multiple SIM cards.
How the staffers will cope up with this situation and work independently without any supervision or physical guidance?
As far as supervision is concerned, our project managers and team leaders are regularly interacting or communicating their ideas with their team members online via apps like Skype, Google Meet, Gmail, and Trello, etc. Apart from that, we are also using WhatsApp extensively, so maintaining good communication is hardly a problem for us.
Cloud technology has made it easier than ever for remote workers to work from anywhere, including home. Do you think it is advantageous now?
Yes, of course. There are no two ways about it. It’s one of the best ways to secure data.
In the office, staffers used to work under constant surveillance of CCTVs and cybersecurity systems. Now, there is no such surveillance. What precautions have you taken to prevent data theft?
Data security is not a problem for us because we use the best cybersecurity practices, for example, to prevent data theft, we are using a centralized server. Apart from that, all our team members are well-trained in the technicalities of handling data, so that is not a matter of concern for us.
Tech giants like IBM, Google rely most on work from the office as it is safer and contributes more productivity. Please comment.
Work from office is not something that only IBM and Google prefer; almost all the companies out there think the same way. But at this sensitive time, when coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the planet, all we are looking for is survival. We are not in a condition wherein we can think about what is more beneficial to us.
If this COVID19 impact continues for a longer period, what would be its cascading effect on the company’s revenue?
Well, all the industries across the world are getting affected by it, so IT is no exception. If we manage to bring it under control in a month or two, it will affect our revenue for a short period. But if we fail to do that, then we are going to experience devastating consequences.
However, even in these tough times, I am very hopeful that if we practice social distancing and self-isolation effectively, the situation will soon improve. And the market will bounce back quickly.
Work from home will save office rent, energy bills, and telecom bills but will impact productivity. What do you expect from the government to compensate for this and tide over the crises caused by the coronavirus spread?
Well, as far as maintaining productivity is concerned, it largely depends on how well you have trained your team over the years when it comes to delivering the projects within stringent deadlines. Apart from that, having a necessary system in place also plays an imperative role in enhancing productivity. Now when it comes to answering your question, which is about my expectations from the government, I would like to say that if the situation further worsens, then the government should surely try to support the businesses of all sizes and scales.
