Dear Unifiedpost Customer,
Unifiedpost recognises the importance of ensuring the continuity of its services to its customers, and protecting the well-being of its staff. To this end, Unifiedpost has defined, maintains and tests a Business Continuity Plan that is designed to ensure a high degree of resilience of the organisation to incidents affecting its staff, its ICT infrastructure and equipment, or its facilities.
Unifiedpost additionally recognises that large epidemics and pandemics may introduce severe challenges to the continuity of its normal operations, and has therefore designed a Pandemic Plan that is designed to monitor, prevent and contain epidemics.
As part of the Pandemic Plan, the Pandemic Coordination Team (PCT) actively monitors and steers actions designed to prevent spreading of epidemics and limit the impact on the health of its staff and the continuity of its operations.
Overview of Business Continuity Measures
Staff
- Unifiedpost operates multi-location operations across Europe
- Key digital skills are shared between staff located in different sites or regions
- Remote working and home working are integrated into normal operations of the company
ICT for Internal Operations
- Rely on highly resilient cloud-based solutions (Google Suite, MS Office 365, …)
ICT for Products
- Hosted in highly resilient data centres (Tier 3 or higher)
- Where Cloud is used: data replication across multiple locations / zones
- Where Private Data centres are used: real-time data replication
End-User Computing
- Zero-trust network architecture means that workstations are interchangeable, offering a high degree of resilience
Facilities
- Unifiedpost has multiple locations across Europe. Remote working and home working are integrated into normal operations of the company
Third-Parties
- Unifiedpost has internalised most of the activities related to its operations, product development and maintenance
- Unifiedpost makes uses of software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service from major, reputable companies
Pandemic Containment Measures in place
Communication
- Initial PCT communication was spread via several channels and additionally relayed by local management.
- PCT decisions are immediately communicated both to staff and local management.
Facilities
- Health and safety measures have been rolled out, supported by reinforced hygiene communication.
ICT
- Our normal business continuity measures are operational and support a full remote working approach if required.
Travel
- Business travel is authorised on a case-by-case basis. WHO travel recommendations are enforced.
- 14-days quarantine is enforced for personnel returning from WHO-identified high-risk regions.
- Personal travel reporting is kindly requested for all personnel.
Third-Parties
- Business continuity repository of third parties is being updated For critical parties, pandemic readiness is being evaluated
Supporting Governance
The Pandemic Coordination Team (PCT) includes representatives of management, ICT, HR and business continuity and is tasked with the following:
- Evaluate and decide on the preventive measures to implement to prevent the occurrence of a crisis
- Decide and follow-up on the owners of the preventive measures to be implemented
- Communicate to the owners which measures need to be implemented and monitor the implementation progress, as a basis for further communication to staff
Its set up, roles and responsibilities are defined in the Pandemic Plan of Unifiedpost.
The situation is regularly re-evaluated by the PCT: should the impact require additional actions; a crisis will be declared and the Crisis Management Team (CMT) will take over the PCT.
The Crisis Management Plan of Unifiedpost defines CMT roles and responsibilities, standard procedures and operating instructions. It is supported by highly resilient means of communications, to ensure continuous internal & external communication in the context of a crisis.
As the situation can change on a daily basis, we are actively monitoring the developments and information provided by governments and public health organisations. We will update the above information as needed and keep you informed.
Thank you for your support.
Regards,
Tom Van Acker
General Manager Unifiedpost Group
