On Friday, March 20, 2020, EVP Systems executed it’s long-term business continuity plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with the work-from-home order of the Governor of California. All employees are now isolated from each other and the general public, but continue to perform their job functions as normal. There should be no impact on EVP Systems clients, either now or for the foreseeable future.
All phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail and postal addresses remain the same. No EVP Office software configuration changes are needed by the company’s clients unless those clients are themselves working from home, and their VPN has different firewall rules than their at-work network. (If you are transitioning to home-based work and need assistance installing EVP Office or configuring it for a VPN firewall, please contact our Support Department at support@evpsys.com or (818) 313-6300.)
EVP Systems’ entire technical infrastructure is cloud-based and redundant, so not only can the system survive a local disaster like a fire or flood, but it can also be configured to allow each employee to fully execute their responsibilities remotely, even over the long term. Hardware like IP phones and video conference cameras, third-party services like Gmail and Dropbox, and a data center hosted at two Amazon Web Services availability zones allow EVP Systems incredible flexibility to respond to different emergency situations, and position its employees in the best way possible, both for the employees themselves and the company’s clients. Further, the entire data center is automated, and only a single staffer is required to monitor logs and alerts.
If an EVP Systems employee does become sick or otherwise incapacitated, the company has a long tradition of cross-training. Each employee has a back-up within the company who can perform their job function if they are unavailable. Additionally, the company has started further cross-training via video conference to train a secondary back-up.
As of today, no EVP Systems employee has been diagnosed with COVID-19, nor shown the documented symptoms of the disease. One employee called in sick on Tuesday, March 17, but turns out to have only had a cold. They have returned to work, but — as with all other employees — are isolated from everyone else.
EVP Systems has been in communication with its primary data supplier, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and they have “a robust preparedness process to address impact to facilities and exchanges from events such as the spread of COVID-19. We continue to monitor the situation closely and will act accordingly to manage business continuity.”