Bangkok--13 Mar--Absolute PR
Bluebik reveals that the Covid-19 crisis has affected organizations to leverage the response plan for the present and the future from BCP plan preparation and rehearsal plans, communication to reduce panic, allocation of staff groups for risk management, adoption of technology for flexibility in work, as well as reducing the risk of infection, Using face recognition instead of fingerprint scanning, promoting cashless payments, reducing cash touch, supplier evaluation, plan a backup and find a replacement source. All of these can help businesses continue without interruption because of the Covid-19 virus crisis.
Mr. Pochara Arayakarnkul, CEO of Bluebik Group Co., Ltd., a leading consultant specializing in strategy development and technology and innovation management, disclosed that the epidemic of the new strain of the virus 'Covid-19' has spread to the world resulting in the overall economic slowdown and more disruption income of many industries has to contract. Especially, this crisis engulfs the business groups that are directly affected such as the tourism industry such as the aviation and airline industry, hotels, retail, restaurants, tourist attractions, public transport, etc. The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus causes many people to panic and dares not go out to spend or travel as usual. In addition, foreign tourists continue to decline due to the spread of disease, causing many organizations to signal business changes, such as reducing the number of employees or even closing down a business.
The spread of the new strain of the coronavirus, 'Covid-19', is creating a phenomenon and an opportunity for some businesses as well such as selling and buying products online and food delivery.
"While many businesses are slowing down, but the overall picture of E-Commerce and Food Delivery grows in opposite directions with the changes of consumer behaviors. In addition, the situation is not conducive to comfortable shopping in public as usual; as well as, spending more time at home, which makes online ordering and food delivery growing. Therefore, if businesses turn to increase distribution channels to become more online in accordance with the situation, they will be handicapping and helping to maintain commercial opportunities during this challenge. Moreover, other businesses--that are not related to E-Commerce--should not overlook the use of technology and social media to adapt to handle the crises that may occur both now, and in the future." said Mr. Pochara.
Mr. Pochara added that Bluebik's Quick Win guidelines for organizations to adapt to the situation in order to prevent business interruption for business continuity are as follows:
Business continuity planning and rehearsing Organizations should begin to create or review their Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to ensure that existing plans are appropriate for current and future situations such as working with partners, sufficient resource allocation; as well as, testing the plan to ensure how the businesses will be operated to minimize the effect on stakeholders in the event that the epidemic of COVID-19 becomes widespread or enter the 3rd phase of outbreak until they cannot be operated normally.Communication to reduce the panic The organization should provide communication regarding the Business Continuity Planning (BCP) with operational procedures under emergency situations to ensure that all employees and relevant parties understand their roles and responsibilities, if there is a situation that prevents the normal business operation. Relevant policies and measures should be also communicated to let employees know how to practice in order to avoid the risk of exposure to coronavirus. Measures for the care and protection of employees' health should be communicated and must ensure that employees strictly abide continuously through easy access channels such as Line Group.Allocating employees to manage risks The most important aspect of running a business is employees, therefore risk should be covered. By dividing the employees into at least 2 major divisions without meeting directly to reduce the risk of infection in the entire group. The organization should separate groups of high-risk employees, such as salespeople, from lower-risk employees and apply technology so that employees can work at different locations, such as video conference and collaboration tools.Apply technology to reduce the risk of infection "Fingerprint scanner" is a collection of germs even if cleaning is always performed. Organizations should consider using the biometric facial recognition system, changing payments to cashless to reduce usage bank notes or coins which have risk factors in spreading the virus in organizations that have a large number of stores inside, such as a food court or cafeteria. In addition, businesses--that provide parking services-- need to distribute cards to enter and exit the parking lot, using IoT technology to connect to the parking system, such as the use of Auto license plate recognition (ALPR) technology that can read the license plate of the car in and out of the car park and connect to the barrier automatically without having to use a card to access. These measures can reduce the risk of infection from users in order to reduce the risk of infection between people entering the building.Evaluate partners, plan a backup and find a replacement source Organizations in the manufacturing sector--that relies mainly on material from China especially computer and electronic products-- may encounter a shortage of raw materials or production costs. Therefore, organizations develop a supply chain plan to find alternate production sources by finding information about domestic or other countries; as well as, planning for raw materials reservation for production. Likewise, they have to consider the plan in case the factories in China begin to return to work as usual as well.Facial Recognition Concept