Earlier this week, we sent the following email to our managed services customers.
Dear Customers,
As the spread of COVID-19 continues, we are all increasingly effected. By now we have all made some adjustments to our daily routines and our businesses. It is currently unclear how this situation will unfold over the next weeks and months; however, our clients depend on us to keep their businesses running and we will not let you down.
I am writing to let you know the two major steps that New York Geek Girls is taking to ensure continued support of our valued clients while exercising caution and prudence in consideration of the pandemic.
First, our company will implement a temporary work-from-home strategy until medical authorities deem it safe to return to normal. This policy will go into effect immediately and will continue until further notice.
Please be assured that we already have steps in place to assure the security of your confidential data while our team members are working remotely. These steps include 2 Factor Authentication for all our logins, remote access into a secure, managed computer, secure VPN, and a company-managed password manager with enforced 2FA and frequent auto-logout.
Technologically, our team is ready and able to assist as always; however, a work-from-home environment introduces certain challenges. We will do our best to ensure that background noises are minimized and do not affect call quality; however, you may occasionally hear a baby’s laugh, or a cat’s meow, etc. in the background. We expect these incidents to be rare, but they are not 100% avoidable and we ask for your understanding of these occurrences.
Second, until further notice we are suspending all onsite visits with the exception of a true emergency that absolutely cannot be addressed remotely. There are some support requests for which we generally recommend an onsite visit, such as new PC setups and printer installations. We will instead be handling these types of requests remotely. Our tech may request that you or a staff member who is on location assist with the “hands-on” aspect of the setup. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.
We realize this will cause our customers some inconvenience, but it is the right thing to do. We believe that it is our responsibility to protect our employees, our customers and our community. Our collective effort to contain and prevent the spread of this outbreak is in everyone’s best interest.
As a coda, I would like to add that, if you are concerned about how your company can continue to work effectively during this pandemic, please reach out to me. We have information about conferencing, collaboration and phone services from major vendors (RingCentral, Microsoft, etc.) who are offering their services for free during this time. Some offers apply only to non-profits, medical offices or schools, and some apply to all businesses. We can also advise about moving your public events, such as fund-raising galas, classes, and client meetings, online.
As always, thank you for your business and for your trust in us. Please stay healthy!
Sincerely
Roberta
Roberta Piket
Senior Consultant and CEO
New York Geek Girls Computer Services
347-351-3031