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COVID-19 Technology (IT) continuity


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COVID-19 Technology (IT) continuity

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to lead to a steep, and potentially protracted, economic downturn. In response, many countries have implemented ambitious packages to support households and businesses. A pandemic requires employees to stay home to limit exposure and to prevent or slow down the spread of the disease, requiring the activation of remote working capabilities. Unlike an occasional weather event, which may prompt some employees to work remotely, a pandemic may lead to a complete shutdown of the entire facility in an area, forcing a high number of employees to work remotely for an extended duration. This may in turn result in heavier-than-normal traffic on remote connectivity networks, causing capacity and load access issues.

Your firm should review its existing business continuity and disaster recovery plans to address a variety of contingencies that could disrupt the firm's businesses, including potential pandemics. Such plans should be sufficiently flexible and reflect the firm's size, complexity, and business activities.

New ways of working. New responsibilities. New management ideas. In order to thrive in an uncertain environment it is essential to manage the day to day running of the pandemic response. This needs to be staffed by a cross section of the business to take into account impact and response throughout the different business functions. It’s got to have IT experts, people who can build websites, telecommunications experts - comms will be the currency of keeping a large business operational in the next six to nine months.

To address the unique challenges posed by COVID-19, your firm's business continuity and disaster recovery plans should provide for:

  • A proactive program to reduce the likelihood that the firm's business operations will be significantly affected by a pandemic event, including monitoring of potential outbreaks, employee training, and ongoing communications and coordination with critical service providers.
  • A written Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan that ensures the firm's process and controls are identified and followed during a pandemic event.
  • Framework to address business locations and/or facilities to ensure the firm's ability to continue its business operations if its primary physical space is unavailable.
  • Testing the program to validate the effectiveness of the business continuity and technical recovery procedures. Testing allows for continuous improvement to the firm's readiness to respond to an unpredictable business disruption such as COVID-19 and confirm the availability and functionality of the firm's critical processes and supporting resources. Tabletop exercises should include preparation for a number of potential scenarios including but not limited to office closures and quarantines as well as public transportation and critical service provider disruptions.
  • Management oversight and governance to ensure the firm's business continuity and disaster recovery plans are kept up-to-date and supportive of its business operations.

Considering the recent outbreak of COVID-19, firms should review, update, and test their current business continuity and disaster recovery plans to help minimize a potential disruption to their business operations. Firms can take the following steps to ensure adequate preparation for business continuity and disaster recovery:
1. Identify key personnel
  - Appoint at least one Point of Contact (POC) or selected team members to coordinate pandemic readiness activities;
  - Coordinate internal roles and responsibilities during an outbreak;
  - Monitor news and announcements;
  - Identify back-up personnel if the primary POC or selected team members should fall ill or be unable to execute responsibilities; and
  - Identify back-up personnel for key functional stakeholders should they fall ill or be unable to execute their responsibilities (e.g., accounting and finance, portfolio manager, or investor relations backups).

2. Develop an employee communication plan
  - How the firm will respond to various scenarios (e.g., closed schools, quarantine of areas, coworker(s) suspected or confirmed to be infected) - what are the plans and what must employees do to prepare);
  - Whether the plan has been enacted;
  - How to respond to rumors and to confirm the firm's status; and
  - How and when the firm will make an "all clear" announcement and a potential return to standard processes.

3. Test and secure remote access for work-from-home situations
  - Provision laptop computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, docking stations, shredders, etc.; avoid, if possible, shifting work to personally owned computers;
  - Consider employees that require access to paper documents/files; identify and securely provision access to cloud file stores where shared access to documents is required (use multi-factor authentication and encryption);
  - Require employees to carry laptop computers home each day as quarantines and closures may be enacted with little warning;
  - Confirm remote access capabilities (e.g., VPN and Citrix equipment is up-to-date and internet service lines have sufficient capacity. Test web and voice conferencing capabilities and ensure employees have access to and understand how to use these);
  - Test employees' ability to work remotely (e.g., rotate staff to work remotely on selected days during the week to identify issues proactively in anticipation of a facilities closure or quarantine order); and
  - Identify the ability to reset (remotely if possible) the schedule of exterior doors automatic lock and unlock related to business hours.

4. Coordinate with key vendors and outside parties
  - Develop open communications and coordination with key vendors and other outside parties, including clients, shareholders, limited partners, regulators, and the media;
  - Test the ability of critical service providers to support business during a disruption (e.g., ensure clients can access investor portables or continue to receive investor/client reports);
  - Consider alternative service providers; and
  - Develop backup/alternative processes (e.g., manual or in-house) to ensure continuation of critical business operations.

5. Conduct staff training
  - Conduct a webcast or conference call to review the BCP with your entire organization;
  - Ensure employees understand roles and responsibilities during a business disruption;
  - Conduct tabletop exercises in preparation for office closures, quarantines, health emergencies as well as public transportation and critical service provider disruptions; and
  - Ensure employees understand how to access critical business systems as well as firm and/or client information remotely.

6. Coordinate with portfolio companies
  - Private equity firms should provide guidance to their portfolio companies to ensure their BCP plans are in place and have been tested.
  - Although no business continuity or disaster recovery plan can guarantee full and immediate resumption of business operations given the unknown impact of COVID-19, creating a sound framework as well as implementing strong processes and controls can help prepare your firm and its employees to handle and manage against a significant disruption to business operations related to COVID-19.

When a company announces a distressed situation; this is in most cases, the result of an extensive impact involving important economic, legal, tax and accounting decisions; bankruptcy, excessive debt and regulatory constraints. A restructuring exercise can turn into a fairly high-profile event, and it is crucial to the future of the company that the end-to-end process is managed with great sensitivity, confidentiality and efficiency.

Adan's experience:
Adan's team of professionals have substantial experience in financial restructuring and executing the sales of distressed assets to maximize recoveries for investors and creditors. We evaluate a full range of considerations including market conditions, liquidity needs, and legal and regulatory issues to identify the most efficient transaction solution.

We frequently draw upon the expertise of our restructuring and insolvency colleagues and their experience of advising on investing in companies in distressed situations, purchasing assets and businesses out of companies in distressed situations and restructuring companies near and in insolvency. We provide expert support throughout the entire lifecycle, delivered by local and global teams. This enables us to help banks create liquidity and unlock capital for reinvestment in other value adding lending activity benefitting the firm more broadly.

Our broad client base includes debtors, secured and unsecured creditors (including financial institutions, mezzanine investors, insurance companies, bondholders and landlords), creditor committees, special opportunity/situation investors, directors/officers and insolvency practitioners. Through working with these clients our team of professionals have gained valuable insights into the approaches of key stakeholders across the capital structure, and have developed and delivered innovative and practical solutions such as:

  •     Corporate Debt Restructuring Mechanisms
  •     Support/install seasoned management teams supported by industry operating partner
  •     Introduction of high performance management to sustain 'Planned Growth'
  •     Leverage global capabilities to lower your cost structures
  •     Access new revenue streams in fast growing international markets
  •     Help to acquire/dispose control of underperforming/ overlooked/ distressed companies at below market multiples
  •     Commercial negotiation with debt lenders, asset reconstruction companies and finaciers to find the optimal solution
  •     Acquisition and disposal of loan portfolios
  •     Pre-refinance maturing debt
  •     Improve liquidity position by extending the maturity of current debt
  •     Utilise an excess cash position on the balance sheet
  •     Improve your tax position without triggering debt extinguishment or for other reasons

Our experienced team build robust, transparent financial models covering all circumstances and across a wide range of sectors. Our approach is to start with a clear understanding of the situation and design a bespoke model using proven methodologies and techniques. The advantages of our models include creating outputs and usability that are designed specifically for the user, as well as providing the flexibility of assumptions to perform sensitivity analysis.

Our experts partner with clients on corporate planning, providing perspective not only on immediate value and impact, but on long-term implications. We work closely with management and other advisers to leverage and complement their knowledge and ensure maximum impact, and actively support implementation and skill building.

Featured Experts - COVID-19 Technology (IT) continuity

Senior multi-disciplinary corporate and finance professionals with diverse geographic, sector and transaction focuses
Ajay Mavinkurve
Ajay is a seasoned senior-level corporate finance executive with 30+ years of diversified experience in Global Corporate Finance, IPOs, Corporate and Tax structuring, Deal structuring, Commercial Negotiation, Valuations, Venture and Private Equity syndication, M&A, Growth Strategy, Distressed Asset Management, Working Capital and Buy-outs for Small & Mid-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Ajay
Mavinkurve

Managing Partner Corporate Advisory
London


Chennakeshav (Keshav) Adya
Chennakeshav (Keshav) is a seasoned business, marketing and technology executive with 20+ years of global corporate and entrepreneurial experience in building global companies from a concept and in leadership roles spanning M&A execution, deal origination, marketing, brand-building, market research and technology delivery.

Chennakeshav
(Keshav) Adya

Managing Partner Corporate Finance, M&A, Growth
Dubai & London


Sabapaty (Saba) Suryanarayanan
Saba is a seasoned commercial and finance professional with 30+ years of experience in in C-suite roles spanning varied geographies and multiple industry segments, including Manufacturing, Trading, Media and Financial Services in areas such as Deal structuring, Commercial Negotiation, Growth Strategy, Distressed Asset Management, Working Capital Funding, and Buyouts.

Sabapaty (Saba)
Suryanarayanan

Managing Partner Commercial and Finance
Mumbai, India


Kieran Bourke
Kieran is a Financial Risk Management expert with 25+ years of broad global Financial Services experience across Market, Traded Credit, Operational, Regulatory, and Enterprise Risk Management protocols across 4 continents. He was a Managing Director at Standard Chartered Bank at London & Singapore, where he established the commodities market risk function from scratch.

Kieran
Bourke

Advisor Risk Management
Singapore


Nav Kaplish
Nav is a seasoned business and technology executive with 18+ years of global corporate and entrepreneurial experience in building and managing digital teams and in leadership roles spanning Governance, Risk & Compliance, Audits and conceptualisation and delivery of Blockchain products.

Nav
Kaplish

Partner Digital, Blockchain & Risk
London


Freddie Tshiaba
Freddie Tshiaba is a senior business leader with 20+ years of significant experience helping investment banks, financial institutions, enterprise software companies and multi-national corporates with strategic initiatives, business development, digital transformation, product management, liquidity risk and treasury management.

Freddie
Tshiaba

Partner Corporate Finance
London


Priya Shah
Priya is a senior finance executive with 17+ years of global experience in top tier banks and private equity firm advising C-suite and Board members towards multi-million dollar projects across sectors, corporate strategy, corporate turnaround, M&A, investment appraisals, deal structuring, corporate finance, valuations, risk management, iquidity management and stress testing.

Priya
Shah

Partner Private Equity
London


Preethi Hari
Preethi is a versatile senior-level corporate professional with 18+ years of experience in Risk Management, IT Governance, IT Security, Business Continuity, Audits, Compliance and Regulatory. She specialises in COBIT/ COSO framework, ITSM (ITIL), 6-Sigma, SOX etc in Banking, Insurance, Oil & Gas, Shipping, Mining, Logistics, Telecom and Commercial Real Estate.

Preethi
Hari

Partner Risk Management
London


Vernon D Cruz
Vernon is a distinguished finance professional with 30+ years of experience in mid-sizes service organisations with demonstrated success in providing team leadership and development to foster growth. He has hands on experience in managing and running business with keen interest in Finance, Taxation, Legal, Commercial Negotiations, Commercial, Tourism & CSR.

Vernon
D'Cruz

Partner Commercial, Tourism & CSR
Mumbai


Mike Kemball
Mike is a sales transformation expert with 30+ years as an accomplished interim Sales Director and Managing Director in 15+ organisations across Telecom, Technology and Industrial sectors in Europe, India, Africa and the Middle East. Client companies and subsidiaries managed were typically $10m - $300m in revenue with sales teams from 10 up to 250 people.

Mike
Kemball

Partner Turnaround & Growth
London


George Christelis
George is an experienced finance professional with 20+ years of experience in C-suite roles for listed medium/large sized businesses in sectors such as real estate, construction, engineering and logistics.

George
Christelis

Partner Southern African region
Johannesburg


Craig Tingle
Craig is a board-certified real estate attorney with 25+ years of legal experience and has closed several billions of dollars in transactions. His expertise includes: shopping centers, shopping malls, apartment buildings, assisted living facilities, subdivisions, medical campuses and portfolios acquisitions of each of these.

Craig
Tingle

Partner Real Estate
Florida & Dubai


Thu Nga Haskovcova
Thu Nga is a Czech qualified lawyer with 20 years of international experience in M&A, Market Entry (Start-ups), Real Estate, Financing, Private Equity and Corporate law matters. Thu has in-depth local knowledge of the Central Eastern European (CEE) region and working experience in and in-depth knowledge of South East Asia.

Thu Nga
Haskovcova

Partner Central Eastern Europe, Law
Prague, Czech Rep.


A selection of transactions in progress

Our team has facilitated a variety of successful transactions across sectors, geographies and complexities.

COVID-19 services for Real-Estate Group


Deal Region : Europe
Deal Size      : $ 200 million

Sector(s):
Private Equity
Expertise:
UK CBILS - Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme COVID-19 Cash Flow Management COVID-19 Business continuity & resilience
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