Prognosis: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic IR balances needs of remote workers with that of its customers!

If you aren’t spending a little of your stay-at-home time checking social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter then you may miss articles of interest. This is especially the case given the current situation as the COVID-19 pandemic has most of us self-isolating, left to pursue our profession behind a terminal and increasingly, our web cams. Even our mobile phone is being used more often than not to better interact with business partners, clients and our colleagues.

IR provides solutions to a number of markets, including support of infrastructure for NonStop users as well as for the payments industry as well as communications. IR was among the very first vendors to provide monitoring of Voice over IP (VoIP), for instance, and today is adding support for Microsoft TEAMs to its support of Skype for Business.

However, when it comes to how IR is stepping up to meet these events, you may have come across a reference on LinkedIn to the article  Keeping the modern workforce connected by IR CEO John Ruthven -–

“Current events are changing the world. Communication and collaboration via digital means has become critical for business continuity. Decisions need to be made to adapt and maximize the potential for success.

“We also need to consider the employee experience; how do you keep the workforce engaged? How do you keep teams connected? How do you maintain a positive company culture at a distance?

Timely in many ways as it is a reminder of just how dramatic a change to our business life has taken place. No matter where you are with respect to workplace environments and the culture that this creates and indeed propagates, the way we work has seen so many of us playing it safe and working from home. But therein lays the challenge for business: How do you change your infrastructure and just as importantly, how do you establish support in a manner that optimizes the creativity, innovation and productivity such a workplace environment creates?

The insight Ruthven provides in his post is encouraging –

“It’s been amazing to witness how many are coming together to innovate and solve problems; service providers and network providers working together to build out capacity, platforms offering free collaboration services, and organizations sharing information so that everyone can keep the lines of connection open.” 

And when it comes to where IR helps manage and monitor this evolving landscape, then it’s a comment Ruthven makes that is very much to the point: Get proactive –

“With teams stretched thin it can be difficult to stay on top, particularly as communications and contact centre environments seem to be continually evolving. Having automated monitoring and alerting in place can free up resources-limited teams by detecting and flagging issues to be addressed before they become widespread and impact users.”

Prognosis remains the premier vehicle for managing and monitoring everything that happens in communications, payments and infrastructure and for the NonStop community, the presence of Prognosis on NonStop has contributed to the way IR has grown its business. Today, some of the biggest payments processors on the planet run NonStop and in turn rely on Prognosis for oversight – better able to respond in real time to any problem that might arise!

IR Media released a statement prior to Ruthven’s post, COVID-19 Response – IR’s Commitment to Business Continuity, where it noted how –

“IR fully realizes the critical nature of being able to continue operations during unforeseen incidents and these plans will allow us to maintain our operations and provide ongoing support to your business-critical areas and systems.

“IR’s plans are intended to permit the continuation of key business operations during most types of disruptions by resuming critical operations, usually during the same business day as the disruption. To assist this business continuity IR maintains backup capabilities.”

Business Continuity and the planning for business continuity in the face of all adversity, including this current global pandemic, is a facet of NonStop deployments visible among all members of the NonStop community. And yet, it is easy to overlook just how much effort goes into making sure these plans deliver on the expectation that we all transition smoothly.

And while much of what IR has in place to support the NonStop community remains confidential – as you would expect from a public company – it’s all in place to ensure IR can be relied upon to maintaining support levels no different to what would be expected from it when business operated in a less hostile world.

Prognosis remains confident that NonStop users will benefit from Prognosis no matter the industry or market vertical, but if as yet you aren’t aware of all the features integral to Prognosis support of NonStop systems don’t hesitate to reach out to your local IR contact; they would be only too happy to hear from you.

Kevin Johnson,
VP Sales – Payments Performance Monitoring
www.ir.com