MoreYeahs – One Medium size family with 130+ members located in Tier-II city Indore which anticipated in a very different way while others were making memes for the storm so-called Novel Corona disaster.
It started with China and then Outbreak in several countries. We in India confirmed our first case in the last week of January.
Somewhere inside we all knew that it will spread and it will come to us – we have to prepare ourselves.
The first week in March and India had 50 confirmed cases that’s where people got a little serious (yes little because other than memes some actual information started to share).
While MoreYeahs on alert and already had already stopped all unknown people to enter office premises and had all precautious items to sanitize and what to do and what not to do share with all members.
The second week of March and cases are just increasing – while our state had no cases. MoreYeahs decided to take action to safeguard its people and all families associated.
Challenges faced –
1. Not everyone had a personal laptop with good performance or not have.
We ordered top-end laptops for team members (especially developers) due to non-availability in the market we had a limitation.
So, we decided to provide laptops to those who have to travel outside of Indore and get the desktops with secured connections to those who live in Indore or near Indore.
2. Not everyone had the internet connection.
We asked people to get the internet connection before 10 days to which 90% people were able to have a connection before 20 March but for 10% we have to find an alternative as most of the areas are not supported by broadband providers in Indore such as Noorani Nagar (near Chandan Nagar). We asked them to buy best possible dongle with a network provider who could serve sufficient enough to work Microsoft Dynamics 365 environment(which required high bandwidth in our expert area).
Before 12 March we had 2% of members working from home. With the increasing rate of cases, we thought it will hit us in Mid April but our leadership group decided not to wait till the storm hit and we can make our house strong and protect people. We conveyed to all our members to have an internet connection within two days.
Day-1: Phase-I
Chaos Monday -16 March 2020
Morning headlines – curve took a high turn with 10 new cases a day. Early morning management meet called – we decided we are making everything work from home to balance the life of our people and client work.
We breakdown this it in 7 days plan (Monday to Monday) with three phases-
Phase -I: People who live away from home (non-residential to Indore) and using public transport daily to the office will be sent home with all resources within two days (till 16 March 2020).
Phase-II: Members who have internet connections and laptops will be given work from home with 4 days (till 20 March 2020 expected 60% of MoreYeahs).
Phase-III: Last stage where 100% WFH needs to be achieved (till 21 March 2020).
Phase-I
We made the list of people with parameters –
1. You have a laptop or desktop at home (Yes/No)
2. You have an Intern connection (Yes/No)
3. Are you residential to Indore (Yes/No)?
4. Are you using public transport to travel to the office (Yes/No)?
We have the list ready in 15 minutes and immediately marked 20 people to start work from home starting 16 March 2020. We informed everyone about the plan and initiated it.
Day-2
17 March 2020
we decided to get phase-II started earlier than expected as rates of cases are increasing and our state is still safe.
We initiated phase-II – on 16 March 2020 itself parallel to phase-I.
We ordered testing devices in one single day for our QAs to get to the home the same day. Achieved 50% force at home.
Day-3
18 March 2020, we were at 60% work from home with all new laptops configured and assigned to members. The separate team initiated to deliver configures machines to respective areas – three teams and 6 Areas to cover with more than 30 machines to deliver with tracking of machines.
Day-4
19 March 2020, we were at 75% work from home with machines ready to deliver BUT the rest 25% dint get the internet connection as the market started to pick up for service providers in our area such as Hathway, Airtel, and JioFiber.
Wheres one of them informed they have 90 requests with advance money in a single day for a single person to provide connection.
which increases our difficulty but we reach out to those providers (followed them everywhere and even team members bring them to their houses for connection)
Day-5
20 March 2020
Suddenly we have a piece of news that Madhya Pradesh has confirmed 4 cases
suddenly the fear turns into reality and we knew we have to push our efforts and on 20 March 2020 afternoon, we have the numbers to 97% with internet connections.
The human resource department instructed people to work from home or we would be providing leaves to members. Rest 3% were networking teams who need to ensure access to a secured environment and 2 members who do not good internet connection (less than 1 Mbps) at their homes.
But we took the decision to compromise with 2 to work from home at any cost. The last step towards 100% is our hero – IT team or say networking team which has house nearest to the office will only be available for the next two days with precautions.
We (MoreYeahs) sharing the above story not brag about it but to share our experience with corporates and companies in Indore and around to take measures and actions to ensure the safety of people and society.
