1. Does Sinch have a pandemic plan to respond to and recover from mass absenteeism events, such as the Coronavirus (COVID-19)?
Yes, the structure of our support and operations teams allow for remote work and mass absenteeism. This is documented at a high level within our ISMS 2 Business Continuity Plan.
2. Does Sinch have contingency strategies that include transferring work and work remote capabilities associated with the following scenarios to ensure that support is uninterrupted during a pandemic event?
Loss of Human Capital Yes, support and operations teams are able to work remotely and perform all required duties in the event of loss of human capital. Facility Closure Yes, support and operations teams are able to work remotely and perform all required duties in the event of facility closures. Systems that Sinch use have redundancy between multiple datacenters in US and EMEA. If there were a failure of primary site, secondary sites handle clients traffic at the same capacity.
3. Has Sinch taken precautions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19?
Yes, Sinch Leadership has halted unnecessary travel and encourages remote work when local authorities recommend or mandate it. The company also offers sick leave for any employees with symptoms of COVID-19. In some Sinch functions, to ensure availability of critical personnel teams are working on a two-week rotation of employees that are working from home and working from the specific office location they are based at.
4. Does Sinch have procedures for communication with customers, suppliers and essential staff if it incurs an impact?
Yes, if there is an impact to services a client notification will be provided through the normal process. The account team working with specific customers will also provide updates through their existing point of contact.
5. For employees that may have had exposure, have steps within your organization been taken to quarantine them for a specific duration?
Yes, while the great majority of Sinch employees worldwide currently work from home, any employees deemed essential that has had possible exposure is required to work remotely for 14 days to ensure no symptoms of COVID-19.
6. Is there currently an impact to any of Sinch’s locations? If yes, describe which recovery strategies your organization has activated and the effectiveness.
No, there has been no impact on any portion of our organization thus far at any location. This is continually monitored. The company has built cross-functional task forces across People, Communications, Operations, and Finance departments.
7. Have steps been taken to address any potential impacts associated with third-parties that support Sinch operations from a pandemic perspective?
Yes, through redundancy within the design of our systems, where applicable, we have multiple suppliers for each destination carrier globally and with multiple binds to each of their SMSCs. Automatic failover to redundant datacenters internally is in place.
8. How will Sinch be providing updates to customers and suppliers?
Through client notifications issued via status.sinch.com and through updates from the respective account team.
9. Has Sinch had any impacts to date?
No, there has been no impact on any portion of our organization.
10. I’m planning to visit a Sinch office, what do I need to consider?
While the stage of the coronavirus outbreak varies across the company's three dozen offices, most offices have skeleton crews on site. It is conceivable that someone you expect to meet will not be in the office on the planned day of your visit. If you, within the last two weeks, have been in an area with a current significant outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, or if you for any reason believe you have a significantly higher risk of having been exposed to the virus, we ask you not to risk the health of yourself or any of the Sinch team and stay at home. We are happy to hear from you via video call, phone or email instead! In all cases please reconfirm the details of any planned meeting in a Sinch office.
11. How are Sinch platforms performing?
Sinch platforms are carrier grade, fully redundant, and scaling to meet the demands.
12. Has Sinch seen any unusual or suspect traffic?
The company is on heightened alert for scammers. Unfortunately, some individuals see this as an opportunity to take advantage of people’s fears, creating scams to steal personal or financial information. To guard against these scams, Sinch has expanded both its SPAM and SHAFT blocking and its text message monitoring to block, and terminate unwanted traffic.
13. Are there additional best practices to follow during the pandemic?
If possible, stagger messaging blasts. The company recommends that blasts do not start at the top of the hour. The Business Continuity Plan is available upon request. For further questions, please inquire via [email protected]. For further COVID-19 resources from Sinch, please visit our COVID-19 Knowledge Center.