Keeping you connected during COVID-19

We’ve had a number of customers approach us recently to understand how TasmaNet is preparing for any impacts from the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak to ensure business continuity for us and our customers. Here is an outline of the steps we have undertaken and some considerations for businesses looking to enable remote working for their workforce.

We are encouraging our team to do everything possible to reduce the risk of getting this virus:

• If staff or family members feel unwell, we are asking them not to come into the office but to contact a GP before returning to work.
• Hand sanitiser has been placed around the office.
• All staff are avoiding shaking hands, touching hand rails or door knobs.
• Any non-critical travel is cancelled.
• All staff have the equipment needed to work remotely if that becomes necessary – chargers, headsets, appropriate Internet access.

We have put contingencies in place to ensure customers can still gain access to the Data Centre, if any of the regular staff members managing this activity are unavailable.

We have ensured all staff have the technology and tools in place to work remotely:

• Service and technical staff can use a VPN to securely access our corporate network to monitor network performance and data centre equipment. Workarounds have been put in place where any physical access to the data centre is needed.
• All staff have access to Microsoft Teams, Office 365, SharePoint, and OneDrive to collaborate whilst working from home and access required files securely. Training is available if necessary.

Businesses looking to enable remote working for their staff should consider the following:

• Is your staff members' home Internet capable of supporting the bandwidth needed to use business applications during the day without being congested by Netflix or other consumer applications being utilised at home? Consider upgrading to a higher speed, lower contention nbn™ plan.
• Can your firewall / VPN device support the additional throughput coming in from remote workers? Will your office Internet be able to deal with increased load of remote users connecting in?
• How do you protect remote workers from malware when they aren’t connected to the corporate network? You can mandate workers to only connect via VPN when they are working remotely so all security policies that apply in the office will extend to workers at home.
• Can staff access the office phone system when they are working from home? This can be done via laptop using a soft phone

You can be confident that:

• Our team are prepared and able to work remotely
• We have contingencies in place to ensure business continuity
• We can assist you to enable your employees to work at home

TasmaNet customers wishing to temporarily upgrade their existing connection to a higher speed, lower contention nbn™ plan from our Home Office or Business Standard range can do so on a month-to-month basis without needing to extend the minimum term of their current service.If you need further guidance or assistance from our team please reach out to your Account Manager or you can get in touch here.