DRAFT 1
Critical Business Continuity Services in the Event during Covid19 Response
This sets out a list of sectors, services and functions required to continue during a lockdown as part of the Covid-19 responses. This is not intended to be authoritative or exhaustive, but provide guidance.
These broad areas are required to continue:
- Security and resilience of basic infrastructure
- Business continuity for critical support services for the health sector
- Business continuity for public health and safety, including food security
In all cases, businesses that need to provide critical continuity services must apply the necessary strategies to limit disease spread, protect staff and others that they will have to interact with.
| Business Sectors | Dependencies | |||
| Network Infrastructure | ||||
| Coal Mines and Power Stations | ||||
| Gas supplies | ||||
| Fuel supplies | Petrol Stations & related forecourts | |||
| Renewable energy | Expedite self-generation and contracting with IPPs (can’t wait 6 months!)Critical Infrastructure Act – include IPP sites. | |||
| Water and wastewater | ||||
| Law enforcement | ||||
| Public Works | ||||
| Sanitation | ||||
| Refuse removal | ||||
| Defence, Safety and Security | Defence Design, production, delivery and maintenance of military weapons and software systems, subsystems and component or parts manufacture |
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| Private Security Services Staff, systems, and infrastructure. |
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| IT Systems / Telecommunications | ||||
| Datacentres (heavily reliant on stable electricity supply | Staff and technicians to keep critical systems up | |||
| Fibre Optic infrastructure (relaxation of the laws that slows down the deployment of infrastructure | Access to spares and travel to customer sites | |||
| Towers and antennae (relaxation of laws that slow down deployment of infrastructure) | SARS to clear emergency spares via other countries | |||
| Spectrum (making any and all band available immediately) | ||||
| Approve the use of millimetre wave technology and other rural connectivity methods such as TV White Space | ||||
| Batteries (they are being stolen as fast as they are put in – find a collaboration with SANDF if possible to protect them) | ||||
| Devices (removing import duties on phones, tablets, laptops and other communications devices) | ||||
| CRITICAL: Closer collaboration with Eskom on loadshedding schedule, if possible not to loadshed rings with datacenters at all / keep it under 2 hours. Need upfront schedule so providers can move batteries around to keep networks running. | ||||
| Medical and Health | ||||
| Hospitals | Electricity – NO LOADSHEDDING | |||
| Devices and Equipment | Cleaning | |||
| Pharmaceuticals | Food | |||
| Funders | Transport | |||
| Doctors, nurses, technicians, operating assistants | Laundry | |||
| Waste Disposal | ||||
| Food & Agriculture | ||||
| Agro Food Value Chain | Supply of inputs for production (diesel, fertilizer, (note, emerging problems here already) – agro-chemicals, seed, ag-equipment, electricity, water, labour, etc.). Much of this is imported, especially the first mentioned inputs – PORTS NEED TO BE KEPT OPEN. | |||
| Logistics from farmgate to storage to processing plants/places, as well as exports/imports, including road, rail and port services must be fully maintained | ||||
| Critical factors of financial services, energy security (electricity and fuel supply), and logistics services (road, rail and ports, with the latter being a special concern both from an import and export consideration). | ||||
| Critical to this sector is critical labour availability, continuous electricity supply, water supply, packaging supply, and logistics for delivery to wholesalers/retailers/ports (Reefer container availability currently still a significant constraint as most still locked up in Chinese ports). | ||||
| Retail and Consumer Goods | ||||
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Consumer Goods: |
Product manufacturers |
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| Forestry & Saw Mills | ||||
| Production of disposable health and hygiene products, including toilet paper. Packaging for food and health supply chains. Pulp, paper and saw and timber mills remain operational. Ports to remain open for critical supply requirements and exporting of products. |
Requires secure supply chains to the mills – timber via road and rail, energy (gas and coal), water and chemicals (including imported chemicals) Key continuity staff Port staff |
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| Call Centres and Business Process Services | ||||
| Life and Health Related | Government DOH help line and digital channel support Medical professional support services Emergency response services Hospital and LAB enquiries Hospital authorizations and reservations Public Medical Aid services Private Sector Emergency response services Hospital and LAB enquiries Medical professional support services Hospital authorizations and reservations Private Medical Aid services |
Sustain life, provide power / energy; protect food and water supplies; enable continuation of economic and social activities; transact; communicate; and maintain law and order. |
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| Energy Related Services | Government DO Mineral Resources and Energy help line and digital channel support Eskom queries and call outs Private Sector Private power suppliers and technicians – queries and call outs |
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| Food and Water Supplies | Government Dept of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation help line and digital channel support Private Sector Retail call centres for order taking, stock management, online support Delivery services (food, medicine) Plumbers, technicians service lines |
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| Enable continuation of economic and social activities | Government Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology – help line and digital channel support Department of Transport Private Sector Education support through online services Air transport services Elevator services support centres Logistics sector – call centre and online support services Hospitality services – where hotels, B&Bs are being used for crucial service delivery |
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| Transactional Call Lines | Government SARS related services CIPC related services COIDA support services UIF support services Private Sector Banking transaction support (account activations, online banking support, ATM service support, cash management support services, lost and stolen cards, fraud lines) |
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| Communication Services | Government Department of Communications and Digital Technologies support lines SOE services (Telkom services) ICT infrastructure support service lines Directory enquiry services Private Sector ICT infrastructure support service lines Mobile support services Wifi and broadband support services Technical help desks for all sectors (for infrastructure, networks, applications) Cyber security services TV broadcasting support services – customer services Directory enquiry services |
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| Law and Order Call Centre Services | Government Departments of Police, Defence and Military Veterans, Justice and Correctional Services support lines Private Sector Security response services |
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| Finance & Insurance | ||||
| Keep financial markets open | ||||
| Third party service providers | ||||
| Financial services (middle office, trading, back office and insurance claim offices) | ||||
| Short term insurance to cover industry | ||||
| Life cover, Burial and funeral funds | ||||
| Communications to Public | ||||
| Screen | ||||
| Print and Broadcast | ||||
| Radio | ||||
| Tourism and Hospitality | ||||
| Restaurants – delivery only | ||||
| Delivery Services | ||||
| Hotels for isolation, airline crews, and Covid19 related business travel | ||||
| Car rentals for critical continuity services only | ||||
| General | ||||
| Board and Management | ||||
| Operations Centres | ||||
| Repair of Critical Infrastructure | ||||
Author: Derrick Markotter
RCCI Webmaster Derrick runs a boutique web marketing agency, IdealMedia Marketing.