Page 11 - THE SOUTH CHINA BUSINESS JOURNAL
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this does not have a serious effect. For Consider paying IT resources extra to ensure
example, today we held a conference call on they are working during the holiday period in
MS Teams between nine people in various preparation for most of your staff to commence
locations within China (including one staff working remotely after the end of the extended
member in Hubei Province). While the video Chinese New Year.
functionality was weak because of bandwidth
issues, audio functionality was sufficient. • If you have corporate communication
tools that can be used effectively in China,
But for less well-prepared companies, some ensure your China-based staff have sufficient
problems can be predicted. If your company is guidance to use them and know that they
not utilizing a robust corporate tool, such as need to be logged-on. In our experience,
MS Teams or Skype for Business (also known many companies that have these tools don’t
as Lync), intra-company communications inform their China-based staff about their full
may have to rely on traditional telephone, capabilities. Consider requiring employees to
corporate email, or less secure public download the apps (Teams / Sharepoint Online
channels, such as WeChat. If your corporate etc.) onto their mobile phones as well.
email server is hosted in your company’s
HQ abroad, you may find that employees • Make sure employees know that any
working from home are struggling to send or costs incurred from corporate communications,
receive emails with large attachments. This is which rely on traditional mobile telephone
a common problem seen when transmitting will be reimbursed by the company during this
data into and out of mainland China due to period.
the congestion at international exits. Many
companies circumnavigate this problem by • If you have emails with large
setting up VPN-like structures between their attachments, there is a good possibility that
China offices and overseas offices; however, receipt may be delayed for employees in China
when employees are working from home – especially if your corporate email server is
these contingency plans no longer function located overseas. Consider separating the
effectively. email message from the attachment. Try to
reduce the size of the attachments or find other
For client-facing or supplier-facing staff, the channels for delivery of such attachments. Note
impact on operations because of the inability that many services, such as Dropbox etc. are
of these employee to physically meet their blocked in mainland China.
customers or vendors needs to be mitigated.
If your company has robust corporate tools, • If your employees are forced to rely
such as MS O365 at its immediate disposal, on non-corporate channels, such as WeChat
you may consider inviting your clients / to communicate and share files etc., ensure
suppliers to communicate with you through you send out some guidance to them on
those channels as an “external user”. If you what kind of information may not be shared
don’t have such channels immediately at your over such channels. This is an area where
disposal, maybe they do, and you can organize your internal legal resources at HQ might
for your key staff to be added into their be required to provide input. For instance,
networks. Such coordination requires time to you may have contracts in place with certain
implement so please arrange for some lead- clients or vendors that restrict the sharing
time for this to be facilitated. of certain information over non-corporate
channels. Efficiency is one key consideration
We can assume that there will be some acute for your organization in the coming weeks,
short-term problems for companies with but data protection should also be ensured.
operations in China. Here are some simple Without such guidance, you may find that your
guidelines that can be followed to mitigate China-based employees are sharing all sorts of
the effects: documents and information via their personal
WeChat accounts.
• Ensure your IT staff (both overseas
and in China) are available to deal with • Setup a clear and regular
connectivity and other related issues that communication schedule for senior resources
arise. With employees working remotely, during the coming weeks. This is particularly
more problems can be expected to arise. important when people are working remotely.
South China Business Journal 8
example, today we held a conference call on they are working during the holiday period in
MS Teams between nine people in various preparation for most of your staff to commence
locations within China (including one staff working remotely after the end of the extended
member in Hubei Province). While the video Chinese New Year.
functionality was weak because of bandwidth
issues, audio functionality was sufficient. • If you have corporate communication
tools that can be used effectively in China,
But for less well-prepared companies, some ensure your China-based staff have sufficient
problems can be predicted. If your company is guidance to use them and know that they
not utilizing a robust corporate tool, such as need to be logged-on. In our experience,
MS Teams or Skype for Business (also known many companies that have these tools don’t
as Lync), intra-company communications inform their China-based staff about their full
may have to rely on traditional telephone, capabilities. Consider requiring employees to
corporate email, or less secure public download the apps (Teams / Sharepoint Online
channels, such as WeChat. If your corporate etc.) onto their mobile phones as well.
email server is hosted in your company’s
HQ abroad, you may find that employees • Make sure employees know that any
working from home are struggling to send or costs incurred from corporate communications,
receive emails with large attachments. This is which rely on traditional mobile telephone
a common problem seen when transmitting will be reimbursed by the company during this
data into and out of mainland China due to period.
the congestion at international exits. Many
companies circumnavigate this problem by • If you have emails with large
setting up VPN-like structures between their attachments, there is a good possibility that
China offices and overseas offices; however, receipt may be delayed for employees in China
when employees are working from home – especially if your corporate email server is
these contingency plans no longer function located overseas. Consider separating the
effectively. email message from the attachment. Try to
reduce the size of the attachments or find other
For client-facing or supplier-facing staff, the channels for delivery of such attachments. Note
impact on operations because of the inability that many services, such as Dropbox etc. are
of these employee to physically meet their blocked in mainland China.
customers or vendors needs to be mitigated.
If your company has robust corporate tools, • If your employees are forced to rely
such as MS O365 at its immediate disposal, on non-corporate channels, such as WeChat
you may consider inviting your clients / to communicate and share files etc., ensure
suppliers to communicate with you through you send out some guidance to them on
those channels as an “external user”. If you what kind of information may not be shared
don’t have such channels immediately at your over such channels. This is an area where
disposal, maybe they do, and you can organize your internal legal resources at HQ might
for your key staff to be added into their be required to provide input. For instance,
networks. Such coordination requires time to you may have contracts in place with certain
implement so please arrange for some lead- clients or vendors that restrict the sharing
time for this to be facilitated. of certain information over non-corporate
channels. Efficiency is one key consideration
We can assume that there will be some acute for your organization in the coming weeks,
short-term problems for companies with but data protection should also be ensured.
operations in China. Here are some simple Without such guidance, you may find that your
guidelines that can be followed to mitigate China-based employees are sharing all sorts of
the effects: documents and information via their personal
WeChat accounts.
• Ensure your IT staff (both overseas
and in China) are available to deal with • Setup a clear and regular
connectivity and other related issues that communication schedule for senior resources
arise. With employees working remotely, during the coming weeks. This is particularly
more problems can be expected to arise. important when people are working remotely.
South China Business Journal 8
