Covid-19 outbreak: Update on business continuity for Adacta clients

While we adapt to the new reality, we want to reassure our partners and clients that:

• We are fully working. 
• Our project commitments are unchanged.
• We are committed to communication.

Business continuity while working from home

Adacta employees move to home offices

As part of our strategy for ensuring the safety of our employees (and implementing social distancing to support worldwide efforts to stop the spread), the first precaution was to start working from home. While this is the first time we are implementing work from home company-wide, Adacta Fintech is used to working remotely on a smaller scale. Having said that, there are no major disruptions to the work process. 

In parallel to making sure our employees are safe, one of our top priorities remained the business continuity of our clients. We reached out with an informative email and explained the precautions we are taking and the safety measures we put in place to set the tone for future discussions.

Assessment of the new reality 

Next, we remain focused on assessment, particularly discussing operations and the possible impact the changed situation might have on our projects. We are collecting client feedback via conference calls, encouraging them to reach out in case of uncertainty. We will continue to do so while ensuring all our projects continue to run smoothly.

Measures ensuring business continuity

While the current situation poses a lesser challenge to software companies, we are doing our best to share the experience on how to adapt to the new normal. Through discussions we are learning about concerns raised by our clients and partners; while clients are comfortable with travelling and meeting restrictions, some worry about their remote work capabilities, explaining that even though IT teams are very comfortable working remotely, other teams, like operations and customer service, are less experienced. Despite changed modus operandi, precautions and measures taken, the work on the projects continues as planned.

Ensuring business continuity during unexpected events is a critical part of our information security-related policies. As regulatory requirements related to security and data protection (such as GDPR) increased the pressure on our clients during recent years, we decided for a formal assessment of our approach and achieved ISO 27001 certificate.

Uninterrupted delivery of current projects

Currently, Adacta Fintech teams are working on multiple implementation projects related to our latest product version. We have moved our workplaces to the safety of our homes as did most of our clients. Despite the changed method of operations, all projects are running without major interruptions.

Our clients are based across Europe which means that even before the Covid-19 outbreak, the majority of work was done remotely. From this aspect, not much has changed for our clients or employees. Because of the uncertainty, we are checking in with both more often than we would have in normal circumstances.

Our Project Manager, Neva Port, commented:

“I cannot meet my colleagues in person daily and this is one of the disadvantages of working from home. But in general, nothing much has changed for me. I work in Ljubljana, but one of my teams is in Maribor and the majority of the other one is in the Brno office, while some of them are also in Belgrade. Even though we are working from home, I think our communication is very good. The only difference during this period is that we cannot have a coffee or go to lunch together and discuss some hot topics.”

Director of Adacta Russia, Alexey Tikhonov added: 

“We have distributed teams on most of the projects - our people from different offices, our partners and clients enjoy working together and meeting every day online via Skype or Teams. As long as we have our laptops and the Internet, we will be fine!”

Kicking off two new projects

Not only are we dedicated to running existing projects smoothly, but we are also committed to supporting our clients in their new strategic initiatives. With this, we will hopefully tell a few positive stories during a time when we are predominately faced with negative news.

Europe’s largest insurance groups embrace online analysis

Monday marked the kick-off of a new project with one of the largest insurance groups in Europe. The initial meeting, led by Neva Port, Senior Project Manager, and Ivan Vidmar, Head of the Business Analyst team, focused on introductions, demos and scoping. While the initial part of such a major project would normally take place at the client’s premises, both companies are committed to the “stay home” measures and the onsite work has been moved online.

The first conference call connected the client’s team and our team members distributed across 25 different locations in 4 different countries.

Ivan Vidmar, Head of the Business Analyst team, said:

“At the beginning of this week, the Business Analyst team started on the first new project under these changed circumstances. With the positive experience of remote workshops with our existing clients in the previous weeks, we are confident that the project is going to be a success. Of course, we hope that we will be wrapping up this project on-site.” 

DVA moves to the implementation phase

This week, our team started work on the implementation project for DVA, Germany's highly specialized industrial insurance broker for transport solutions and large construction projects. After successfully completing the business analysis, the team started working on DVA's core business processes, namely the offer generation process, policy administration, claims handling, and billing processes. The implementation project is expected to come to an end in 2022 and result in DVA’s processes completely digitized and ready for whatever the future has in store.

Ninoslav Đorđević, Executive Director EU, added:

“Even under normal circumstances, implementation projects are carried out remotely. The only difference is increased communication within teams as well as with clients. Transparent communication and making sure everyone is in the loop and informed is crucial for the project to run smoothly. Of course, you also need realistic planning.”

Insurance companies and their teams are adapting to the new situation with varying pace. While it might be easier to adjust for some than others, the future belongs to those who continue to move forward, whether that means adjusting to working remotely, considering changed operational risk or building up the courage to keep innovating despite uncertainty.