Notice on Business Continuity-Update on COVID-19 Outbreak

IdealRatings is closely monitoring developments related to COVID-19, including information and guidance published by healthcare authorities around the globe, including the WHO and CDC, as well as state and local authorities. As we come together to navigate this challenging global event, our thoughts go out to those impacted by COVID-19. All of us at IdealRatings feel the heavy weight of our responsibility to the community especially with current events. IdealRatings business continuity plan is maintained and updated where testing and reviewing is conducted to ensure a successful delivery of our services in the event of any disaster or significant disruption. IdealRatings will continually monitor and review the business continuity update on weekly basis if required. In the below section, a list of frequently asked questions about IdealRatings preparedness for COVID-19 outbreak.

FAQs

1. Is the current COVID-19 outbreak affecting any of IdealRatings services?

IdealRatings operations aren’t affected by the current outbreak, at present all our services are functioning normally and stable.

2. What actions have IdealRatings taken to prepare for COVID-19?

IdealRatings is following and implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended guidelines in addition to the recommendations released by the local authorities. The following are some of the safety actions currently implemented, they are reviewed and updated on weekly basis in case further actions are needed:

• Majority of our workforce is currently working from home until further notice.
• No use of public transportation to the IdealRatings offices in case a physical presence required.
• Sanitizers have been placed at all public areas and meeting rooms in our premises.
• No more closed doors meetings.
• No external visitors allowed.
• All office high traffic facilities are disinfected frequently throughout the day.
• Workstations are disinfected every weekend.
• No close contacts between employees by keeping at least 1-meter distance at any time.
• No work or personal related travels both internationally and locally until further notice.
• Any employee and/or a family member traveled overseas receives an automatic 14 days leave.
• Encourage staff to report any incident against safety regulations.
• Regular temperature checkups for employees.
• Employees with any high-risk medical conditions must work from home.

3. Do you have a pandemic plan and when was the last update?

Yes, IdealRatings business continuity plan includes a section for pandemic plan that was recently reviewed and updated on March 15^th,2020.

4. Are there any recorded cases of coronavirus among IdealRatings team worldwide?

There are no coronavirus cases recorded in any of IdealRatings offices and we are taking all measures to protect our employees.

5. Has IdealRatings tested work from home capability recently?

Yes, IdealRatings almost tests its working from home capabilities on daily basis since our operational environment relies heavily on flexibility which includes home office set-up for all our employees. Our teams are entitled to work remotely throughout the year and IdealRatings supports all the facilities required by the employees to deliver IdealRatings service to our customers.

6. Do IdealRatings services depend on any third-party vendors?

IdealRatings does have third-party data vendors where they confirmed and validated their preparedness for COVID-19. Additionally, IdealRatings has a replacement data provider in case of any provider disruption.

7. How critical is the physical presence of IdealRatings IT employees inside data centers from operational perspective?

The majority of IdealRatings infrastructure and activities are cloud based and can be accessed remotely.  IdealRatings has also placed many servers in multiple countries across three different continents to ensure IdealRatings services are always up and running during turbulence time.

8. What is the overall recovery time objective for the services provided by IdealRatings?

IdealRatings services recovery time is around 24 hours where multiple backups are conducted on weekly basis.

9. Does IdealRatings conduct tests on data loss plan?

Yes, IdealRatings conducted the last test for the data loss plan in Q1 2020 and with the current situation we are planning to conduct the data loss test every 3-4 weeks.

10. How frequently IdealRatings business continuity plan is tested and exercised?

IdealRatings business continuity plan is tested and exercised on an annual basis. However, additional reassessment was conducted on March 10^th, 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. END