By Kerri Williams
•
30 Apr, 2020
Everyone at Platinum Registration hopes this communication finds you well and doing the best that you can considering the unusual circumstances that we are all experiencing. Several weeks ago, we began assessing risks and planning for business continuity activities during the COVID-19 virus outbreak. It is our intention to protect our personnel and our clients from the spread of this illness without causing undue stress or unnecessary costs related to certification activities. We are rolling-out a more comprehensive plan to perform certification activities remotely, where possible. We are good at this. We have audited remotely and have validated processes that work. Communication We are developing audit plans based upon discussions with clients and other interested parties. If we haven't already, we will contact you to collect information about how you are operating under the circumstances so that we can analyze risk and our ability to use alternate audit methodologies. Our focus is currently assessments occurring in the next 90 days, but we will be looking 6 months into the future. We have also contacted each of our auditors to assess their individual situations to ensure that they are healthy and able to perform the planned assessments. So far, thankfully, we are all doing fine. Some of our auditors do have individual circumstances that need to be considered when planning for travel and auditing activities, which may require us to re-configure the auditor or team assigned. The good news is that our clients are operating! We have a strong and resilient American workforce who are managing to get on with business. We aren’t trying to be alarmist or cause disruption, but we are definitely trying to reduce risks, meet accreditation expectations for disaster planning and keep everybody operating as normal as we can. You have spent considerable effort implementing disciplined processes and your customers are certainly expecting you to maintain that discipline during this difficult time. This is your opportunity to promote that this makes you different from your competitors. This situation will not last for long and your management system will help you return back to normal operations quickly and efficiently. Travel At this time (and things seem to be changing rapidly), there are no federally mandated domestic travel restrictions in place, but the CDC does not recommend public transportation where social distancing cannot be achieved for individuals with compromised health conditions or who live with individuals with compromised health conditions. Additionally, we are keeping our eyes on local restrictions. Assessment Methods In an effort to reduce the potential transmission of COVID-19 while support our clients, Platinum and its assessment teams are evaluating the ability to perform remote audits using information technology. We are approved to use these techniques as long as the audit objectives can be achieved and the method is allowed by the accreditation bodies for the Standard to which we are auditing. We will need to understand your ability to support remote audit techniques if they may be applied. If it is determined by your organization and by Platinum that Platinum must perform on-site audits, we will approach each situation individually, based upon our risk analysis described above. General On-Site Protocol We ask that you understand that we will limit our interactions with your personnel. We ask that only minimal personnel attend opening and closing meetings. We will limit person-to-person contact by not shaking hands as we normally would. We will be washing our hands often and using hand sanitizer, when possible. Our auditors will not attend an on-site audit if they are symptomatic, if they have been exposed to the virus or if any of your staff are symptomatic or have been exposed. We also ask for private work spaces where work surfaces have been sanitized prior to our arrival. General Off-Site Protocol - Information Communication Technology (ICT) There are many great tools for on-line meetings that are free to and easy to use. To help you prepare, we have developed a Planning for Remote Audits document. You can find this on our website under Resources . Our auditors will contact you to test the connectivity prior to your assessment. We have done remote auditing for years – so this is not completely new to Platinum, but it is new for organizations where on-site auditing is preferred. All of our auditors are being trained to perform these assessments and as we learn how to improve connectivity in this new environment, we will modify our collective approach. Expect auditors to ask you to provide the names and titles of individuals that will be participating in the audit in advance. We would like to know who will be available for the assessment of each of the business processes on the audit plan. Being able to read your documents and records that have been selected by our audit team in advance will also speed up the process and prevent having auditors reading the procedures while tying up the internet. We understand that access may differ based upon your personal requirements and we will work within your security constraints. If you do not have all of your information in an electronic format, your auditor will help determine the records that they will want to review and the best approach to conduct the review. We may ask you to take us on a tour using video streaming so we can “see” things or collect records for us to review. We are going to have to play some of this by ear based upon connectivity. We just need to be patient and have perseverance. We aren’t too worried about the ability to do this. We know we can work though this together. Payments Please contact our office before sending payment: 303-639-9001. In the event that the office personnel at our building are not able to distribute mail, we may not be able to access it. We are asking that you pay via ACH bank to bank payments if possible. You will need our routing and account number and we will happily provide it to you via the phone. We really appreciate you working with us so that we can pay auditors as they deliver their services to you. If ACH payments are not possible, we can work together to find alternate methods. Consultants Many clients use the services of their consultants. Consultants may be a great resource to help prepare or be on-site during the assessment. Most are familiar with the software that works well for remote communications. We know that this is an unusual time, but the perseverance of the American workforce is evident and it is healthy for all of us to try to continue operations and do business as “normally” as possible. We are here to help and are wishing you, your colleagues and your family’s peace of mind and progress during this difficult time. Please, reach out if you have any questions or if you need help. Direct contact numbers Office: 303-639-9001 Melody Sands (9001): 720-280-7632 Hayley Brodish (AS9100): 303-515-9666 Kerri Williams, (14001, 13485 and other standards): 303-913-7281 Best regards, Kerri Williams, President Platinum Registration, Inc.