Dear friends from all over the world,
I’m an ARMA and I-SIGMA active member and at the same time I am the GM of OMTRA Srl, the oldest Information Governance company in Italy.
I live and work in Milan, Italy, now “on the front line against COVID 19.”
Something is happening that I never expected in my entire life.
The number of sick people is growing and with them the number of deaths.
Fortunately, for about a week, we have also recorded a good number of healed, and I would like to bring to your attention some reflections of mine, from our “front line”.
We started about 3 weeks ago with few cases, everything seemed normal and work and life went on as usual.
Then the government started closing down meetings and “social” places, restaurants and gyms, but we still didn’t understand what was going on.
Now in Italy we count about 6000 deaths and many companies are closed.
You can check here the cases update about worldwide: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
What has happened operatively in the past three weeks?
The secure shredding business has completely stopped.
The service that is still active is Tape Vaulting, because it is necessary for business continuity. We carry back and forth the briefcases with tapes and hard drives daily from our customers.
Obviously, we had to adopt very strict security measures to protect the staff and the customer.
The physical archive is stopped, while something may be requested digitally.
What we can best work with the client is advice on internal policies and procedures.
There are some companies who can work in smart working. Even though we deal with physical or digital information, we are still active in limited numbers.
We had to adopt security and teleworking measures very quickly, without being really prepared, and I advise you to prepare in advance before the government makes more restrictive decisions.
Don’t wait ! Buy masks for yourselves, your loved ones and your staff, hand sanitizer and start to understand who can sanitize your vehicles and offices.
Start to warn your customers about new steps against Covid-19 and get ready for what you can guarantee in business continuity.
We work with FFP3 medical masks and disposable gloves, and a lot of precaution such as keeping 4 meters away from one worker and another worker.
As for daily life, I would like to explain the real situation to you and give you some examples of “the new” life.
It is becoming impossible to buy food online from the grocery store, you have to go out to buy food, one person at a time, and the only shops open are food stores and pharmacies.
Don’t panic, but you need to be well organized.
Hospitals have no more space in intensive care and for that reason, in Milan we are building one field hospital in the congress center with large crowd founding by the city campaigns.
Another field hospital with American doctors and medical devices has arrived in Lombardy from an American Protestant church and some doctors are coming as volunteers from abroad.
The real heroes are the doctors who are fighting this moment. Italy asked to have 300 doctors from the retirees and we received 8000 volunteers !
My hope is that in this critical moment the most companies around the world convert the economy, like GM and Ferrari are doing, to fight this virus.
This is the time to be united.
The battle in the western countries started here in Italy and we are in the front line doing all the Information Governance services as usual following the State Laws that every day become more restrictive.
If we win, you win.
Take care and “stay vertical”: we are all in this together.
Stay safe!
Giovanna Giulia Spadoni | GM & DPO Omtra Srl
M. +39 348 0852942
[…] IG Pro Speaks from Italy about COVID-19 […]