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Statement on COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak

Please see our most updated statement.

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UPDATED OCTOBER 19, 2021

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, WWT remains fully operational on a global basis to serve our customers. The health and safety of our employees continues to be our #1 priority. We remain focused on the guidance issued by health experts, the CDC, and local health departments, and we've implemented the necessary processes for safety in our facilities including mask wearing, cleaning and sanitization, social distancing, and symptom monitoring for our front-line employees.  We also have processes in place to support customers requiring additional COVID protocols to perform work onsite at their facilities.

WWT does a significant amount of business with the Federal government. As such, WWT has rolled out a policy to comply with the Executive Order 14042 which impacts Federal Contractors, and the related official guidance published by the Safer Federal Workforce Taskforce (the "Guidelines"), as directed by the Executive Order. 

Visitors to WWT facilities will be required to comply with the applicable safety precautions required by the Guidelines, including masking and physical distancing measures. Prior to coming to visit any WWT facility, please coordinate with your WWT contact to ensure that you have the latest information on any required precautions that must be taken.

 

UPDATED May 29, 2020

Our Singapore Integration Center continues to operate in compliance with the Circuit Breaker order in place, which has resulted in a modified, alternating shift-schedule with limited personnel. We have been able to continue serving customers from this location, and any overflow capacity is being worked through our other global integration centers. WWT continues to be confident in our ability to meet customer demand on a global basis.

UPDATED April 30, 2020

Singapore operations update: WWT has received notice from the Singapore Ministry of Trade that it will be approved to continue operations, subject to reductions in headcount allowed at the site at any one time. WWT is in process of finalizing those details with the MoT and will provide additional information as it becomes available.  

UPDATED April 28, 2020

As part of the Singapore Ministry of Health's expansion of the "Circuit Breaker" order, the Ministry of Trade has revoked WWT's exemption to continue to operate its Singapore Integration Center at full capacity. As part of a time-limited exemption available to businesses, WWT will apply weekly to continue limited operations up to two days per week. WWT has been granted such approval for this week. WWT has contacted all impacted customers and is working on contingency plans to meet the needs of our customers in the APAC region, including support from our Amsterdam and Illinois, USA integration centers, which remain fully operational. WWT is confident in its ability to continue to meet the needs of our customers during this global crisis. 

UPDATED April 15, 2020

WWT, as an essential business and critical provider of IT services, remains fully operational on a global basis to serve our customers.

WWT, a provider of critical information technology infrastructure hardware and services, has been approved as a provider of "Essential Services" by Singapore authorities and may therefore continue operations during the non-essential business closure put in place under the April 3, 2020 order from the Singapore's Ministry of Health ("Additional Measures to Minimise Further Spread of COVID-19 Cases").

As previously communicated, WWT's integration centers in the United States remain operational under existing "stay at home" orders, as the provider of critical infrastructure as defined by the Department of Homeland Security and various state and local government orders. WWT will continue to partner with our customers, including federal, state and local governments, healthcare providers, communication and internet service providers, educational institutions, financial services, utilities and other sectors as they continue operate during this incredibly important time.

WWT's Amsterdam location also remains fully operational, and there are presently no orders that directly impact our ability to service our customers. WWT's integration center in Mumbai, India is currently closed under local orders in place.

WWT continues to invest in maintaining a safe and healthy workforce globally. WWT has undertaken various precautionary measures in all our logistics and integration centers to reduce risk for colleagues who are performing their duties.  WWT will continue to operate in support of our customers as long as we can confidently protect the health and well-being of our colleagues.

UPDATED MARCH 21, 2020

We wanted to inform you that WWT, as an essential business and critical provider of IT services, remains fully operational on a global basis to serve our customers.

As you may know, the state of Illinois has enacted a "stay at home" Order effective as of Saturday, March 21, at 5 p.m. to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. This means all residents are mandated to "remain at home" and only essential businesses may remain open to provide critical services. 

Under the Order, essential businesses include businesses that supply or support information technology and communication networks, and provide distribution and supply chain services to essential industries (such as medical, financial, government and food producers). Further, the Department of Homeland Security has issued guidelines for critical infrastructure sectors as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. Under both, WWT's operation qualifies as a critical provider in the information technology sector. 

WWT plays a very important role in the information technology sector and in serving their technology and supply chain needs during this unprecedented time in our history.  Businesses and governments on the front lines of the battle against this virus are turning to technology, and to WWT, to it to keep their operations flowing. By way of example, WWT builds racks and provides critical information technology infrastructure that supports web services, phone networks (including 911 services). WWT also supports critical information technology needs of the U.S. Government, DoD and civilian agencies, as well as hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and financial institutions.

 As a result of the Order in Illinois and in continued support from many customers who need our help during this critical time, our North American Integration Centers (NAIC) in Edwardsville, Illinois, will remain open and operational to continue to serve our customers.  WWT will continue to partner with our customers including federal, state and local governments, healthcare providers, communication and internet service providers, educational institutions, financial services, utilities and other sectors as they continue operate during this incredibly important time.

We continue to implement strict precautionary measures in all our logistics and integration centers, in accordance with government and public health requirements, to reduce risk for colleagues who are performing their duties.  Our Illinois based operations will continue to operate in support of our customers as long as we can confidently protect the health and well-being of our colleagues.

Statement from March 16, 2020
As the concern and global health implications regarding the COVID-19 Coronavirus continues to evolve, we are committed to keeping our employees, clients, and suppliers informed of the impact to our operations and the precautions we are taking. Our crisis management team is continuously monitoring the situation and using the guidance published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. State Department, and the World Health Organization (WHO) to inform best practices around workforce deployment and general safety and health precautions in the workplace. Our primary objective remains ensuring the safety and health of our employees, clients and suppliers while supporting our client's business needs. 

Travel 

  • We will continue to evaluate where and when it is safe for our employees to travel.
  • We have restricted international and domestic travel globally. All travel requires executive level approval, and only essential travel will be approved.. No travel will be approved to or from any other locations having high or elevated concentrations of viral spread as indicated by the CDC, U.S. State Department or WHO.
  • Employees must report any personal travel to countries identified as having high or elevated concentrations of viral spread and upon their return we are asking them to self-quarantine for fourteen (14) consecutive, fever-free days.
  • Any employees returning from a country identified as having high or elevated concentrations of viral spread will not be available to work at a WWT site or a client site until they remain fever-free for fourteen (14) consecutive days.

WWT Facilities

  • At this time, the majority of our offices are open.  We have temporarily closed certain sales offices in light of specific circumstances in those geographies. However, we are encouraging employees to work from home temporarily where prudent (i.e., due to localized events in particular cities/countries that heighten concern of exposure and viral spread).  We will continually monitor those decisions and consider and implement additional safeguards as needed, especially if we have employees who are diagnosed or have suspected exposure.
  • Moreover, for the next 30 days, we have implemented certain restrictions on movement between buildings by employees and on visitors to our facilities. As such, no visitors are permitted to access a WWT facility who, within the past 14 days, has (i) traveled from, or through Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Japan, Italy or a location currently subject to self-quarantine measures by government health authorities (including transiting through an airport in these locations); or (ii) had contact with a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19, or a person under monitoring for COVID-19.

Use of Technology
We are also proactively looking at ways to leverage technology to deliver support for clients remotely. Where possible, and with client coordination, we are implementing a remote support strategy, mobilizing the strength of our technology infrastructure and our global footprint which includes 1500 engineers and a 24/7 support offering through our Command Center. Our objective will remain working with our clients to find the best option for supporting business needs and minimizing disruption while avoiding the risk of needless and avoidable exposure. 

Supply Chain
Our supply chain operations are currently operating normally. However, we have taken proactive steps to limit movement of employees across our various locations as a means of "social distancing." We are also actively working on contingency plans in the event that the viral spread requires us to close facilities or reduce our workforce. The exact nature of our response will depend on the specific facts as they present themselves, but strategies we may employ include staggered workforce and staging, reallocation of work among teams or locations and remote support. 

We continue to engage in regular dialogue with our supply chain to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 on lead times and delivery to our clients. While many suppliers report minimal disruption associated with the virus, the situation is fluid. We are asking those suppliers reporting impact to provide updates on any changes to expected lead times or delivery schedules. Our operations teams are continuously updating that information as and when it becomes available. If you have specific questions about an order, please reach out to your account representative to investigate the details of the order in question. 

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