The rapid outbreak of the coronavirus presents an alarming health crisis that the world is grappling with. In addition to the human impact, there is also a significant commercial impact being felt globally.

As viruses know no borders, the impact will continue to spread. In fact, 94 percent of the Fortune 1000 are already seeing COVID-19 disruptions1.

KPMG, both here in Malta and globally, are monitoring the situation with plans to ensure the welfare of our people and those of our clients, whilst continuing to excel in our client service levels.

We remain focused to ensure that client delivery remains as close to business-as-usual as possible in these challenging circumstances, with business continuity plans in place that support the continued provision of our services to clients.

KPMG equips its people with the latest resources to work remotely as a regular part of our daily office infrastructure. We designed and employed these technologies to serve our clients better by allowing our people to be agile and adaptable to our clients' needs and external events outside our control. We are already running a pro-active response programme which is seeing the majority of our people working remotely and this with minimal disruption to client service levels also through the use of tools that effectively enable team communications and remote sharing of large data files.

We are encouraged by the positive response of our clients to harnessing remote technologies. More often than not, the invitation to work remotely mirrored our clients' approach in these circumstances. From our experience of the last week we are confident that using the tools available for remote working and online meetings will enable us to continue to work with our clients and other stakeholders, with minimal, if any, disruption.

At this critical moment it is important to be vigilant in observing the guidelines and directives of the local health authorities and even going beyond, in the interest of safeguarding the health of all of us. For these reasons other than working remotely, we have taken a number of measures and policies covering travel restrictions, the strict observance of self-quarantine rules, client-site interactions, and face-to-face meetings.

When necessary our people may be working at client sites or participating in face-to-face meetings with our clients. In these circumstances we shall continue to engage with clients to identify any issues in order to ensure the safety of all involved. We appreciate your continued adherence to the measures instituted by the local health authorities and invite you to promptly inform us of any issues or concerns that you may be aware of.

While we focus on ensuring our continued delivery of service, we appreciate that in times like these there are a number of questions you may have. To this effect KPMG have created a specific COVID-19 landing page which we trust you may find useful.

Footnote

1 Fortune: Coronavirus Supply Chain Impact, Feb. 21, 2020

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.