COVID-19 Pandemic Response

UNICC has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with agile solutions to support the UN family, through various services and engagements.

UNICC has also quickly invoked its own business continuity plans so as to fully support, with 100% of its staff teleworking, its Clients and Partner Organizations without missing a single beat.

UNICC has stepped up efforts throughout the crisis to support all managed and shared services, delivering ongoing projects and helping with a significant increase in workload for our Clients.

This includes ensuring that teleworking tools and platforms can sustain an increased number of simultaneous users.

Here are some highlighted support activities across the UNICC services spectrum.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

UNICC has quickly responded to Client needs during the COVID-10 pandemic with its Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning services, from enterprise and infrastructure controls, remote telecommunications capabilities and scaling and fit-for-purpose user ICT needs around organizational teleworking.

Read the story: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

Crisis Communications App

The Microsoft-powered Crisis Communications app provides emergency notifications, geolocation, information gathering and sharing capabilities for crisis management and communications.

Read the story: COVID-19 Support – UNICC’s Crisis Communications App

UN Digital Academy

The UN Digital Academy offers UN Agencies a centralized learning platform to provide digital and technology skills and capabilities to their staff and stakeholders, leveraging their tech investments with innovative productivity tools.

Read the story: UN Digital Academy – A New UNICC Service for UN Digital Literacy

Enterprise Notification System

UNICC’s Enterprise Notification System (ENS) is a communications service that allows Clients and Partner Organizations to connect with their personnel at any time and in any place. This enterprise tool delivers efficient two-way communications to employees during emergencies and unplanned disruptions.

Read the story: Enterprise Notification System, a Tool for Emergency Updates

Cyber Health Precautions

UNICC has been sharing best practices for remote conferencing and for cyber security health with its Clients and Partner organizations, through messaging and communications as well as through its Common Secure Threat Intel Network service.

Read the story: UNICC Security Services Provide Tips on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cyber Health Precautions

Secure Virtual Conferencing

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced individuals and organizations to rapidly adapt to an environment where the default mode of communications is virtual. Remote conferencing services have experienced a huge increase in customers as a result. While remote conferencing services are meeting an important societal demand, the surge in popularity has led to increased scrutiny from the security community as well as from malicious threat actors. UNICC’s Common Secure team shares best practices for secure virtual conferencing.

Read the story: UNICC Shares Best Practices for Secure Conferencing Services

UNDP Crisis Bureau Analytics Support

UNICC’s Data and Analytics unit worked with UNDP’s Crisis Bureau to build and deliver in record time a data warehouse solution that sources information from various data sets displaying it in mapping visualization dashboards for early warning and response to the COVID-19 crisis in support of national partners.

Read the story: UNICC Provides Analytics Support to UNDP’s Crisis Bureau for Assessment and Response to COVID-19

3D-Printed Masks for Hospitals

Technology and creativity are always good allies for solving problems. Now, in times of crisis, some UNICC colleagues are leveraging resources and skills and using a bit of imagination to help in the best way they can. Antonio Angelotti, a Service Desk Technician at UNICC, used his 3D printer to produce masks and valves to be used in hospitals.

Read the story: 3D-Printed Masks for Hospitals – UNICC Support for COVID-19 Pandemic Response

Jambo Phone Book App

To facilitate cooperation, especially given the outbreak of COVID-19 with millions of people working remotely from their homes, UNICC has developed for the UN Digital Solutions Centre (UN DSC) a phone book app enabling colleagues from across UN Agencies to find and contact each other.

Read the story: UN DSC and UNICC Deliver Jambo, an Inter-Agency Phone Book App

Business Continuity Planning Webinar for IT Professionals

The British Columbia and National chapters of the Canadian Association of IT Professionals (CIPS) have been hosting a series of webinars on the effects of COVID-19. UNICC’s Lyle McFadyen was invited to present for their first virtual webinar of the series, entitled “COVID-19 Pandemic Overview”.

Read the story: UNICC Presents at Canadian Association of IT Professionals on Business Continuity Planning and COVID-19