Supporting our Grid Software Customers in Response to COVID-19

Dear Valued Customer,

During this unprecedented public health emergency, we recognize that the work you do is more critical than ever in serving our communities and that our software and teams are an important part of your ability to meet your commitments. 

I first want to reassure you that we have not identified any critical risks to the continuity of our support activities for your business.

The safety of our employees, contractors and customers is our top priority. We are rigorously following the recommendations of the national and local authorities of the countries in which we operate and have directed all non-customer essential employees to work remotely and avoid travel for the time being wherever possible.

The majority of essential support tasks can and generally are performed remotely. Where there are exceptions to this, we are committed to working with your teams to ensure we continue to support your operations through every option available to us during this fast-moving situation.

You may be interested in knowing more about what General Electric, and GE Digital specifically, is doing to ensure continuity of service for its employees and its customers. At the group level, General Electric is implementing its robust crisis management and business continuity programs. These include:

• Daily meetings for GE’s Environmental, Health & Safety team and leaders to understand the situation and align our plans and actions.

• Close partnership with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) to actively monitor the coronavirus outbreak. 

• Providing our employees tools and guidance regarding remote work arrangements, health screening, self-quarantine requirements, symptoms monitoring and travel restrictions, in parallel with government directives.

For GE Digital’s Grid customers, our teams are taking the following actions:

• All of GE Digital’s Grid business sites have site and activity specific Business Continuity Plans.

• Business Continuity Plans are based on a Business Impact analysis and include the identification of critical processes, assets, tools and resources. Supporting our customers’ systems is a top priority.

• Assets and tools considered as critical for customer support activities are being prioritized to ensure the required availability for the employees that need them.

• The majority of GE Digital’s staff are enabled to work remotely and provide regular support services to customers. We rely on our customers to provide the necessary staff and remote system access (for example, teleconferencing).

• For specific issues that would normally require an on-site intervention, if an on-site intervention is not possible due to travel restrictions or customer site access restrictions, we will work with you to find alternatives.

• As the situation evolves and in order to reduce the risk of having the whole team impacted simultaneously, on-site team members may be asked to work remotely or from different customer sites as a preventive measure.

We appreciate the trust you place in us. We don’t take that lightly and we want you to know that we're more than prepared to help you keep moving forward. Our people, processes and technologies are here to support you when and where you need them.

We are committed to taking all reasonable steps to mitigate any disruption to our delivery schedules, subject to our top priority — the health and safety of our employees and suppliers. 

This is a dynamic situation, and we will continue to stay abreast of the latest developments to ensure that, wherever reasonably possible, delays are avoided or minimized. We will continue to keep you updated when we have material information to share.

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact your GE customer representative. 

Thank you for your continued partnership.

Jim

Jim Walsh General Manager, Grid Software GE Digital