After Jayalalithaa's death, Hyderabad logs in for Chennai

HYDERABAD: With Information Technology companies in Chennai, the second biggest IT hub after Bangalore, declaring a one-day mourning to pay homage to late chief minister Jayalalithaa, nearly 40,000 techies in the city have stepped up working two to three hours extra to keep the industry going.
The emergency services workload has now been distributed between Hyderabad and Bangalore.Following an early morning directive by the state government, all IT companies operating in Chennai, including biggies such as IBM, Cognizant, Microsoft, Accenture, TCS and HCL have been closed.
“We have certain deliverables which have to be completed within fixed time frames come what may . With the closure of our office in Chennai, about 35 members from our team are putting in three to four hours of extra work. For a the loss of a single employee's work in Chennai, eight hours of work has to be covered,“ said Srilatha Chinthala, a techie from Hyderabad who has worked extra hours to write application codes.
Critical services or emergency services, are not only important for continuity of business, but can save the company from huge losses.
“As per the Service Level Agreements (SLA) entered into with clients, IT companies are liable to pay huge penalties if they are unable to solve client issues within the prescribe three-day period. If a complaint or issue is not solved within the time frame, it will not only attract penalty but also massively damage the company's reputation. Consistent failures to meet the SLAs affects future business as well,“ said Ramesh Loganathan, centre head, Progress Software India.
There is also a possibility of the shut down being extended, said industry sources.While companies have not yet implemented BCP plans, which is a formal declaration by companies with benefits being provided to those putting in extra man-hours, it is still a possibility as the impact on IT sector is expected to continue for at least a week.
“If that happens, business continuity process (BCP) plans will kick in. For now, critical services need to be maintained round the clock, including the maintenance of servers. Companies usually transfer extra workload to employees during such emergencies,“ said Sundeep Kumar Makthala, president, the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA).
Venkata Vanam, executive director of a software company Vividha IT solutions India Pvt Ltd, said, “Even if the offices open in Chennai, employees will be unwilling to work or find it difficult to do so. There is a lot of uncertainty there with fuel being unavailable or in short supply , no local transport, and no food at restaurants. We have asked our entire software support team to clock in four extra hours as the entire work has been shifted to Hyderabad."