Apr 5, 2022
Sep
2
2020
Building digital capacity and business resiliency during COVID-19
The silver lining in crisis
It started with a solid foundation and became something much more than we even knew was possible.
Like many companies, Oil Pipestream had to shift to a remote work environment very quickly – over the course of a weekend to be exact – and we made that transition seamlessly. How did we accomplish a seamless transition? That question was something the Canadian Business Resilience Network (CBRN) was also wondering.
Last week, our Vice-President, Information Services and Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chris Foster joined the CBRN to deliver a webinar – Building digital capacity and business resiliency during COVID-19. Chris spoke to how we worked through the challenges of the pandemic and the strides we are making in moving forward with digital innovation.
The CBRN was established by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to bring together a network of over 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade, and over 100 of Canada’s leading business and industry associations to help the business community prepare, persevere and, ultimately, prosper in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our journey – Building digital capacity and business resiliency
Chris was in New Zealand when Oil Pipestream made the decision to move to a remote work environment – about as remote as you could get.
“I had a fascinating introduction to the capabilities of remote work,” says Chris “I was in a different time zone, getting up at 5 a.m. to connect with my people here, and my first revelation was – this is actually working very well.”
Our digital innovation journey over the past two years was the ground work that enabled us to remain productive, collaborative and connected in the face of COVID-19. With a solid foundation – a capable network and our transition to the cloud computing – and with the help of platforms like AWS WorkSpaces and Microsoft Teams (MS Teams), we successfully transitioned our workforce to remote work.
Chris Foster
Oil Pipestream, Vice-President, Information Services and Chief Information Officer
Sustaining productivity, collaboration and connection
COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of being agile and willing to adopt new ways of working – and we’ve embraced that change at Oil Pipestream.
Over the past several months, we’ve gone from 75 MS Teams meetings a day to over 4,500 meetings a day – and we’ve leveraged technologies to deliver outcomes we didn’t know were possible.
From virtual town halls with our President and CEO Russ Girling with over 6,300 attendees, to bringing service offerings that originally were only offered in-person, to virtual solutions available to our entire workforce despite their location – we’ve learned a lot about what’s possible! Be sure to tune in to the recording of the webinar to get the full scope of how we’ve adapted to change and introduced new ways of working.
Our transition back to offices
As we move into this next season, companies across North America are now beginning to move back to the office. Nothing will look the same as it did before. There are new protocols in place for almost every aspect of our lives and many of the virtual solutions established while we worked remotely will be the “new normal” going forward.
