The time has come for the annual blog to reminisce about 2020, and I have to admit that this year, it is not easy to write. The COVID-19 virus of 2020 blindsided all of us and blew all our assumptions away. Our view of the world has been shaken and new habits formed, many of which shall remain with us. The toll it has taken on us is tremendous and sad with so many lives lost all over the world. The suffering has been exacerbated by the lockdowns and the constraints on travel that have made us bear our losses in isolation. I have personally been affected by it and know of colleagues and friends in a similar plight.
Yet, the human spirit has endured, and dare I say, beginning to hope to beat this pandemic, now that the first vaccines have been given in many countries including the US and UK. So, on that ray of hope, I want to share the goodness that we at Unvired witnessed from all who touched Unvired. This blog celebrates the resilience and empathy that our employees, customers, and partners have demonstrated, and let me start with our employees.
Employees: Our employees almost overnight moved from an Office setting to Work From Home (WFH). They moved to meetings over Zoom and Teams and collaborated with each other online. The luxury of walking down the hall and discussing some code related challenging topics was gone. They had to mingle work and family and stay focused in an environment with many distractions. The hours were long without the usual avenues for relaxation. Many had their parents fall ill and had to take care of them while delivering on their work commitments. Some of us lost family members, grieved alone, and then went about our work. While Unvired supported our employees fully in coping with this new environment, credit goes to our employees who ensured that our corporate Value of Customer Delight was upheld. Equally importantly, our Value of Empathy was also on full display as our employees supported each other while making sure that our customers were also not impacted negatively.
Customers: I am going to share a true story that happened in the last 2 months. One of our employees had a parent who fell severely sick due to COVID-19. As a result, he first reduced his hours and then could not continue as he decided to take care of his father who needed long term care. We totally understood his position and supported it fully. What was so heartening was that our customer was totally fine with this situation even though this delayed a crucial project by a few weeks, as we re-allocated resources. The customer’s message to us was that life and family are far more important than a project delay.
Partners: One of our partners was also stricken with the virus, and they battled it while still delivering on their commitments. All this without making any undue fuss.
In all of this craziness, how did Unvired do? We did well and executed many customer Go Lives in the US, Canada, S. Africa, and New Zealand. We continued to grow the team and customers. But, the achievements of 2020 shall be shared in another blog at a more appropriate time, as 2020 taught us that life transcends business.
We want to thank our employees, customers, partners, and the entire ecosystem that touched Unvired in 2020 and showed us that by caring for each other, we can face extreme adversity and win.