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    Cognizant and Wipro restrict travel due to Coronavirus spread

    Synopsis

    Technology companies have been restricting travel for employees outside India and encouraging them to work from home while taking measures to prevent spread of the virus from employees who have recently travelled to at-risk geographies. Clients of technology companies have also cancelled travel plans to India, according to some companies.

    Untitled-3Agencies
    Clients of technology companies have also cancelled travel plans to India, according to some companies.
    MUMBAI: Cognizant and Wipro joined the list of companies restricting travel and cancelling upcoming technology events due to risks of spreading the Coronavirus.

    Cognizant is restricting all non-essential travel including an upcoming 'Cognizant Community' event scheduled in Texas, in light of risks related to the spread of COVID- 19 (Coronavirus), according to an email sent to employees by Brian Humphries, CEO of the IT services company on Wednesday.

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    The company would encourage employees to use Webex, Skype and related technologies to manage work and talk to team members, the email accessed by ET said. Each business unit member of Cognizant would have to assess if critical, client-facing travel events "to determine if they are really essential," it said. Previously booked future travel would also require re-approval, the mail added.

    Technology companies have been restricting travel for employees outside India and encouraging them to work from home while taking measures to prevent spread of the virus from employees who have recently travelled to at-risk geographies.

    Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro, in a statement said, “Wipro has suspended travel to and transit through mainland China, including Hong Kong and Macau, until further notice. Employees have also been advised to avoid non critical travel to Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Italy.

    Any employee who travelled to an affected area within China in the last few days has been asked to work from home for 14 days before returning to office. We have advised our employees to be vigilant, especially those based in China and those who have visited the country recently."

    Clients of technology companies have also cancelled travel plans to India, according to some companies.

    R Srikrishna, CEO of mid-tier technology provider, Hexaware Technologies said, “We expect a significant amount of travel restrictions from customers around the world that will reduce customers executives visiting India, or to any of our centers around the world. The impact has already started and is likely to last several weeks.”

    SaaS application provider Zoho has also taken measures such as cancelling user conferences, said Rajendran Dandapani, Director of Technology at the company. "We have cancelled our user conferences in a few at-risk countries, banned all non-critical travel for our employees and readied our disaster-response teams for quick action."
    The Economic Times

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