Monthly Archives: March 2020

HIS Marketing Admin 10:34 pm on March 23, 2020  

We Are Here For You

Aloha, Friends.

I hope this message finds you safe and well.

Please allow me a moment of your time to provide a follow-up to my previous message on March 13th, in which I mentioned that HIS would be conducting drills for remote work as a test of our business continuity plan.

I am relieved to report that 100% of the staff of HIS has been able to work remotely since last Thursday. So far, there have been no customer-facing issues reported, and our team was even able to accommodate an urgent request yesterday, as a further test of our remote capabilities. As successful as our testing has been, our primary concerns are making sure our application (REsearch/TMK) is up and running as always and being there for you when you need us. To that end, we have taken extra measures to ensure that our development staff is properly equipped. We have also doubled the amount of technical support available to address your calls and emails in the weeks ahead.

Over the weekend, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell issued an emergency order for Oahu, and called on everyone to “stay at home and work from home.” HIS will comply with this mandate in support of our community and staff.

I’ve truly appreciated your messages of encouragement and understanding, and have shared them with the staff. In these uncertain times, they have been a source of inspiration and motivation for all of us. Thank you so much for taking the time to reach out. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

On behalf of myself and the staff of HIS, please know that we are here for you and send you our sincerest wishes for your continued well- being. We will get through this together and I know that our best days lay ahead. Take good care.

With deep appreciation,

Faith Geronimo
CEO, Hawaii Information Service
faith@hiinfo.com
Cellular: 808-780-5473

A screenshot from our March 19 all-hands virtual meeting:

his-staff-all-remote

HIS Marketing Admin 12:50 am on March 14, 2020  

A Message from HIS CEO Faith Geronimo

Much aloha to you!

The formal declaration of a global pandemic condition by the World Health Organization was not unexpected, but makes it universally clear that increased awareness of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus crisis is needed.

So, I wanted to reach out to you today to let you know what Hawaii Information Service has been doing to ensure continued quality service for you, as well as prioritizing the health and safety of our employees. I would also like to share some resources with you that we have found useful in this fast-changing business environment.

The management and staff of HIS have been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation globally, nationally, and locally since early February. We took immediate steps to implement thorough daily workplace sanitation protocols, sharing supplies, and reviewing our business continuity plans. Although local information is limited, we have already instituted strict controls to do our part to ensure that any possible community exposure is not brought in or out of our office.

Of greatest relevance to you, we have already begun conducting remote work drills to ensure that we can continue to both operate and fully support all of you should there be any unexpected changes to our facility access, HR policies, or staffing levels.

Toward this end, I wanted to let you know that my team will continue to prioritize ‘service with aloha’ to support you and your business, no matter where we may be situated. This may mean that you could interact with employees that are not in the office (and thus have limited access to coworkers), and you may receive phone calls from phone numbers that are not our office number.

As best practices encourage you to confirm any contact you receive from any business with which you do business, you are welcome to call our main office line at (808) 599-4224 to verify any contact. Requests and calls to individual extensions will often be relayed automatically to the correct employee. If any name seems unfamiliar to you, we will ensure that the ‘HIS Staff’ page on our website is kept up to date.

All of us at HIS are committed to sustaining our high standard of service, even in these uncertain times. If you have questions or concerns, I invite you to contact me directly.

Sincerely,

Faith Geronimo
CEO, Hawaii Information Service
faith@hiinfo.com

COVID-19 Resources

As you know, in times of crisis, timely and accurate information is of paramount importance. Here are some resources that we have found helpful in tracking the COVID-19 crisis:

HIS Marketing Admin 9:05 pm on March 4, 2020  

March 2020 Training Schedule

gotomeeting-logo-orangeThis is the schedule of online training classes for the month of March. Even if you’ve participated in a session before, it’s often a good idea to get a refresher. Our live trainers can answer your questions and help you get the most out of REsearch. Descriptions of each HIS webinar can be found here.

To sign up immediately, simply click on the links below. If you are going to attend online classes as a group, only one person needs to sign up. We recommend registering for classes even if you cannot attend live, as many are recorded and made available the next day.

March 2-6, 2020

March 9-13, 2020

March 16-20, 2020

March 23-27, 2020

Remember, after you have participated, please make sure to fill out the survey or e-mail us your feedback so we can continue to improve upon our training efforts!

System requirements for online classes:

    • PC-based attendees – Required: Microsoft Windows® Vista or newer
    • Macintosh®-based attendees – Required: Mac OS® X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer
    • Mobile attendees – Required: Apple iOS 10 or newer, Google Android 4.4 or newer

System requirements apply only to the GoToMeeting webinar service, not to the REsearch system.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to contact us via support@hiinfo.com or call (808) 599-4224 or (800) 628-3121.