Coronavirus Courage: A Real Software Example This Week

Last week, Matthew Whyatt and I described 7 ways that software and tech companies could survive the current crisis and find new ways to do business and thrive when it’s over. You may have said: 'Ha! Wishful thinking!' It wasn’t. One of clients has done precisely that – in just one week.

A New Sky Fall

Last week, the sky seemed to fall in when PM, Scott Morrison, imposed tough restrictions on gatherings of people and closed pubs, clubs, restaurants (except for take-away orders). The streets, trains and road emptied overnight and, this week, we’re limited to outdoor gatherings of two and dinner parties are banned.

If I’d been around in World War II England, I imagine it might have felt something like this. But 70 years later in 21st century Sydney, it's surreal.

The Tech Sector Advantage

But it doesn’t have to be all gloom, doom and no loo paper.

As Matthew and I mentioned last week in our video Coronavirus: What Software and Tech Companies Can Do, when times are really tough, innovation often comes to the fore. In fact, unlike any other, the Tech Sector is ideally placed to do this because we’re agile and fast-moving and can respond quickly.

One of the 7 suggestions we made was to recognise this strange new world and find in it new ways to help others. I don’t know if our client watched the video (hope he did) but, in just one week, his developers have created, tested and released a new product to help new markets in new ways. Brilliant!

Clever local hero

Our client’s company, CIBIS, develops software.

Nothing original in that, you say? Perhaps not on face value. Yet, in CIBIS’s case, they have a unique combination of benefits: a practical, no nonsense approach to projects and a long track record of success with highly-complex enterprise solutions that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

So what, you say? Well, all their people are based in Australia and their services are all hosted here too. Some very strong competitive advantages, especially right now.

Smart web builder, too

One of CIBIS’s practical products is a smart web form builder called Formlify. It lets organisations like banks, local councils, utilities and others replace cumbersome paper forms with responsive, intelligent customer-facing ones.

Nothing new in that perhaps, except that Formlify provides enterprise standard functionality for a tiny SME investment. Smart as well as practical, just like CIBIS’s MD, Tony Heitmeyer.

A great way to help

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing thousands of companies to let employees work from home, Tony had a great idea; he could adapt Formlify to become an online remote workplace assessment, so employers could asses the home workplace risk before taking responsibility for it.

You see, according to Safe Work Australia (SWA) employers are just as responsible for the safety of home workplaces as they are for corporate in-office ones, but, in the former case, they have far less visibility and control.

SWA says employers are responsible for workstation set up, ergonomics, ventilation, temperature control, access to exits and phone and a lot more. Crikey!

The risk is real & penalties tough

What if an employee falls over an electrical cable or a dog or a bike or down the stairs? The last happened in 2011, long before working from home was common, and the claimant was successful against Telstra, who had to pay her legal and medical bills.

By the way, did I mention penalties? They’re pretty steep; up to $600,000 and or 5 years’ goal per breach. And then you have the employee’s Workers’ Compensation claim that may follow. Phew!

So, CIBIS’s Working From Home Desktop Audit lets employees login from home, create their own accounts, answer very detailed questions about their remote environments and add as many photos as they like. This gives their employers the clarity and completeness they need to approve or reject each work-from-home request, or ask to have the environment modified.

Practical peace of mind

There is more peace of mind for employers too: what happens if the odd employee tells a few porkies to get approval to work from home and attaches some glamorous interior pics from iStock as evidence? If they later make a spurious claim against their employer, the evidence will be the difference between the audit, the images and the reality. Nice.

The audit is smart and practical. It’s also been developed in conjunction with a leading WHS lawyer and, of course, is securely hosted in Australia.

I’m thrilled that one of our clients took the initiative to relive some of the pain caused by the COVID-19 crisis. I wish Tony great feedback and success with the new audit.