Keep Your Business Operating Even With Positive COVID Cases

Executive Summary

• This paper provides a solution that allows businesses to continue operating after positive cases of COVID are identified within their organization
• Vault is a New Zealand business that specialises in the development of workforce performance and protection software technology.
• Vault is ASX listed and has a presence in 8 countries. Over a million people are managed by Vault’s software on a daily basis.
• In 2019, Vault released a global first innovation in worker management and safety called Vault Solo into the Asian market, which resulted in major contracts and deployments.
• In 2020, Vault added Crisis Management capability to the Solo solution
• Solo is available on the IOS & Android app stores. It can be deployed rapidly and is simple to use and manage.
• Solo can work in conjunction with the Government COVID Tracer app by “taking over” from the door (COVID poster) to record a person's movements. 
• An API can be created to share data from Solo to the COVID Tracer app.
• By using Solo, a business need not shut down if a COVID outbreak occurs as it is a simple process to retrieve a person's routes and who they came into close proximity with allowing a specific area to be isolated only and those in question, to go into isolation.
• Solo also manages the health and wellbeing of users.
• Solo has a simple “shake the phone” to raise a distress alert feature.
• Solo has a sophisticated messaging solution which includes a “click to acknowledge” function making it easy to determine who has not read a critical message and where they are located
• A large port in Singapore recently had 14 cases of COVID. Instead of having to shut down the entire port, they used Solo to review the infected workers movements and who they came in contact with. Specific areas of the port were shut down only allowing the port to function as per normal

1. Introduction

Solo solves two problems for businesses and organisations:

1. How to work with the Government COVID Contract Tracing application 
2. How to protect people working in a COVID present world.

This paper outlines a solution to allow businesses to continue to operate even if COVID-19 is present in their business, whilst also protecting their workers to the best of their ability using a combination of Vault’s Crisis Management Solution and the NZ Government’s COVID Tracer App.

Solo provides these key benefits:

1. Health & Wellbeing Management
2. Distress Alerts
3. Contact Tracing
4. People Management Incl. Working from home, in isolation, infected, normal working environment and while traveling.

  2. Vault Solo 

Vault Solo is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution leveraging web-based dashboards, smartphones and Samsung Smart Watches to empower and support mobile workforces whether they are onsite, deployed locally, overseas, travelling, working remotely or in isolation. Vault Solo is instantly deployable (regardless of location of a workforce) and allows businesses to rapidly achieve compliance with imposed standards and restrictions resulting from COVID-19, whilst maintaining focus on core business operations and delivering efficiencies.

Where a business decision requires greater remote workforce management and monitoring, as well as dealing with changed work instances such as isolating and distancing, Vault Solo can provide an effective means for achieving these requirements and ensuring business continuity. This is achieved through communicating, locating, connecting and protecting the workforce anywhere, anytime and also offers significant ongoing productivity benefits post the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

3. Health & Wellbeing Management

The management of people’s health & wellbeing has become a critical aspect of living in a world with COVID 19. Required is the ability to check in regularly and communicate with people who could be front line, administration, in isolation, working from home etc. 

Solo simplifies the process by making it simple to create questions that can have either free text or pre populated answers to select from. 

Solo users are presented with the questions when opening the application.

The questions can be made mandatory or voluntary to answer. 

Solo’s sophisticated BI solution, provides reports on the question responses as often as required which allows an organization to monitor health and wellbeing over regular periods of time in order to gauge improvements or deterioration of the responder’s health. 

4. Contact Tracing

Solo utilises GPS, WiFi and beacons to accurately record the movements of the user and proximity to other users. 

5. Using Solo with COVID Tracer Application

The following explains how Solo could be used to assist with contact tracing

Solo deployed to businesses 

1. Vault can bulk upload New Zealand businesses as required (i.e. the places where QR Code posters are presented) into Solo.
2. Geozones are created around those locations and all key buildings, locations etc., whether or not there is an issued QR Code poster. This could include public transport hubs, bus stops, parks and other open recreation facilities.
3. For workers using Solo, their locations & routes throughout the day are logged so historical contact tracing is possible, without individuals needing to register with the QR code.
4. When a Solo user enters a Geozone that has a designated QR code, a push notification can be automatically sent to the user with a link representing the QR code for that location. This provides an added degree of protection and redundancy as the user is registered to both applications.
5. In the instance of non use of New Zealand Tracer App, Solo provides the ability to pull sophisticated retrospective reporting showing a persons route, close contacts with other Solo users and also date/time data. Typically the reports are categorised by time in location (eg. >15 mins in a location, but this can be any timeframe) and by date/time range (normally the last 14 days).
6. With the use of Solo's GeoZone and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons (optional), contact tracing efforts can be greatly enhanced with more granular location tracing inside larger businesses/venues. Reports will include:
7. Individual Trip and Aggregate Time Spent in zones
8. Entry/Exit times for each Zone visit
9. Other Solo Users inside who visited the same Zone in similar dates/times
10. When Solo users enter a Business (as defined by GeoZone or BLE Beacon) they can automatically receive a prompt to respond to Check-in and answer some questions (which can be customised by New Zealand Government and/or the business), including (for example), who they are meeting, their individual health status (well/asymptomatic, unwell/symptomatic), reason for visit, etc. Additionally, individuals can be notified (with an auditable acknowledgement) to complete an activity, eg. report to the site supervisor, complete an induction, register with the business (using the COVID Tracer app), maintain safe distance, apply personal protective equipment (PPE), etc.
11. Using Solo's BI capability, the New Zealand Government will be able to reconcile time spent inside businesses/venues or any location, including in transit between business locations.
12. Roadmap Feature: When Solo users enter a Zone, a location-specific set of questions can be presented to the worker

6. Business Continuity While COVID is Present 

The use of Solo by a business will allow it to continue to operate even with an outbreak of COVID-19. 

When an employee returns a positive test, it is a simple process to obtain a report from Solo the person's routes and who they came into contact with during a designated period of time. 

The business can then isolate the particular area and workers while continuing to function normally over the rest of the business. This is particularly relevant for large facilities and sites including; construction, manufacturing, infrastructure, entertainment precincts, shopping centres and utilities as these facilities can be spread over very large areas. Without discriminated visibility of the potential for COVID-19 transmission, it may require the business to shut-down their entire operations for deep clean, including isolating the majority of their workforce when there may be only 10% or less of the business requiring this action.

7. Distress Management

Solo provides the ability for users to initiate a duress/distress alert in a number of ways including tapping the screen in the app or simply shaking their mobile phones (IOS & Android) to activate the distress function within Solo. Alerts are sent to the management console for processing, which includes the ability to configure automated notifications (multi-method; in app, via email or via SMS), escalations (on no-response/no-action) and integrated with 3rd Party Monitoring services.

8. Monitoring 

Solo’s distress alert feature can be monitored in any of the following methods:

1. 3rd Party Monitoring - Any third party monitoring service can be connected to Solo. ADT is the preferred professional monitoring partner for Vault in NZ with full integration into ADT’s Level 1 monitoring service already enabled and fully tested. Customers can simply add monitoring onto their Vault Solo subscription if required. 
2. Self Monitoring - Solo’s simple to use Management Dashboard and alert system, means that any organisation can self monitor which can include incorporating Solo into existing in house monitoring systems. Access is available via secure log-on via any internet connected device (PC or Tablet recommended)

9. Data and Privacy 

Vault Solo is hosted on MS Azure East in Australia, with full encryption at rest.

Vault incorporates the standards required for compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Australia’s Commonwealth Privacy Act 2018, New Zealand’s Privacy Act 1993 and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA).

In addition to policy, process and technical layers to protect the security and privacy of data, in conjunction with clients in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, Vault has also implemented solutions to further de-identify individuals without compromising the solution or outcomes. These methods effectively de-link the personal information from the worker by using single user IDs to manage business operations, then reconciling against an alternate register in the case of issues.

General data including GPS location & biometric monitoring can be configured locally to track only that information considered critical to Government requirements.

Data is only available to the Government or the Government designated administrator of the solution.

10. Case Study | Singapore Port 

Singapore’s second largest port (specific details of the customer are confidential at their request as they are using Solo to gain a commercial advantage over their competitors) has so far deployed Solo using wearable technology, to 6,500 workers of the 15,000 that will be equipped with Solo by Christmas 2020. 

The port purchased Solo initially for worker safety as the wearable detects falls, irregular heartbeats etc however they recently had 14 workers infected with COVID-19. They were able to review Solo and determine the areas where those workers had spent time during the 2 week period prior to reporting infection. In addition, they were able to use Solo to identify all other workers who had spent time in the same areas during similar dates/time as the infected workers. Lastly, using Solo’s Beacon Proximity technology, the customer was also able to report on all other workers who had come into close proximity to those infected.. Ultimately the customer was able to identify only a small number of places to shut down/quarantine for cleaning and only a fraction of their workforce who needed to be tested and isolated. The rest of the port was able to operate normally without any disruption to business.

11. Transtasman & International Contact Tracing 

Solo will facilitate any trans-tasman bubble and further afield travel as required, given Solo is app-based and instantly deployable at scale to any location. Provided the individuals have data connectivity on their mobile phone in the country of travel, Solo can continue to provide the full capability. Solo is currently deployed across AsiaPac, USA, UAE and Europe with the ability to mass deploy in minutes. Users download an app from their respective app store (or have the app pushed to their device directly if the business uses a mobile device management, MDM, solution), log-in, verify and run. Vault has deployed Solo to thousands of individuals remotely, whilst both Vault and customer staff have been working remotely.

12. Sophisticated Messaging 

Solo has built into it a sophisticated messaging solution which includes a “click to acknowledge” function. This functionality allows a business to broadcast a message to an entire business, a team, a location or an individual and see who has & has not read the message. When a message is of a serious and urgent nature, it is extremely helpful to be able to see who has not read the message, to then see their exact location and take appropriate steps as required to ensure the person is made aware of the situation. 

13. Deployment

Solo is available on both the IOS & Android app stores.

Mass deployment is achieved by uploading a CSV file into Solo with a person's email address and mobile number.

Solo carries out a one time function of sending a token to the user for them to enter into their initial use of the Solo app.

An API can be created between Solo and the organisation's HR system to automate the adding and removing of people to Solo as people come and go from the business. 

14. About Vault

Vault, founded in New Zealand, is a rapidly growing ASX listed company with specialists in the development of workforce performance and protection software technology. Vault has been formally recognised as a global innovator for workforce safety and workforce management with the utilisation of technology though its flagship platform ecosystem, Vault Solo - a mobile-first solution that provides critical data insights to optimise decision making, safety and performance. With a large team spanning offices in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, Vault is able to rapidly deploy solutions at scale, globally. With an agile delivery approach and our cloud-based leading software, Vault can design, configure and develop specific requirements for customers to meet changing circumstances.

To learn more about Vault Solo, check out the videos on the website Vault Solo