Victorian government to use Whispir SaaS platform to track potential COVID-19 cases
The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services will use Whispir to contact people who have been in close contact with someone who has contracted COVID-19 or meets the criteria for self-isolation.
Victoria has become the first Australian state to employ a software-as-a-service communications workflow platform developed by local company Whispir (ASX: WSP) to interact with members of the public who have been in contact with coronavirus patients.
The Department of Health and Human Services will employ the cloud-based platform as part of its coronavirus containment plan and will use it for secure and interactive two-way text messaging to select individuals to gain greater insight into their daily health.
The information will enable the department to quickly confirm if an individual is complying with mandatory self-isolation periods, if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or if they have undergone testing for the virus.
As opposed to one-way texts sent to users from the likes of Telstra and Optus, Whispir recipients will be required to respond to each text message by answering a series of questions including recent activities, health and whether they are abiding to quarantine procedures.
Community benefits
Whispir chief executive officer Jeromy Wells said the communications workflow platform can be beneficial in a pandemic environment.
“The immediate benefits of this new service to the community will be substantial,” he said.
“Our platform allows Victorians to engage with the health department and promptly report important changes to their health which will then provide the department with accurate data and enable it to make more informed decisions about the optimisation of services for the broader community benefit.”
Victoria is the first Australian state to utilise the platform for COVID-19 communications.
It currently has more than 1700 close contacts who are isolating statewide, and a total of 466 positive COVID-19 cases.
Mr Wells said the SaaS platform service could be scaled nationally to benefit all Australians.
The deal with the Victorian government comes just nine months after Whispir listed on the ASX.
Business communications
Last week, Whispir announced it would launch an international COVID-19 go-to-market strategy across Australasia and Asia designed to assist companies with business-critical communications over the coming months.
The company has developed COVID-19 workflow templates which enable businesses to quickly automate two-way communications to stakeholders in different geographies and across multiple delivery channels to keep their stakeholders informed and continue operating effectively as the pandemic evolves.
The ready-to-use templates include travel and self-isolation declarations, remote working notices and staff, customer and supplier updates and can be implemented within a day without the need for technical expertise.
Whispir’s channel partner StarHub is providing the templates to the Asian market.
In Australasia, Telstra is offering the templates as one of its top five COVID-19 “resilience solutions” for business customers.