Over the last 3 weeks, we have realized at Edify that our core safety products help support social distancing--because they don't require as many face-to-face interactions between safety professionals and front-line workers.
Two specific things have happened:
1) A very large (top 20 in the US) general contractor reached out to us about accelerating the automation of a core permitting process (known as the Hot Work Permit) that occurs on large jobsites. The driver--the automation will reduce the amount of social interaction required so jobsites can stay open during the current COVID 19 crisis. We have accelerated develo9pment of this core process and will be beta testing this week (April 20). We have built this in 10 days--huge props to our developers who have worked very hard to make this happen, and our architectural team who built a system that could allow rapid development of tools like this!
Not only does this permit process improve social distancing, it also saves 1-2 hours of waiting time per day! When you multiply that across a jobsite where over 100 permits will be issued per day, this is a huge ROI on time alone.
This permitting process is used at nearly every large construction site, mine, and energy site around the world. 99% of the time it is the traditional paper process--so building this now has huge potential.
2) A large workman's comp insurer also reached out to us about building a virtual safety visit tool. The insurer has dozens of consultants working with clients on safety issues, and with social distancing, they can't do onsite visits like they could. At the same time, their services are needed. This insurer has data showing that the more visits, the more safety is improved.
We have had plans to build this virtual safety visit tool in our roadmap, but it was 6-12 months out. We are currently negotiating an agreement to build this for the insurer via pre-licensing fees...meaning we own 100% of the intellectual property, and we can go sell it to the rest of the world! This tool will work with any insurer, and on any large job site.
There is significant pressure to keep large construction projects moving, and these two examples show that our products are badly needed right now to keep jobs moving and to keep this vital part of our economy moving forward.
We are honored to be part of the solution.