A lot has changed in the last month, and that’s just putting things mildly. The world is changing as we speak, growing CoVID-19’s impact on the global economy. Some of these changes are only temporary in nature, other are here for good.
Responding to CoVID-19 has seen many people and companies realize that it had more to offer them than they had realized as well as fast-forwarding the technological revolution.
Since the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis hit and thus hundreds of millions of people around the world got locked down, telecommunication went through the roof. Zoom, an online videoconferencing service, was serving 10m customers a day at the beginning of the year, most of them in business meetings. Now it is providing 200m people a day not just with meetings. Microsoft Teams passed 44 million daily active users in mid-March rising over 12 million in just a week.
Who would have thought that changing business operations from a traditional “shake hands” model to online era of running and doing business can go that fast? Good thing the technology was there to support the urgent need.
Today it’s the “need of the hour” that opens big business as well as smaller organizations for new, unconventional solutions and methods of running their business. Technology and innovation are a must for smart business leaders to ensure their business continuity. Those companies able to use technology well to keep going and rethink their business model for the future by fast-tracking digital transformation will be ones ahead of their competition. And this is the part where startups come into play more than ever. They are born from the need to resolve a problem with limited resources at their disposal. Sounds familiar?
The initiative by MIT Enterprise Forum CEE and our business partners‘ Technologies versus COVID-19’ is aimed at selecting startup companies that have ready-to-market solutions to support business leaders from various of business sectors
says Magdalena Jabłońska, Chairwoman of the Foundation for Technology Entrepreneurship, operator of the MIT EF CEE program.
Here is a number of proven to work technologies, provided by MIT Enterprise Forum CEE Alumni, that can be put into use today to answer the current business needs and to soften the CoVID-19’s overall implications.
Chatbotize
https://chatbotize.com/pl/, +48 668 210 702
Relieving the helpline of the NFZ (the Polish National Health Fund) which has been experiencing an overload in recent days, was the inspiration that guided Chatbotize, a start-up which, in cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Office, created a chatbot that provides timely, fact-checked, and official information about the coronavirus epidemic and the countermeasures undertaken by the government. The system learns on a real-time basis, and its knowledge base is updated basing on official data provided by the Ministry of Health.
This way, Messenger and Facebook users can find out, among others, where to get help or what legal provisions regulate closing the national borders. The chatbot makes use of AI, thanks to which it understands users’ questions and replies to them automatically. The company had previously developed solutions for customer services-related purposes that are employed by such market players as Aviva, InPost, Maspex, PKO BP and many more. They are also implementing a pilot project with Nationale-Nederlanded. Now, the very same technology that allows tracking packages via Facebook is here to safegaurd easy access to current information about the epidemic.
It is not just medicine and healthcare today that are in need of a profound and fundamental change. Companies for which the months to come will be trying for their business models must find a place for themselves in the new reality as well. The Foundation for Technology Entrepreneurship and its partners are still analyzing the solutions of other startups in the scope of their application in converting medicine into an online format, along with battling the coronavirus and its impact on business, economy and citizens.
Chatbotize technology features:
– Automation of communication on chat channels for the public sector and non-governmental organizations (Chatbotize is used, among others, by the Chancellery of the Prime Minister – https://m.me/kancelaria.premiera),
– Automation of communication for business (answers to frequently asked questions, improvement of customer service processes by implementing a multi-channel inbox, i.e. one tool for multichannel communication – especially useful in the home office era),
– Communication automation and lead generation for e-commerce;
The solution can support an unlimited number of users.
Waywer
https://www.waywer.com/; +48 506 956 884; contact@waywer.com
Waywer is a platform that easily provides interactive messages without the need to install any applications at the recipients:
- The message is delivered via a personalized sms (MMS or QR code) containing a unique link to a mobile website,
- A chat message may contain a number of interactive components: video, text, graphics, links, forms, questions, etc.,
- Simple sending via the Waywer panel,
- Analytics of statistics of launching and audience behaviour;
The application includes interactive communication with city residents and people in quarantine, sending invitations to webinars and video calls, sending forms and photos of signed documents (both directions), information on the organization of the work of municipal offices, tutorials and presentations – how to communicate with an office on the Internet, current information for residents, e.g. restrictions on public transport, admission procedure to doctors, procedures to be followed in case of infection, and many others.
Specfile.pl
https://www.specfile.pl/, 501 341 277; kontakt@specfile.pl
Specfile is a simple application that increases the security of data and documents to protect privacy and customer data against leakage during “home office” (and not only).
Full document security – SpecFile offers the technology of easily converting your documents and folders into fully secured encrypted documents and their secure sharing. Strong cryptography – provides stress-free document protection and peace of mind. Ready in a few minutes – SpecFile is a ready solution, the application is quick and easy to use and does not require any technical skills. Digital transformation – real digital transformation begins when you increase the security of your documents. Privacy and data protection of remote work – it ensures the security of teleworking on a private computer, eliminates the risk of working with a business computer in the home network. An electronic registered letter with confirmation of receipt is sent in a secure encrypted form. Your document is secure.
Specfile function allows you to send registered letters with confirmation of receipt without leaving home. The sender sends the registered e-letter directly from their computer.
For the security of documents, the process of encrypting and decrypting a file/folder is based on the RSA-4096 and AES-256 algorithms, which are used worldwide to encrypt information and recognized as a standard in cryptography due to their security.
IC Solutions
https://icsolutions.pl, +48 888 489 286, biuro@icsolutions.pl
A traveller’s card is an automatic digitization system of travel surveys. Goal: to increase the speed of information flow on travellers generating an epidemiological threat.
Everyone crossing the border is required to fill in the Traveller Card (THIC). Thanks to the implementation, we will have immediate access to information on travellers entering the country, their health condition, contact details and destinations. This will allow faster identification of people who should be quarantined. The solution uses super-fast non-contact scanners or, wherever possible, digital pens with time stamps together with an OCR system for data recognition. Each entry is precisely located in time and place. Ready technology tested and used by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). All observers in Europe are equipped with digital pens that allow immediate data transfer to the headquarters. Data in digital form are automatically converted into OSCE election reports and, because of the high performance, available before the official election results.
ElasticCloud Solutions – WorkAI
https://workai.com/; hello@elastic365.com
The Digital Employee Experience platform called Workai may become the information flow center. As part of the platform, the company gains access to a number of tools, such as an internal intranet portal, knowledge databases, internal social network and more. With these tools, organizations can organize communication and give access to company knowledge and documents. In addition, the platform provides opportunities including personalization of content, organization of events within the company, publication of films and sending of newsletters. All this using a CMS drag and drop editor with over 200 layout blocks on the page and 50 types of content, which is much easier to use than popular office/online docs. The solution is integrated with popular Office365 and Microsoft Teams tools. Most importantly, it does not require a few months of implementation process. It is launched within a few hours, without the need for IT knowledge. It is also available on mobile devices, which allows easy communication with employees working “in the field”.
Tutorial Online
https://www.tutorialonline.pl/; kontakt@tutorialonline.pl
Tutorial Online is a performance support class solution supporting remote work management. On an ongoing basis during everyday work, the tutorial monitors what happens in the browser and gives instructions to the user on what to click and what data to enter. The tool enables learning the system without the need for direct contact and delegating experts/trainers to learn less experienced employees/new hires. Tutorial Online as a virtual efficiency monitor provides data on real process efficiency and remote employee activity and, due to the collection of data on user activity, allows efficiency monitoring and optimization of processes in the organization as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of employees performing their activities remotely.
Tutorial Online helps to solve real problems that companies face: high costs of traditional forms of training, low efficiency of knowledge acquisition, long adaptation of new hires, decrease in efficiency and effectiveness of remote employees, as well as a large number of erroneous data in IT systems. Its purpose is to increase the efficiency and quality of work.
