Inspiration
Introduction
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis as a pandemic in March 2020. Immediately following the announcements, governments around the world started taking significant actions to mitigate the effects of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. This in combination to the increase of civil unrest throughout the world, refugee flows, financial challenges and extreme weather conditions makes the current world situation truly challenging. Now more than ever, we see a higher demand for safety, security, and communication solutions to maintain essential services, especially during emergencies. It is of utmost importance that hospitals, rescue services, public authorities, as well as private industries, are able to continue to operate as normally as possible to help minimize the impact of the crisis.
Problems that we are addressing
The current COVID-19 pandemic affects hospital and healthcare segments the most severely.
- The lack of skilled medical personnel and caregivers to respond to emergencies and urgent situations can lead to unnecessary loss of lives.
- There is no room for wasting precious time of doctors or nurses for anything else than the actual patient care. This includes inefficient communications like calling people individually when trying to get more staff to come to work, for instance.
- Not having up-to-date critical information related to the pandemic across different healthcare organizations can lead to catastrophic decisions in coordinating supplies, patient transfers, respirators or additional staff. In the worst-case this can lead to hospitals not being able to treat patients.
- Possible fake news, incorrect or completely missing instructions can lead more aggressive spreading of the virus among medical personnel and patients.
In short, every second that is spent prolonging the alert and sharing the critical data will mean more extensive damage to assets, businesses, loss of lives, and misery. Secapp addresses that need!
Keywords: Preparedness, Crisis communication, Emergency and disaster management, Alerting, Paging, Recovery, Public safety, Fast response, Situational awareness, Secure communication, Instant messaging, Video, Workforce management, Real time communication, SAAS, Protection of personnel, Mitigating fake news spreading, Cross organization operations
What it does
"One of our head nurses said that never before has she fallen in love with an application but she is in love with this one" - Marika Heiskanen from the Emergency Medical Services, South Savo Social and Health Care Authority (essote), Finland.
Secapp is a critical communications and alerting SAAS platform built especially to cope with emergencies and disasters. It helps to broadcast mass notifications, alert individuals and teams, collect and share critical data in addition to providing a platform where data remains secure within Europe. In other words, Secapp allows organizations to
- Improve their preparedness for emergency conditions.
- Decrease their response times in dispatching individuals and teams.
- Coordinate large-scale operations efficiently even across organizational borders.
- Recover faster especially in times of crisis.
We at Secapp work relentlessly to help you to save human lives.
Secapp is offered as a managed secure communications service (SAAS) and does not require any new devices or equipment. It allows secure two-way communications utilizing existing devices including smart phones, legacy phones, computers, and TETRA devices. Because Secapp enables communication through different networks and devices, Secapp is not as vulnerable as traditional single technology solutions when it comes to network breakdowns, natural catastrophes, terrorism, or limitations set by different environments.
Secapp can be quickly set up, and taken into use even in a matter of hours. The organization only needs to provide a list of people that should have access, and admin users should complete an online training session. The vast majority of the users can follow just simple few step instructions and they are set-to-go.
Organizations can also choose self-hosted and white label versions of the product. With those options, Secapp technology can be deployed to dedicated server environments provided by the customer or local distributor.
Key features
- Improved preparedness: Secapp offers alert templates that can be customized for broadcasting messages and instructions that require immediate action from different stakeholders. For example, organizations can use alert templates for daily operations to give official up-to-date instructions, or for complex public safety-related incidents, and disasters to mobilize large groups of professionals. These preparedness features also include personnel and asset availability status, and location information when relevant. Moreover, contact details can be managed either directly in Secapp or by automating it fully from HR management systems.
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OneClick alerting: Secapp allows sending an alert to skilled resources in a matter of seconds thus saving a lot of time from the dispatcher (person doing the alert). Alert messaging in Secapp is designed with emphasis on reliability, ease-of-use, and security. Alerting is done through different communication channels, making sure that the needed individuals are reached no matter what device they are using. When a situation arises, organizations can send critical information to desired recipients in seconds, be it one person or several thousands. Alerts can be targeted using availability, skill, location information, and user groups.
To make sure that critical alerts do NOT go unnoticed, Secapp can bypass the sound settings, such as silent or “Do not disturb” modes, in devices. The alerted individuals can respond OK or NOK to each alert per their availability. Dispatchers can see the responses and skill sets of respondents in real time - think of it as a modern digital pager that does not require any new devices to operate.
- Automated alerts: Alerts and messages can also be fully automated by using Secapp APIs (application program interface). This allows Secapp alerts to be triggered by, e.g., external warning systems, nationwide emergency systems and hardwares (for example, programmable fire detectors).
- Reporting: Secapp allows organizations to collect and report critical information using digital mobile and web forms/checklists that can be sent out automatically to relevant personnel. In the context of the current pandemia, Secapp checklists are used daily to collect the number of patients, hospital beds, ICU capacity, protective gear, and available personnel nationwide. A combined report is then delivered to the Ministry of Health (MoH).
- Secure chat and videos: To be able to coordinate operations efficiently, Secapp provides tools for handling real-time communication through secure chat and videos. Encrypted 1-on-1, group, and alert-specific Secapp chats and videos allow real time discussions as well as content exchange between key personnel in both daily operations and critical situations. Cross-platform Secapp chats and videos can be used with app and web clients.
- Alert map which compiles alert / first responder mission data from each hospital, allowing to target easily more resources to areas where there are higher amounts of alerts.
- The second development track related to creating a map which shows, for example, availability of intensive care units, hospital beds or protective equipment for the personnel. In addition, the number of different types of employees, such as nurses and doctors, and how many of them are ill or otherwise unavailable. This will make it possible, for example, to relocate patients from areas where there is the biggest shortage of treatment places in order to ease the situation. On the other hand, nurses, for example, could be transferred from quieter areas to the busiest ones.
- Finally, we created graph statistics which show the trends show how the situation with the pandemic has progressed.
- Hospitals and healthcare providers
- Fire and Rescue services
- Cities, municipalities, government agencies and offices
- Critical infrastructure organizations (telecom, utilities, oil & gas, harbours, food and beverage),
- Schools and Academies
- Property owners (shopping malls, office buildings)
- Security companies
- Volunteer organizations
- Competing technical products might slow down adaptation of Secapp. As a solution, Secapp can easily integrate with them to provide added value. Strong partner network will further position Secapp as a de-facto solution. In addition, software architecture and development processes enable us to react quickly to the changes in the competitive landscape.
- Customer churn is kept minimal by providing a clear solution, and constant communication with our customers. We address each customer’s problem at hand and we listen to our partners. We schedule regular meetings, webinars, surveys and events to identify where we truly need to focus. From a technical perspective, Secapp usually integrates into a number of systems within the customer environment, hence, Secapp is not usually quickly changed to another system.
- From a technical infrastructure perspective, Secapp is deployed into high availability and secure server environments within the EU, with disaster management processes in place in case an outage occurs at any point of time. In addition, Secapp can be deployed to self-hosted environments.
- Key personnel risk is tackled with detailed documentation, daily information exchange, and distributing responsibilities over a number of different persons (and not just one).
- Privacy and data security are tackled by 1-5 external audits per year in addition to all our personnel being background checked by the National Security Authority of Finland.
- For customer support, we have both internal resources as well as an outsourced customer support center available 24/7.
- Usability and new feature requests from customers and partners are tackled with agile development principles and continuous development.
- The biggest risk related to scaling up, and where the most work is going to, is reaching the key decision makers in a timely manner. We address this by entering new markets through partners and distributors who can facilitate negotiations utilizing their existing connections. Furthermore, this allows us to avoid the need to build country-specific organizations (at first stage). However, even though we have a number of partners already, there is a definite need for more partners and distributors!
- Direct B2BG sales: The service is offered mainly as a SAAS service and billing is based on subscription amounts (user licences).
- Distributor sales with revenue sharing model
- In addition, there are white label distributor models in place where the same technology is offered as a distributor branded version. For instance, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia STC specialized offers Secapp technology under Tari' brand: www.stcsc.sa/en/node/344/tari
Use cases and user stories
| User story | Persona / User | Use case / method | Replaces |
|---|---|---|---|
| I want to improve my organization’s preparedness | Head of security | Firstly create organization specific alert templates that contain operative instructions on what to do in crisis, details who are alerted and the priority of the situation. Secondly configure easy-to-use one click mobile alerting buttons that can be used to trigger wanted alerts. Manage personnel contact, availability, location and skill information. | Separate files and paper forms and various distributed systems. |
| I’m lacking skilled resources and I need to find urgently a freelancer / temp with correct skills to replace a work shift | Human resources manager | Send out a medium priority Secapp alert to a targeted group in a matter of seconds. Recipients respond OK or NOK based on their availability. In case wanted, the system automatically confirms the shift to the fastest who responds OK to the alert. | Traditional pagers, calling people individually, mass SMS messages. |
| I need to compile a fast response team to perform urgent task, for instance a trauma team at a hospital | Duty manager | Send out a high priority Secapp alert to a correct group that will bypass the silence settings at the devices. Recipients respond OK or NOK based on availability and can monitor in real time how everyone has responded. | Traditional pagers, separate alerting devices, calling people individually, mass SMS messages, speaker systems. |
| I need to provide official information and instructions what to do in the crisis | Head of communications | Send out a low priority Secapp alert / mass notification to personnel and relevant stakeholders via multiple communication channels. | Call centers, SMS messages, emails, intranets, separate meetings. |
| I need compile critical data from various sources, such as the amount of outbreak patients, hospital bed and ICU capacity, adequacy of protective gear and personnel nationwide and then a combined report is delivered to MoH | Head of situational awareness | Automize daily Secapp message that contains digital mobile form to be filled with relevant data. Once the data is filled by all, export compiled data or analyze directly in the system. | Paper forms, emails, distributed systems and databases |
| I want to improve our team communication and dialogue while making sure our real-time communication follows GDPR regulations and is not subject to foreing law enforcement acts | IT teams, Head of communications | Secure Secapp chats and videos for internal and stakeholder communication. | Consumer communication apps such as whatsapp. Professional communication apps that are provided by US, Chinese or Russian companies |
As a summary from everyday communications to complex crisis scenarios, Secapp has got you covered. Secure team chats, videos, and organizational contact management enable end-users to be familiar with the tool and increase usage times. However, the reliability, security and special attention to alerting are suited for times of crisis better than any competition. Secapp is a full solution suite for critical communication in the hyper-connected world where focus to meaningful action with minimal delay times and decisions are matters of life and death.
How we built it
Secapp’s story begins in 2011 when the company was founded as a result of a successful university-led R&D project, which aimed to improve crisis-related communication together with fire and rescue, hospital, and police authorities. Since then we have been building a highly scalable, robust and secure SAAS product for professional daily communications and fast response alerting for crisis and unexpected situations. Secapp ultimately helps to save human lives in times of crisis.
Team
The Secapp team has developed deep tech solutions for Nokia and European Space Agency and has built business-critical software from finance and industry to healthcare for decades. The team has expertise in high-end scalable mobile and web solutions and years of experience from mission-critical domains. The team is committed to growth and building Secapp into a global business. Our key personnel are self-motivated employee-owners who own the majority of the company. The team is complemented by extremely talented recruits that are mentored by our founders and experts. The strengths of the team are in the combination of building secure communication platforms and the passion for building strategic partnerships and long lasting customer relationships.
EU vs Virus challenge
In the beginning of challenge Secapp’s enthusiastic and skilled team started brainstorming what to add on top of existing critical communications and alerting platform Secapp which could be used then to concretely help the European Union in the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19).
As Secapp is already used, for instance, collecting critical information about the coronavirus in Finnish hospitals data which is then reported to the Ministry of Health, the natural selection was to start building something on top of that data and process. The data itself contains e.g. the number of infections and intensive care unit capacity and the adequacy of protective equipment.
We chose three different development tracks in this hackathon all of which were successfully completed:
The technical work included also a separate development and testing environment, configuring a number of new APIs and installing supporting libraries. The technical work itself was complemented by our social media, press release and slack communications that were active, say the least. We launched 23 posts to social media (FB, TW, LI) with 5964 impressions and 755 engagements, 4 press releases and a number of interactions in slack. In addition we built a separate how-to-use-secapp guide to the judges and mentors, created an awesome “Secapp joins the fight against COVID-19” -video and of course spent a lot of time collecting materials, writing and fine-tuning our devpost page.
Total man hours worked during the weekend for a six member Secapp team: 180 hours i.e. on average 30 hours per person. Though, some of the team members pulled even over 17 hour shifts.
Challenges we ran into during the hackathon
Business intelligence platform initially selected and configured for visualizing the data did not produce acceptable graphs or visualizations, hence it was scrapped and work was re-started with alternative technologies. Computer crashed and approx 5-6 hours of work was lost on creating the demo video. Like always, every activity took much longer than we anticipated. However, we managed to finnish them before the deadline and that’s all that counts!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our customers and markets
Secapp is currently being used by over 70 000 users from more than 600 professional organizations covering private, public and authority sectors. More than four million alerts were sent using Secapp last year alone. All major hospitals / districts in Finland covering 12 000 key healthcare professionals use Secapp daily to help ultimately save human lives. It is a privilege and honor to build digital technology used in such critical domains. Currently we are expanding heavily on international markets. We have so far, accumulated commercial contracts from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Japan. Current customer segments already using Secapp include:
Authorities, public and private organizations alike, use Secapp to prepare for, manage, and recuperate from critical situations such as natural disasters, accidents and service outages, or simply make finding and contacting the right people and stakeholders for urgent tasks faster and easier than ever before.
Our partners and distributors
Secapp has formed cooperation with world leading distributors and partners such as Airbus Defence and Space globally and Saudi Telecom Company specialized in the Middle East. Other partners include Securitas and Avarn Security as our distributors in the Nordics, a number of SME companies distributing services to specific segments, such as healthcare, and our technology partners include companies such as Steerpath (indoor location services) and Vonage (global SMS gateway services). We aim to expand our partner portfolio continuously to be able to efficiently deploy Secapp as a global service helping to save lives.
Awards
Secapp has received the EIC Seal of Excellence from the EU commission, won the Chamber of Commerce Cyber Security award, and was nominated twice among the TOP3 Finnish Security Companies for enhancing national security. Secapp is on a strong growth path in developing new innovations.
What we learned
We have worked from day one with key authorities such as police, fire and rescue, and hospitals to make sure that we take into account every aspect and requirement for reliable crisis communications. Working closely with key authorities, in combination with our dedicated and well skilled team, has allowed us to build a service that meets the need. We continuously develop the service based on feedback and feature requests that we receive from our actual customers and partners across authorities, public organizations and private organisations alike.
Moreover, below is a detailed list of risks that we’ve identified and the solutions we’ve implemented throughout the years to make sure that Secapp as a product and as a company can truly serve in a critical use.
Risks and their solutions
What's next for Secapp
Simply put, continue scaling up! There are no specific limitations but the service is scalable to global markets. Our vision is to be the most recommended platform globally for secure communications and crisis related alerting and situational awareness.
We are currently profitable with six figure Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) in euros. Our key business model is based on subscription amounts (user licences per month) with additional revenue sources from transaction fees (SMS, robot calls), professional services (deployment projects, integrations, customizations, higher tier customer service), and maintenance fees from Secapp white-label platforms.
Our sales channels consist of
On top of that we are looking into modularizing the product into full on digital sales. Additional details and contact information available at www.secapp.fi
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