MHD SCLAA
COVID AND COMPLIANCE Brendan White, COO of the Comply Group, sat down for a Q&A to discuss the start-up’s COVID-safety solutions and the challenges of safety-compliance in supply chain and logistics.
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hat is the Comply Group and what solutions does it offer? Comply Group is an enterprise software-as-a-service business. We provide software solutions to large enterprises – as well as medium and small sometimes, but generally larger – with pretty complex requirements. We’ve got a range of tools at our disposal. We initially started as a QR code check-in provider – so we did start out of a COVID-related need, although my business partner and I have run businesses similar to this in the past. The Comply Group started out with QR code contact-tracing your appointments when the state government started mandating that people keep their name and number where they went for contacttracing purposes, before any of the state governments built their own check-in apps. We quickly grew to about 7000 or 8000 customers around the country – essentially using us to check in customers and stuff. And then when the state requirements mandated that people use the state government check-in apps, what we did was we lost essentially all of the small business customers, but most of the larger businesses still had their own need to capture this data. For instance, companies needed it for different purposes around managing risks and safety within the workplace, so they kept using us and – since then – we’ve expanded out into a range of areas including vaccine registers to comply with state government mandates in certain industries. We’ve got asymptomatic test tracking solutions. So, if you’re an
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organisation with a policy around getting your staff to do rapid tests every two days or twice a week, for instance, we’ve got solutions for that. And we also do some work in PCR laboratory testing as well. It was probably two years ago that we then started broadenig our scope to encompass a range of non COVID related solutions as well – using the same kind of flexible, quick, web technology. Some of those solutions include journey tracking for long haul drivers – where there are safety requirements around notifying people where you are and when when you’ve arrived. We also do Health and Safety checklists, checklists for machinery and equipment and vehicles; so prestart checklists. We automate a lot of that using QR codes and notifications and triage dashboards. And more recently, time and attendance as well. So, you’re clocking out, you’re checking in with the QR code for COVID. But you’re also clocking on for your shift. The initial application had branched out into several new domains. What are the key drivers causing business leaders to decide on new technology rollouts in the industry right now around COVID safety? It’s probably two or three key drivers behind the rollout decisions that we’re seeing – especially in this industry and supply chain and logistics. The first one is around state government mandates. So, when you’re an organisation, especially a trucking company, for example, if you’re crossing borders, and you’ve got staff in all states of the country, keeping up with the changes that that are coming out from state governments on an individual basis is
a nightmare. And then implementing that in a business policy or process is even more challenging. For example, where a state government suddenly says truck drivers need to have three doses of vaccine. That’s when the business – the directors of the business – have a responsibility to comply with that, and so they need to know what’s happening on the ground. So they come to us and they say, ‘Can you please help us roll out a solution that makes it easy for us to understand what people are doing and to ensure they’re following the rules? That is the number one driver in my view. I think number two, is genuinely around the health and safety of people in the workplace. Aside from the usual insurance-risks considerations, it’s becoming a felt responsibility of business owners to reduce outbreaks on worksites to ensure worker-safety. We have businesses coming to us talking about testing policies, vaccine policies, social distancing, capacity management, and contact tracing within zones of their businesses so that they can bring forward the knowledge of where an outbreak is happening or where a positive case has been, for example. A lot of businesses are working hard to get on the front foot when it comes to managing outbreaks or potential outbreak-risks on-site. How have you seen the introduction of your technology improve COVIDsafety in the workplace? I guess one would be the speed with we’ve we’ve been able to roll out – so the ability to have recorded going live with 3000 staff organisation in about 24 hours on a vaccine vaccine tracking project. So the speed with which we
