Service innovation/ Software

innovation to tackle the challenge of

COVID-19

Team Members:
Ankul Anand (CGT19007) l Chandra Prakash S (CGT19010) l Manjunathan M (CGT19011)
Rescuing the
stranded Travellers
Yext, Inc., the Search Experience Cloud company, announced
its collaboration with the United States Department of State on
an official COVID-19 travel alert and advisory information hub,
covid19.state.gov. When people visit this special information hub,
people can enter COVID-19 search queries into the Yext Answers
Bar and receive a contextual, verified answer from sources
including travel.state.gov, the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program
(STEP), the Department’s global network of Embassy and
Consulate websites, the official United States coronavirus
website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
and other key resources. Country, embassy, and consulate facts
are built-in to answer queries about repatriation for US citizens
abroad who are unable to travel back to the United States.
Arogya Setu App

Indian government’s COVID-19 - tracking mobile

application developed by the National Informatics
Centre. Many government across the world has also
created apps with same feature to track the
contamination spread and provide information to its
citizens at one place.
It is a tracking app which uses the
smartphone's GPS and Bluetooth features to track
the coronavirus infection. The app is available for
Android[2] and iOS mobile operating systems.[3]
With Bluetooth, it tries to determine the risk if one
has been near (within six feet of) a COVID-19 -
infected person, by scanning through a database of
known cases across India. Using location
information, it determines whether the location one
is in belongs to one of the infected areas based on
the data available.
 Muse Wearables
• It is a startup by Indian Institute of Technology Madras –
Incubated Start up

• Detecting and tracking Covid19 has been one of the

major problems for many countries

• It is a wrist-based tracker with skin temperature, heart

rate and SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation) sensors. It can
continuously track these body vitals remotely that will
help in early diagnosis of Covid-19 symptoms.

• This tracker is also linked with Arogya Setu app, so that

an alert is given to the user when he enters a Covid
Containment Zone

• The price of this wearable is also reasonable around

₹3500.
 Reaching out to the
people (State of Kerala)
• Entrepreneurs and innovators from India have highlighted a
good example of the triple helix model of innovation,
integrating efforts between universities, industries (start-
ups) and the government, in response to COVID-19

• Start-ups are also supporting the government’s public

information campaign on coronavirus by developing
technology platforms to disseminate government
notifications. The Kerala state government launched an app
called GoK-Kerala Direct using a platform developed by
QKopy. It sends COVID-19 updates and travel information via
phone notifications, and via SMS to older phones for the less
than half of India’s population without smartphones. These
messages are delivered both in English and in Malayalam,
the local language.
 Helping the students
learn in the Lockdown
• View Sonic offers to help distance-learning efforts provided free till June
2020

• View Sonic is offering up its Professional Development team to provide one-

on-one online support for educators "with any learning initiatives they may
have, including topics such as: distance learning as a whole, tools for
distance learning, curriculum development, as well as video creation or
conferencing for lessons," the company said in a statement.

• "Remote and distance learning lessons are definitely different than inside
the confines of a classroom," said Blake Everhart, solution training manager
at ViewSonic Americas. "As a former teacher, I understand there's
sometimes a gap between learning the scope and sequence of the
technology side that can match up with the lessons you want to teach. The
ability to create and complete lessons, and how to filter through the many
resources that are out there makes it tough to focus. That's why my team
and I at View Sonic are making ourselves available to help out and make
 Helping to return
back to normal
• Salesforce touts Work.com for post-pandemic return to biz

• Salesforce unveiled a website – Work.com – it says can help guide

businesses as they look to return from work-at-home orders and deal
with disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
• "Work.com brings together the full power of health experts, business
leaders and the Salesforce ecosystem in a resource center informed by
the Business Roundtable and the University of California San Francisco
(UCSF) with insights from business, health and government leaders as
well as analysis, best practices and recovery stories from our trusted
partner ecosystem," the company said in a statement.

• The goal: "...help business and community leaders around the world

reopen safely, re-skill employees and respond efficiently on the heels of
the COVID-19 pandemic.“

• Salesforce said the effort involves everything from contact tracing to

emergency response management and employee wellness; The
company also launched Salesforce Care, a free-for-90-days suite of
solutions to help businesses stabilize amid the initial phase of the
pandemic
Contact tracing by
Google & Apple
• Apple, Google team up on COVID-19 contact tracing
• Two of the tech industry's biggest companies – Apple and Google
– announced Friday afternoon that they are jointly working on
technology to help trace and track the spread of the COVID-19
coronavirus. The two companies plan to release APIs and OS-level
technology that will allow government agencies and healthcare
groups to alert users when they may have been exposed to the virus.
• "Since COVID-19 can be transmitted through close proximity to
affected individuals, public health officials have identified contact
tracing as a valuable tool to help contain its spread," the two
companies said. "A number of leading public health authorities,
universities, and NGOs around the world have been doing important
work to develop opt-in contact tracing technology. To further this
cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution
that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and
operating system-level technology to assist...."
• The technology will be rolled out in two phases: in May, the
companies plan to release APIs to enable interoperability between
Android and iOS devices using apps that will be available in the
companies' respective app stores. After that, the Bluetooth-based
technology will be built into operating systems – what Apple and
Google called a more "robust" solution. They also stressed that
protecting privacy will be an important consideration.
 Supporting the need of
COVID-19 Analytics

• MariaDB offers SkySQL free for virus data analysis. It is offering free
access to MariaDB SkySQL to groups who are fighting COVID-19 and
need enterprise-grade analytical capabilities for their work.
• "If you or your organization in the healthcare, medical, academic or
other nonprofit space have an application that requires analytical
capabilities to analyze large amounts of data, we would like to offer
you the opportunity to use MariaDB SkySQL for free," the company
said. Projects chosen as a good match "will be able to securely
store, analyze and visualize massive amounts of data at no cost on
MariaDB SkySQL."
• Applications can be made online and "must directly support
research, innovation and analysis targeted at fighting COVID-19 or
its effects," MariaDB said. "The application needs to be able to store
and access data on SkySQL. Note, SkySQL is HIPAA compliant.
MariaDB, along with a panel of experts, will determine within [five]
business days whether your application qualifies or if more
information is needed to make a determination."
Hunger free COVID
lockdown
• 10X Management, WhyHunger team up to fight pandemic
hunger crisis

• 10x Management, a freelance developer hiring agency, has

partnered with WhyHunger and software engineers Greg
Sadetsky and Colin Wren to develop a
comprehensive, crowd-sourced open-source interactive
map of free meal sites in the U.S.

• Said Sadetsky: “...We saw a vital opportunity to use our

mapping and software background, to create this resource
to help aid individuals in their greatest hours of need.
We’re proud to partner with WhyHunger to provide real-
time information, increase access and combat food
insecurity during this pandemic."
Chatbot for informing
the Citizens
• Amplify.ai, Messenger team up on AI messaging

• Amplify.ai, which develops AI-driven, conversational

virtual assistants, is offering up its virtual assistant for
free to government health organizations fighting the
pandemic. The company partnered with Facebook to
allow the organizations to share information with
concerned citizens during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The company also deployed a COVID-19 virtual
assistant for the Indian Government through MyGov,
the world’s largest government-to-citizen digital
infrastructure, with more than 500 million users.
 Conclusion
The global impact of COVID-19 has reaffirmed how the difficulties we are encountering in the 21st century do
not respect borders. The fight against coronavirus COVID-19 is at a crucial tipping point. All over the world lives
have been lost, and changed beyond recognition. Across the world, entrepreneurs and innovators have quickly
devised new apps, robots and ventilators to help overcome the pandemic. All Governments including Indian
government has asked their citizens to share innovative ideas to manage this pandemic situation. Therefore,
innovation will be critical to stemming the damage from COVID-19 pandemic.

As we have seen in the previous slides, some innovative solutions designed in service and software industries
across countries in the world to tackle the pandemic. It is essential that innovation and other solutions are also
not constrained by geography, or other barriers in this pandemic situation. Together, we can win!!.

THANK YOU