During the current global lockdown, leading Sri Lankan product engineering company 99X Technology has harnessed its core strength – software product engineering – to rapidly deliver digital solutions to strengthen communities and organisations globally against the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One such solution was created together with UNDP Sri Lanka, who partnered with 99X Technology to build a COVID-19 WHO information chatbot on Facebook Messenger, which was delivered in 24 hours. The service is available to all Sri Lankans in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages, giving real-time updates sourced from the Health Promotion Bureau of Sri Lanka and World Health Organisation websites. Information shared with the public through it includes the latest statistics, tips on how to protect yourself, latest news, answers to the user’s questions and more. It is available via https://www.messenger.com/t/UNDPSriLanka
Speaking about this platform, Robert Juhkam, Resident Representative of UNDP in Sri Lanka, stated: “UNDP is pleased to have worked on this very useful and timely bot with 99X Technology. At a time when we need to counter misinformation, not only does this bot provide Sri Lankans accurate information in all three languages, but also shows the potential of effective partnerships at a crucial time such as this.”
Another solution was the launch of ‘Tackle’, a software product for business continuity relating to COVID-19. Build by Sureway AS, Norway and 99X Technology, the entire product design and development was done in just seven days, while both countries were under lockdown, using online collaboration tools.
Kjetil Odin Johnsen, CEO and Founder, Sureway commented: “As the COVID-19 infection began to take hold, we compiled a list of COVID-19 scenarios for municipalities and power companies, which are our major customer groups. We distributed these free of charge so that our customers could best cope with what is happening now. Based on the good feedback we received, we thought of developing Tackle as an effective solution when dealing with crisis situations. We will be providing this free of charge to all our existing customers.”
Tackle’s core functionality includes the ability to create requirements for departments and owners on what they should do to prevent infection and safeguard services. The tool can be used to understand the resources available within teams and record updates as these resources are consumed. The tool also integrates with collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Skype for screen sharing and obtaining real-time updates. The product already has a pre-filled set of instructions relating to COVID-19 management which are applicable for most companies.
99X Technology’s quick turnaround in delivering these solutions while working from home, purely through online collaboration with its partners, has seen the general public being empowered with important information about COVID-19 and strengthened companies with need-to-know data on business continuity.