Cloud giant ServiceNow releases coronavirus crisis apps

Cloud software company ServiceNow has announced a suite of dedicated applications to assist companies in their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The apps have been released for free for customers through to the end of September. The first is an emergency response operations app developed in collaboration with the Washington State Department of Health, now available to all US government entities. The app involves the digitisation of processes to eliminate what was previously labour-intensive work improving the visibility of resource allocation for responding to the crisis.

The remaining three applications are geared towards the private sector, aiming at ensuring the continuation of normal business operations during the pandemic. The Emergency Outreach program allows employers to request responses to gain confirmation of employee location and safety. Emergency Self Report consists of a workflow enabling employees to inform employers about the status of their self-quarantining measures. 

Emergency Exposure Management, meanwhile, is perhaps the most crucial of the three. In the event of an employee being diagnosed with the illness, companies can identify those who have potentially come into contact with them by examining the employee’s history of meetings and work locations.

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“In this battle to flatten the COVID‑19 curve, none of us is as smart as all of us,” said Bill McDermott, president and CEO of ServiceNow. “These ServiceNow applications will enable emergency outreach, self‑reporting and exposure management, which are precisely what organizations need to do right now to help people get through this crisis.”

Operating on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, ServiceNow emphasises its ability to improve workflows within an organisation via its role providing all forms of technical support and managing IT operations. Customers include the likes of Allianz, Siemens and RBS.

Last year, the company received a new CEO in the form of Bill McDermott, previously of German enterprise software titan SAP. McDermott replaced John Donahoe, who moved to sportswear manufacturer Nike, the pedigree of both companies reflecting ServiceNow’s increasingly prominent standing.