Siemens Smart Infrastructure has launched Enlighted Safe, a new workplace digital contact tracing app, which it said will help employees return safely to the workplace.
In a release, Siemens said that the Enlighted Safe app provides greater transparency into the contact history of employees who are known to have tested positive for COVID-19. This is designed to support organizations in reducing the exposure of infection, keep healthy employees safe and productive, and eliminate the inefficient, expensive and error-prone manual contact tracing process for employers.
Built upon Enlighted?s real-time location services capability, employees are assigned Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) identification badges while in the workplace. The app continuously records location, movement and proximity of the employees relative to each other during the period they are in the building. The solution prioritizes data privacy, without the need to store personal information.
When an employee is known to have tested positive, authorized administrators can query the Safe app, identify other IDs the badge has come in contact with and disclose the list of anonymized IDs as part of their contact tracing process, Siemens said.
?As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in some locations, ensuring a safe return to the workplace and re-building employee trust is a global challenge. Smart office technology can play an important role,? said Matthias Rebellius, COO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure. ?With new and varied regulations coming into effect, our intelligent IoT solutions can support the safety and well-being of occupants and visitors. We help provide peace of mind and enhanced safety for employers, their workforce and visitors.?
With intelligent IoT analytics, the solution provides insight for authorized personnel to visualize the contact events by location visited, duration of contact and proximity data of affected employees inside the workplace. The data is used to inform potentially exposed employees, as well as drive targeted sanitization efforts.
Siemens said that the application?s dashboard also provides transparency on contacts in the building, assisting management in developing safer workplace strategies for physical distancing policies, enhanced sanitization and monitoring, occupancy limits and contact tracing. Additionally, Enlighted Safe delivers data-driven insights for organizations to manage risks and design safer spaces, the company added.
?The important role of IoT technology in buildings has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stefan Schwab, CEO of Enlighted. “The Enlighted sensory system can now provide digital contact tracing. It also lays the foundation for future-proofed buildings ready to help us understand with real-time data the changing nature of our at-work experiences and meet challenges beyond COVID-19.?
Siemens also highlighted that the firm has been working with organizations around the world to support bringing employees back to their workplace with smart building solutions. This includes Comfy, a workplace app that keeps occupants informed and enables room and desk bookings; and the Siveillance Thermal Shield body temperature detection integrated with access control and a suite of services, such as enhancing indoor air quality,? designed to mitigate the risks of further virus spread.
