Commercial Bay, one of the biggest property development projects in New Zealand, has gone back to work under Level 3 this week under the watchful eye of a Kiwi-designed contact tracing solution, Forsite.
Forsite has provided and installed the Self Declaration and worker check-in process at Commercial Bay for Precinct Properties. This simple solution involves placing electronic sensors at all entry-exit points to the site, and all workers and visitors installing an app that talks to the sensors.
The Forsite app then runs in the background, identifying everyone within 10 metres of a sensor. Any user arriving at a monitored location is logged when they enter and leave, even if they don’t take any action to check in. Notification is then sent to the Cloud, providing automatic, real-time proof of presence for site managers, to ensure contact tracing is thorough.Simon Yock, founder of Forsite, which was established in Auckland in 2016 to provide contact tracing and proof of presence solutions to the property and construction sectors, says Precinct Properties has chosen a simple, secure and robust solution that will make a massive difference in reducing time and risk for site workers and visitors.
“Contact tracing is now part of our new normal, and will be for a while to come. Until there is a vaccine for Covid-19, contact tracing is going to be key. It is great to see a progressive company of the standing of Precinct Properties taking this leading step to use technology to automate logging in and out of Commercial Bay.
“It’s great to see the health and safety of people working on site being prioritised by Precinct Properties and Fletchers, and we have seen almost 300 new inductions occur today. Not only will the system help them meet their Health & Safety requirements simply and securely, but it will make it easy to follow the train of transmission if necessary.”
Yock says Forsite has been working to help companies meet Workplace Health & safety regulation changes since 2016, providing automated proof of presence systems for companies and sites all over the world. Organisations already using Forsite include Precinct Properties, PMG Group, Savills, CBRE, Colliers International, Stride Property, Mason Partners, CEG, Foodstuffs and a number of other companies.
Describing ‘tens of thousands of hours’ spent mastering the system in its early days, Yock says that Forsite has learnt that five things are required for an automated tracing system to work properly:
01. The system can’t draw battery off a user’s device: minimal battery consumption.
02. It must require minimal data from users.It must make the process easy, fast, foolproof, and 100% automatic.
03. It must be entirely contactless.
04. It must require as close as possible to zero time consumption for the user.
“For it to work it must ask the person coming onto site for as close to zero as possible: data, time, battery, information that puts them at risk or discomfort.“
Tracing is the key to a Covid-free future, but it only works if you have complete data. Contact tracing site-by-site puts responsibility onto individual site managers, and they can choose the solution that best suits their individual needs, rather than using a mandated solution that is reliant on one provider or app.
“Not only does this approach avoid giving data wholesale to the government, but it also makes gathering data feasible. It will help sites to return to operation sooner, and keep them safer, while helping to track the spread of any future outbreaks.”
