Sector Focus
Technology
App to help the vulnerable during virus pandemic
App developers have given a helping to volunteers looking after vulnerable people in Leamington and Warwick during the Covid-19 crisis. Apps Plus has produced an app named ‘Good Egg’,
which connects the volunteers with those isolating or in need of help during the crisis. The app is the brainchild of Alan Hartin, director of
Graham Welland: Recessions lead to a growth in fraud
Don’t fall foul of Covid-19 scammers
A massive £1.86m of Covid-19- related fraud has been recorded since the pandemic began - but a business risk and compliance expert says many more UK businesses could fall foul of scammers. Stratford-Upon-Avon based GWCI
says much of the fraud is occurring as businesses try to stock up on items such as face masks and sanitiser before employees return to work. However, a BBC investigation has found that criminals in West Africa have been setting up hundreds of bogus websites claiming to sell these items. And GWCI is now warning
businesses to be on their guard when purchasing protective items online. GWCI says that scientific experts have found that there is a direct correlation between a struggling economy and a rise in fraud. According to professor Mark
Button, the 1980 recession saw a three per cent fall in GDP which resulted in a 5.6 per cent increase in fraud related offences, and the 1990 recession saw a dip of 1.7 per cent in GDP followed by a 9.9 increase in scams, with the 2008 crash causing an increase in fraudulent crimes of 7.3 per cent. GWCI chief executive Graham
Welland said: “Scammers have been increasingly leveraging the pandemic as a means of targeting businesses by setting up dubious websites claiming to sell vital equipment ranging from face masks to hand sanitisers. “New findings from TSB Bank
have revealed that 42 per cent of Brits have experienced the scam tactic known as phishing during the Covid-19 outbreak. Businesses need to be aware of the dangers that they face as it’s likely that fraudulent activity is going to spike across the globe over the forthcoming months – especially as PPE and sanitation products increasingly become essential items in the workplace. Doing your due diligence before making a commercial arrangement is imperative.”
62 CHAMBERLINK June/July 2020
Coventry-based Image+, which owns Apps Plus, after hearing that 150 local people had volunteered to help self-isolating members in the community via the Warwick and Leamington Covid-19 Mutual Aid group. Mr Hartin said: “A leaflet came through our letterbox
looking for volunteers. I contacted them as I could see real merit in creating a solution to manage their several hundred volunteers and tasks.
‘I could see real merit in creating a solution to manage their several hundred volunteers and tasks’
“They were very keen on the idea as they were then
using a combination of a Google Sheet, Whatsapp group, phone calls and texting to manage and co- ordinate everything. And this just wasn’t efficient enough for the sheer volume of volunteers and tasks they were receiving. “So, after our conversation, I spoke to my app
development team and they’ve worked really hard in their spare time to come up with Good Egg”. The app can sort requests for help by location and
need, notifying volunteers on the same street as someone who needs help. It also ensures that a volunteer with a car knows that
someone in an isolated village has a prescription waiting. It filters requests for assistance intelligently, ensuring
that volunteers don't make too many trips to the shops in a given week and that no one is travelling further
A good egg: Alan Hartin
than they need to in order to offer help. Liz Turner, volunteer coordinator and one of the
driving forces behind the Covid-19 Warwick and Leamington Mutual Aid Group, said: “What Alan and his team have done for us as a group has been unbelievably kind. “Thanks to the app, we can now have an overview in
real-time of what tasks have been completed, which means we can free up more time to help even more people on any given day.”
Delivery service promoted online
A Lichfield design and marketing firm has used social media to help a pharmacy promote its new free delivery service. Design Pit has already secured £20,000 of sales
for its client, Primary Care Pharmacy (PCP), which is an independent pharmacy for those in the Lichfield and Tamworth area. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, the pharmacy was
poised to launch a free delivery service, and brought things forward when the pandemic took hold. In order to advertise the new service, the pharmacy enlisted Design Pit, whose director, Gareth Robertson, said: “We quickly identified social media as a main driver to get our message out. “Facebook is naturally the market leader and was
our platform of choice to drive our campaigns. We also know that on average people spend about three hours a day on social media platforms – with Facebook of course being the most popular. And with everyone being locked down, usage was only going to go up and up.” Design Pit say the main challenge for the project
was that the current pharmacy Facebook page was very underused, with hardly any followers. Design Pit created a large suite of content to promote the new service, including imagery, short
voiceover videos and an animated video to explain the service. Some more popular posts were also “boosted” and some were adapted into sponsored adverts targeted at the local areas to extend the reach and drive engagement.
‘Facebook is naturally the market leader and was our platform of choice to drive our campaigns’
Gareth said: “Instantly we saw some huge
percentage increases in page performance. This was mainly due to the fact that the page was massively underused and then all of sudden we came in and started hammering some quality content on there that woke everything up. We have been running the content now since the first week of lockdown and we’ve seen some really positive results come in. At last count, we’d seen 800 new delivery requests over the four week period we’d been working on the campaign. “These new delivery requests are often likely to
see more than one drug prescribed per order as well, so it is safe to say based on conservative estimates this is worth around £20,000 of new income over the course of the next 12 months to PCP.”
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