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USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION
TECHNOLOGY
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Smart Solutions New contact tracing technology can help stop the spread of COVID-19 By Adam Stone
C
ONTACT TRACING IS A key component to tracking and containing the COVID-19 pandemic. Let people know when they’ve been in proximity to an infected person, and there’s a chance you can contain the spread of the virus. But traditional tracing techniques are slow and labor intensive.
Technologists at international conglomerate Honeywell see a better way forward. They’re leveraging business-operations intelligence to drive tracing efforts. “Descriptive analytics can provide a record of which workers have been in close proximity with one another: Who was in a common area together, or on a shift together,” says Hilmer Rivera, global general manager of software for Honeywell.
A range of technology companies have stepped up in recent months with IT offerings that help to take the guesswork out of contact tracing.
‘THIS IS NOT BASED OFF GUESSWORK’ Last June, customer relationship management company Salesforce released Work.com, a platform that leverages shift and scheduling data to support employee
contact tracing. Suppose an employee tests positive for COVID-19. Aided by software, “You can go back and identify where people were on the floor, what meeting rooms they shared together, and you can notify them about any potential contact they may have had (with that employee),” says Monica Girolami, Salesforce’s vice CONTINUED