With students increasingly flocking to overseas destinations for higher studies, safety becomes paramount. To address this concern, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand, has offered its international students, a 24/7 nationwide off-campus health and personal safety service called 2Life Help. While security systems on-campus can always be upgraded and monitoring is relatively easy, it becomes harder off-campus. To assist students in situations of distress, 2Life Help, a smartphone app was conceived. 2Life Help, is provided by 2Life, an Auckland-based technology startup, in collaboration with Skyhook Wireless, a big data company that specialises in location technology, and First Security, a New Zealand-based security company.
Upon activation of the service, when users press the 2Life Help app icon on their phone, they are linked to 2Life call centre operators, who will know the caller’s location, have access to their personal details (previously provided during subscription), and can initiate two-way communication. They can track their location (even if they are on the move), evaluate the situation and get them the help they need, be it an ambulance, fire service, police, coastguard or a security guard patrol, vehicle breakdown assistance or a safe ride home.
The call centre has operators who speak Hindi, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean. Pamela Miller-Staggers, International Marketing Manager, AUT International, says it’s been four months since the launch and the response has been great. It was lawyer Stephen Katz and Mike Hutcheson, Executive Director, 2 Life, who were behind the conceptualisation of this app.
Stephen began following the story of Iraena Asher, a 25-year-old AUT student and television advertisement model, who went to the west Auckland beach of Piha in 2004. At 9’o clock that night, Iraena made a call to the police and told them there’s a man who’s been pressuring her to have sex with him. The call was coded priority two — to be responded to within 30 minutes. The police decided to send a taxi to pick her up but unfortunately the taxi was sent to the wrong address and never arrived. Iraena went missing and has not been seen since.
Stephen later approached Mike with an idea on how smart phone technology linked to call centre operators could provide an effective health and personal safety service for the elderly and the young.
When asked how call centre operators are trained to handle a particular emergency situation, Pamela says, “Our call centre is New Zealand’s leading assistance provider to the medical and travel industry. In Auckland, we employ 150 staff, of which 75 per cent are front line operators. All operators are trained in risk assessment, with ongoing training and operator reviews conducted on a regular basis.”
Their medical services include advice from qualified doctors or nurses, referral to a local doctor, hospital or specialists, assistance in hospital admission formalities, dispatch of taxi and ambulance services and urgent message relays. Their travel services include giving travel information and advice, liaising with embassies and consulates, assistance with replacement of lost or stolen documentation and assistance with cancelling lost or stolen credit cards.
They also offer roadside assistance services like tire-changing, fuel, battery jump starts, vehicle towage or transportation, emergency transport, emergency key replacement, lock out services and repair referral.
“Along with First Security, a New Zealand-based security company, we have 140 patrol vehicles, over 1,800 staff and offices in all major towns and cities across New Zealand. The app can also be used by the visually-impaired and hearing-impaired,” says Pamela.
In an emergency, the hearing-impaired in New Zealand currently use the 111 Txt for Deaf service that requires the user to text the nature of their emergency along with their location to the call centre.
Building on this idea, 2Life developed a two-touch solution, where a hearing-impaired individual is presented with an options menu after pressing the icon to select the assistance they require. Once the selection is made, the option is embedded in the alert and sent to the call centre along with the user’s location. Visual prompts reassure the user that the service is functioning, and the call centre responses are displayed on the help screen.
The app is user-friendly. So when the user requires assistance, they simply press Send Alert and the software does the rest. 2Life has combined Wi-Fi, GPS and cell tower-provided locations to provide users with the most accurate location positioning.
Pamela says, “Several other New Zealand universities have inquired about the service. Currently we are in discussion with universities in Canada and the United Kingdom to offer our service in those countries as well.”
suraksha@newindianexpress.com