The massive second wave of COVID-19 infections in India in April and May of 2021 put health systems under immense pressure. Many hospitals ran out of beds. Oxygen and drug shortages impacted care.
Responding to such health emergencies requires every resource to be appropriately leveraged. Government organizations, including the police force, have to stretch their capacity and create contingency plans to help the population. However, executing these plans, including allocating resources, needs real-time information to make quick and correct decisions.
Unfortunately, when the second wave hit, such a data source was not available for the Pune Police Department. That’s where Icertis’ 4 Rings of Responsibility came in. Hearing the call for a technical solution to help COVID resource allocation, a group of Icertians in Pune stepped up to #takecareofcommunity, leveraging the power of the Icertis platform.
Identifying the Need
When the second wave hit, two Icertians– Vaibhav Kulkarni and Nikhil Bhawkar—were actively engaged with the Pune Police, volunteering to support a traffic control project. Knowing their background as techies, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pournima Gaikwad shared with them her vision of creating a War Room for serving the community in the event the second wave worsened or a third wave arrived. She wanted to create an authentic and accurate repository of data and a simple software application that could be utilized by non-technical staff to:
- Monitor and control oxygen supply chains for hospitals
- Collect real-time data on the availability of hospital beds, oxygen, potential plasma donors, medicines, etc.
- Collect plasma donors’ information from various residential societies
- Make this information available to citizens in need
Giving Back to the Community
Nikhil says, “One of our FORTE values — Execution gives us the mantra: ‘Focus, Follow-up, Follow-through – Fast!’ We saw an opportunity to make a difference in society, and we picked it up. Instead of just being compassionate from the sidelines, we decided to act. We set our sights on a goal, held ourselves accountable for success, and executed it quickly.”
Knowing the power of the Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) platform, Vaibhav and Nikhil approached Icertis co-founder and CTO Monish Darda to check whether the ICI platform could be used to create a War Room application for Pune Police. Monish immediately agreed to support this cause in every possible manner. Soon, two other Icertians, Deepak Patil and Sandeep Gosavi joined the initiative. Vaibhav says, “The great thing about Icertis is that people here are open to listening to new ideas and coming forward to help each other. Because of fellow Icertians’ support, we quickly developed a user-friendly interface and delivered the application to Pune Police in less than a month.”
To ensure that non-technical staff members could understand the application’s utility and use it comfortably, the Icertis team gave them training in Marathi. Impressed with its simplicity and utility, Pune Police extended the usage of the application to all the police stations across Pune. In addition, Icertis has helped Pune Police set up the War Room infrastructure by providing telephones and laptops. Deepak says, “It’s easy to say ‘stay strong’ to those in pain, but harder to help them in getting out of their suffering. However, we can help others to overcome any challenge when we come together as a collective force. Because of impeccable teamwork and flawless execution, we were able to set up a War Room that provides fast and accurate data and addresses the needs of COVID patients.”
Insured Against the Worst
Today, we are in the midst of the feared third wave of COVID. Thankfully, Pune Police were able to proactively prepare for the Omicron variant and were able to ensure that appropriate data governance strategies and necessary technologies are established for efficient response.
Acknowledging Icertis’ contributions, Pournima Gaikwad, Deputy Commissioner of Police says, “Icertis demonstrated outstanding professionalism in challenging times by extending support to people and communities at large by providing the war room software and related infrastructure. Given the uncertainties around the increasing number of COVID infections, we need to remain cautious and prepared for any situation. I am deeply appreciative of lcertis for their support in creating our War Room. Thanks to their unending commitment and focus, I feel confident that this solution will help combat any future calamity.”
When Icertis talks to prospects, one of the many benefits we emphasize are how CLM technology is a form of “insurance” against risk. The pandemic is just one example of the need for technology and digital transformation to change the way organizations operate during a crisis. Similarly, our Pune Police’s War Room application is a form of insurance against future COVID waves—we hope they don’t come, but the Pune Police will be prepared if it does.