DE PERE, Wis. — COVID-19 wasn’t even a word when Richard Dubois and Forward Move brought YOU Get It First to market.
The platform was launched as a cloud-based mass messaging product. It’s marketed, in part, as a way to reduce response time and protect people in a mass shooting incidents to giving businesses and governmental agencies a way to make mass announcements to the public and followers.
In the last seven months it’s evolved to include a COVID-19 reporting tool. The expansion is built around the ability of administrators to query staff by a phone app with questions ranging from how they’re feeling and if they see anyone not feeling well in their vicinity. Those responses can be used to detect new infections and make informed decisions.
“[The responses are] put into a format for analysis, looking for trending and hot spots and any of those other area they have concerns over,” said Dubois, who is president of Froward Move, the Green Bay company behind YOU Get It First.
The COVID-19 tool grew out of work Forward Move did in creating a tool to account for employees after natural disasters — specifically hurricanes. It adapted that template to the current health crisis.
“When we came out with COVID reporting we knew it would be part of our suite of alerts that could really help for not only health and security, but safety and security, and those two things go together,” Dubois said.
Move Forward says the COVID-19 tool can be used for schools, businesses and government. It’s currently focused on offering it to educators.
The virus response is the latest use of the platform. In the past year police departments in De Pere and Appleton have used YOU Get First to connect with the public.
Residents who have downloaded the app receive notifications ranging from areas to avoid due to crashes or police incidents to notifications of missing people.
“Instead of having 10 cops looking for this person, now have 30,000 people. It makes a huge difference,” said Jedd Bradley, community service officer with the De Pere Police Department “We in law enforcement look at communication as key. If we don’t communicate with our community, we fail as a law enforcement agency.”
Dubois said it’s likely YOU Get It First will continue to grow, change and adapt.
“COVID is going to end, so then what?” He said. “When you speak to people who have done this before, they look at us and say, ‘You know what? We’re very fortunate you’ve created this tool because we now have an influenza tool coming right behind it. Now we can use it for reporting influenza when COVID is gone.’”