An app developed by a group of employees at the Bristol HQ of specialist financial services group Computershare could potentially save lives in an emergency similar to the Grenfell Tower fire, judges of a competition have said.
The app, which won the contest, was created as part of a ‘hackathon’ at this year’s RESI conference, one of the largest residential property market conferences in the UK.
Teams were set the challenge of developing tomorrow’s residential health and safety solutions. The Computershare contenders developed the app, named IRIS, to alert tenants and homeowners with informational broadcasts on incidents such as temporary power outages and other emergency information.
It also collects responses from users and tracks whether someone is safe or requires assistance, enabling clear priorities for the emergency services.
Conrad Davies, partner and head of real estate in the Bristol office of international law firm Osborne Clarke – who was a member of the hackathon judging panel – said: “The judges were impressed with all of the entries, but IRIS stood out with their novel approach to handling communication with individuals during an emergency.
“The team developed a functioning prototype app and were able to demonstrate a practical solution to a real-life problem by using technology in a way that could support the emergency services and potentially save lives.”
The six teams taking part in the hackathon were given five hours to develop a prototype app or digital solution to address residential health and safety.
Computershare UK chief executive officer Naz Sarkar added: “This is a fantastic achievement and could really make a difference in an emergency.
“This app is an excellent example of how technology can be used to best effect when applied in new ways, something we always strive to achieve.
“Having already run our own successful hackathon events, it’s great to see our employees using their skills to help others.”
The winning team was made up of Roger Fyfe, Graeme McCall, Thomas O’Connor and Kranthi Veeramachaneni, who all work in technology services at Computershare.
Computershare employs more than 1,500 people at its UK headquarters at Bedminster Down. The firm was founded in Australia in 1978 and is a world leader in high integrity data management, high volume transaction processing and reconciliations, payments and stakeholder engagement.
Pictured, Team IRIS: From left, Thomas O’Connor, Graeme McCall, Roger Fyfe and Kranthi Veeramachaneni, at Computershare’s office in Bristol following their award win
