Salesforce to the rescue in Victoria with automated contact tracing

US tech giant Salesforce has detailed its involvement in Victoria’s contact-tracing program for the first time.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews: ‘The Salesforce product … is about trying to consolidate and align many different platforms into one platform.’ Picture: Wayne Taylor

US tech giant Salesforce has detailed its involvement in Victoria’s contact-tracing program for the first time, after the state overhauled its “pen and paper” processes following widespread criticism and a rising second wave of coronavirus cases.

Victoria last week announced it would deploy technology from $300bn software provider Salesforce, which would provide a digitised contact-tracing system and allow public health teams to work remotely. The state had previously relied on manual processes, including fax machines, for vital contact-tracing work.

Speaking to The Australian, Salesforce general manager for public sector Barry Dietrich said the key technology powering contact-tracing efforts was Salesforce’s Health Cloud, specifically the Emergency Response Management Public Health Cloud.

“The Salesforce platform consolidates the information contact tracers need to get the job done into one trusted, secure, single source of truth,” Mr Dietrich said.

“Imagine the contact tracer has received a new case. Using the Salesforce platform they are guided through the steps to trace the contacts of that person and interact with them. Similar to other platforms, steps include organising an interview, uploading the information from that interview and notifying known contacts, for example. But with Salesforce there’s a greater capacity for data to be ­visualised into a map of known contacts to help the contact tracer piece it all together.”

The executive added that all of the information on the platform was then made available daily for the relevant commonwealth and state reporting.

Alongside Victoria, Salesforce is working with Western Australia and South Australia on contact tracing. The company also has contact-tracing agreements with the New Zealand government, the government of Ontario in Canada and 35 states in the US including California, Rhode Island and Texas.

“How every government uses Salesforce’s contact tracing platform is different (but) the principles are the same. Manual contact tracing is the gold standard for dealing with a pandemic in this situation,” Mr Dietrich said.

“Contact tracing itself is a relatively mature practice and has been used globally to effectively address outbreaks. The practice is already well known, but the technologies that support it have ­advanced rapidly.

“The Salesforce platform is perfectly positioned for this kind of situation where speed matters. We’re proud to be supporting the Victorian contact-tracing effort and the frontline workers in Victoria Health. They’re on the frontline of the response and we’re very grateful for their work and sacrifice. Our goal is to do everything we can to make their job easier.”

Premier Daniel Andrews said at a press conference last week: “The Salesforce product … is about trying to consolidate and align many different platforms into one platform. That is happening now and just means that there is less pen and paper, there is less manual data entry.”

Victoria had also previously deployed SMS notification technology from ASX-listed cloud communications company Whispir, and its chief executive Jeromy Wells told The Australian his contract with the state government had not changed.

“Whispir plays a vital role in supporting the DHHS. Our involvement in contact tracing for COVID-19 accounts for one important area with the department using our platform for a broad range of stakeholder communications. Our partnership with the DHHS has not changed,” Mr Wells said.

“Contact tracing involves extensive behind-the-scenes co-­ordination between governments, their departments, statutory authorities, local councils, organisations and communities,” he said.

“One of the key benefits of Whispir is that the platform easily integrates with other IT systems and solutions, including Salesforce. While the review of processes currently in use and possible contact tracing refinements that could be made is under way, Whispir takes its role in this important process seriously and will work alongside Salesforce and other providers and the DHHS to ensure it can be as effective and seamless as possible.

“This may well involve further process automation that can help the contact tracers improve response times and co-ordinate further action accordingly, ensuring those who have been in close contact with COVID are informed as soon as possible.”

A Victorian DHHS spokeswoman said Salesforce was chosen because it “demonstrated effectiveness in fighting COVID-19 around the world”, while Whispir had been used for other purposes within the department but was expanded to include SMS for contact-tracing messages to cases and contacts early in the pandemic.

“Throughout the pandemic we’ve always looked to continuously improve the way we fight this deadly virus,” she said.