Whispir surges on coronavirus deal

The Victorian government is using Telstra-backed technology to communicate with people who have been exposed to coronavirus cases.

Jeromy Wells CEO of Whispir in his Melbourne office. Picture: David Geraghty for The Australian.

Shares in the Telstra Ventures-backed cloud communications provider known as “Whispir” have surged over 60 per cent after it struck a deal with the Victorian government to use its technology to communicate with those who have been exposed to coronavirus cases.

This week Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the app would enable greater interaction with close contacts, to more adequately ensure that they are observing quarantine requirements.

Until now, Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services contact tracing team has been sending text messages and making phone calls to close contacts.

"Effectively they are the detectives who contact anyone who has been tested positive, and then make contact with really close contacts and advise them of the need to self-isolate for 14 days," Ms Mikakos said.

The Whispir platform will now sending a more sophisticated text message to close contacts of COVID-19 cases.

"They will be then asked to interact in a way and respond back to the contact tracing team, so they will be prompted, they will be asked questions through that text message, whether they are in fact self-isolating at home, they’ll be asked to confirm that that is in fact the case, and they'll be asked whether they are experiencing any symptoms that are relevant to COVID-19, as well as whether they have in fact had to be tested for COVID-19,’’ she said.

Whispir shares closed up 60 per cent on Thursday at $1.20 each.

Whispir closed up 60 per cent at $1.20

“While the Victorian DHHS is the first Australian health authority to utilise our platform state- wide for its COVID-19 communications we have the ability to scale this service nationally for all Australians,’’ chief executive Jeromy Wells said.

It comes as school closures and tens of thousands of employees working from home is driving a spike in demand for cloud-based learning and communications platforms.

The need to provide timely communications is a big challenge for remote and non desktop-based workforces, particularly in the logistics and health sectors where regular emails might not be read immediately.

Whispir says it has experienced a surge in demand for its platform as companies seek to ensure they have the widest communications channel possible for their employees.

Whispir – which is backed by Telstra’s venture capital arm and floated on the ASX last June after raising $47m from new investors at $1.60 a share – uses SMS messaging to direct staff to a web-link, which can host video, audio and text based messages.

The platform can also allow staff to answer questions from management and other two-way communication. Customers include BHP, Qantas, Telstra, Red Cross, Australia Post and the NSW and Victorian ambulance services.

Mr Wells said the company had enlisted crisis communications experts and had developed coronavirus templates, which it is supplying to its customers.

“We have seen a significant uptick in activity across all the sectors we are operating in including government, transport and logistics, telcos, banking, finance, healthcare and insurance in particular,” Mr Wells said.

“Many of customers are sending out daily updates which are becoming this resonant heartbeat that employees don’t get anxious over.”

Mr Wells was mindful of giving an exact figure for the uplift, citing the company still operating under its prospectus forecast period.

However, in the six months to December 31, the company generated an operating loss of $4.8m, which was $1.6m ahead of its prospectus forecast. Meanwhile, revenue increased 20 per cent to $18.2m.

The company invested $4.4m in research and development during the half year which represented about 24 per cent of total revenue. Mr Wells has his eyes on a public listing in America, telling The Australian last year it will be a “legitimate candidate” within five years.

“The US remains our largest market opportunity. We remain focused on growing sustainably in this region, utilising our channel partners to target sectors where we have a unique sales proposition, in particular healthcare and government,” he said.

Online learning provider Education Perfect received more than 1600 enquiries over last weekend, following Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s ban on non-essential gatherings of more than 500 people in effort to slow the rate of infection. This compares with about 100 enquiries a week pre-pandemic.

Chief executive Alex Burke said about 1000 of the weekend enquiries were from the US.

“It just shows there is an element of worry in America and a lot of schools are scrambling to manage continuous learning,” Mr Burke told The Australian.

Education Perfect’s platform supports teachers, allowing them to set lessons, tasks and assessments, and monitor their students progress online. The Australian and New Zealand company has about 1 million users and supports 1400 schools in Australia.

NSW Nurses and Midwives Association general secretary Brett Holmes said hospital communications with staff was a challenge, particularly in the private sector, even pre-pandemic.

But he said the frequency of communications needed to be balanced.

“Certainly in the public system, everyone has got an email address and there are opportunities to receive information on broadcast but those same systems aren’t necessarily in place in aged care and private,” Mr Holmes said.

“Nurses are often generous with their employers and share their mobile numbers and private email addresses and use their own equipment because the communications are important.

“But we already have experiences in our public health system where people are sick of getting text messages, saying ’can you work an extra shift’, and that’s going to be multiplied during this pandemic.”

Additional reporting: Damon Kitney.