Wavin takes on QR codes with wave-and-go check-in
QR code check-in is being adopted throughout Australia but could wave-and-go be a simpler solution?
Hello and welcome to The Download, The Australian’s technology blog for the latest tech news.
David Swan 12.30pm: Daisee to help with ‘post-COVID world’
Voice interactions represent the future of customer experience, according to Australian entrepreneur Richard Kimber, the brains behind AI platform Daisee Essence.
Daisee uses artificial intelligence smarts to help businesses find and engage with customer intent via contact centres and phone support, by analysing 100 per cent of voice interactions and extracting key messages.
Kimber says that AI allows businesses the key to predict, understand and respond to customer needs in real-time, and will be crucial in a post-COVID business landscape.
“Businesses are facing the hardest prospects of any generation in years. Looking down the barrel of a recession, it’s time to admit that their customer experience is what will set them apart in a post-COVID world, where online purchases are even more popular and online brands are more competitive,” Kimber says.
“CRM systems are static and old fashioned, relying on information being manually entered and collected. Essence gives you a completely new and dynamic way of knowing what all your customers are really experiencing in their interactions deriving the key issues that are driving voice interactions.”
The Australian business raised $8.8m to date and recently launched a partnership with MYOB.
Chris Griffith 9.50am: Wavin offers wave-and-go venue check-in
The move towards using QR codes for checking into venues is gathering pace. It’s shaping as a less technically challenging way to perform contact tracing compared to apps that try to match the Bluetooth signals between phones. You typically provide your name, phone number, email address and date and time of entry.
From today it becomes compulsory in NSW for venues such as cafes and restaurants, gyms, pools and certain businesses to provide QR code check in. Manual pen-and-paper check-in is out.
In NSW organisations can use a privately-developed QR code system however the NSW Government is encouraging them to use the Service NSW COVID Safe Check-in system provided by the government. Venues use a government supplied QR code and patrons have the Service NSW app loaded on their phone. Users don’t have to repetitively type in their personal details every time they check-in – the details are taken from the Service NSW app – and the data is securely uploaded to the NSW Health contact tracing database.
If COVID-19 cases are found, the computer database can be quickly searched to find which venues an infected person attended and who their contacts were.
Victoria meanwhile has been developing its own co-ordinated approach to contract tracing using a system provided by Salesforce.
However, there may be room to develop this concept further by replacing QR codes with swiping your phone on a sensor as you enter a venue. You wouldn’t need to open your phone’s camera app to capture a QR code.
A Melbourne firm called Wavin has developed a wave-to-check-in system that offers exactly that and is making it available to retailers, venues, cafes and other business. You wave your phone over the sensor and your contact details are transferred using NFC (near field communication).
It may not work as universally as QR codes (some cheaper and older phones don’t have NFC), but it would make check ins and check-outs more convenient for patrons. It’s a similar process to tapping your credit card or phone on a payments sensors at a shop.
Wavin says its NFC system is faster, simpler and safer than QR codes. says visitors can simply “wave in”.
CEO Bernadene Voss says Wavin already is partnering with St John Ambulance Victoria, Fed Square, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and numerous others to use the technology in Melbourne. It’s also being made available in other parts of the country.
Wavin says the system can be made to work with centralised check-in data collection systems where this is used, such as in Victoria and NSW.
Whether this will have traction in NSW remains to be seen with NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello recently telling The Australian that a QR code system can be adopted more universally than a wireless NFC one.
Ms Voss says older devices can use our SeQR Codes with its system. “Wavin has been designed to provide contact tracing authorities with rapid access to the data that they need, and can be delivered securely to new internal government back-end systems as they evolve. Our job is to make it easy, fast and secure for everyone to follow this new behaviour to keep us all safe.“
Wavin says the usage cost is $24 per month.
Chris Griffith 9.20am: Parler gains traction in Australia
The Australian today reported how conservative social media site Parler is quickly gaining traction in the US, going from a reported 4.5 million users to 8 million users in a week, with the US election fallout the key driver.
It’s not only the US. Some fringe Australian groups are quickly signing up for the platform. For example, the anti-vaccination movement already is active on Parler including in Australia. It is not only posting questionable health material on the platform, but also advertising upcoming events such as the Vaxxed Downunder NSW Tour being held across 12 regional centres.
The no 5G Australia lobby also has registered an account on Parler in just the past few days. The first post is a photo which says: “5G is untested experimental technology”.
Parler’s existence will be a wake-up call for organisations concerned about these groups which won’t be going away anytime soon. If their posts are banned from one social media platform, they will simply pop up on another. The challenge is to take on these groups and their arguments on the platforms they use.
Why that Valentine’s Day gift might head back to the shop
Australians returned more than $11m in gifts, or 88,600 items, in the fortnight after Christmas and it could be down to people cashing in what they can to make ends meet, a data collector says.
CEO still MIA as Richard White is back with a vengeance
WiseTech says it is progressing with its search for a new chief, as Richard White wastes no time settling into his new $1m a year consulting role at the company he took some brief leave from.