New Salesforce tool to help businesses manage their reopening strategies

Cloud-based software company Salesforce has announced the launch of Safety Cloud, a service that helps businesses better manage their entry protocols at events and/or in the workplace by streamlining COVID-19 testing and health status reporting on a single platform. 

For example, if first responders test positive through an integrated testing platform, they no longer need to visit a physical location to verify their health status in-person to get approval for paid leave. Test results are automatically loaded into the platform, enabling organizations to better track the availability of critical workers to ensure adequate staffing is in place, Salesforce explains. 

Safety Cloud supports integrations with at-home, pharmacy, and on-site testing options, including CVS Health, eMed, Cue Health, ixlayer, and Senneca DX, each of which can be connected directly to Safety Cloud. Though the company doesn’t have any Canadian testing providers currently pre-integrated, it does have several conversations underway and any provider can be integrated by a customer, a spokesperson for Salesforce told IT Business. 

In addition, Safety Cloud will support SMART Health Cards and EU Digital COVID Certificates, which are paper or digital versions of clinical information such as vaccination history or test results, Salesforce noted in a Feb. 1 announcement. Canada’s COVID-19 proof of vaccination has adopted the SMART Health Card standard – each passport will have the SMART Health Card QR code. Safety Cloud will be supporting this in late March, the spokesperson told the publication.

Additional features of Safety Cloud enable customers to:

• Build flexible, scalable protocols to bring people back together safely at events with evolving COVID-19 health and safety protocols, including testing and vaccine status requirements, identity and registration, and personalized communication journeys as public health guidelines change. For example, a business hosting a large-scale customer event can define and automate attendee testing protocols, including sending personalized emails about testing requirements and deadlines, ultimately helping to identify positive COVID-19 cases before the event even begins.
• Automate workplace entry and combine identification and health status into a Dreampass – a multifactor pass for validated access. For example, an HR team focused on getting its employees and contractors back to the workplace safely can now automate entry into a building with a secure digital pass once a negative COVID-19 test result is detected.

Salesforce says it has now used different features from Safety Cloud to reopen 84 of its offices globally and host two large-scale company events, helping employees, customers, and partners feel safer. For its Dreamforce 2021 San Francisco and New York City events alone, Salesforce facilitated more than 21,500 COVID-19 tests and verified more than 8,000 vaccine credentials, helping more than 4,500 attendees get together safely.

Accenture is one of several companies globally that has been using Salesforce to support its return to the workplace strategy, while Traction on Demand is using Salesforce to bring its employees and event attendees together safely.

“During what has been one of the most challenging years in recent history, Salesforce has been a key partner in helping us enable our return-to-work approach, which is grounded in the health and wellbeing of our people as the top priority,” said Ryan Powell, Salesforce Innovation Lead at Accenture.

While the initial release of Safety Cloud will focus on event use cases, Salesforce says the functionality will include additional tools around Safety Cloud for workplaces and beyond later in 2022.