Finalist at Microsoft NZ Partner Awards

6 November 2020

EVA Check-in was announced this week as a finalist in a new category at the Microsoft NZ Partner Awards. It's up for the ISV Partner Award, recognising  independent and unique software products built on the Microsoft platform.

We're delighted to be shortlisted - in excellent company, and in a challenging year, as Matt Bostwick, Commercial Partner Director at Microsoft New Zealand explains:

“2020 has seen the term ‘digital transformation’ take on new meaning for almost every kiwi organisation. What we’ve been most impressed by is the way in which this has shone through in the submissions – across the board we’ve seen our partner network helping businesses, government agencies and community organisations achieve more, all under tough conditions and short timeframes. We were blown away with the calibre of this year’s entries and it was so pleasing to see such a diverse range of entries across a large range of partners.”

EVA Check-in - the story so far

Preparing the award entry was a great opportunity to reflect on the EVA journey so far - what a ride it's been!

In April this year in the midst of level 4 lockdown, we invented EVA Check-in – a contactless check-in solution. Designed to help organisations with their guest register requirements, EVA Check-in was built and launched in just 12 days. In the 6 months since then, it’s gone on to become a successful product with now more than 3 million contactless, fast and secure check-ins across more than 500 customers and thousands of sites.

Privacy-first design on secure Azure technology

With responsibility for millions of people’s contact details, strong security and privacy-first design of the application is critical, and made easier with Azure technology.

EVA Check-in encrypts all personal information received and holds it safely in Azure’s Australian data center, while collecting only the minimum amount of information required to perform the check-in. It doesn’t go off-shore to countries with less stringent security and poor privacy records. Organisations nominate those who have authorised access, and they can access this information if they are required to release it to the relevant Health Department as part of a COVID-19 tracing operation.

All information access is tracked and audited, providing accountability for all those who have access, and that access can be managed via Microsoft Account login for an extra layer of security. Information is kept only for as long as required and then is automatically deleted. These strong security protocols and a privacy-first design mean EVA Check-in has been approved for use in a government context.

Developing a visitor sign in solution that meets customer needs

Since the initial launch of EVA Check-in in April, we have maintained an active product development programme. This is always informed by customer feedback – whether received directly as part of our sales/support process, or via an issue surfaced on our automated FAQ Bot, Eva, who appears on both our marketing and customer admin portal sites to answer questions from both customers and prospects.

Mobile apps came soon after launch. Our Android and iOS apps are optional extras with additional features, which work particularly well in the sports context – a key customer segment.

EVA Kiosk – for check-in on tablet devices

More recently, we’ve added support for kiosk mode – allowing customers to use any tablet device for check in – from Microsoft Surface, to Android, to iPad.

We have a number of existing EVA Check-in customers in the aged residential care sector. Their feedback was that not all visitors had their own phones, and they wanted to avoid going back to paper-based check in. We developed kiosk so that organisations could manage all check-ins in one system, whether their visitors had their own device or not. The uptake has been great, with organisations in the sports, healthcare, business, primary industries and education sectors using it as their visitor management system.

Our ‘meeting with’ feature, synchronised with Active Directory, allows EVA kiosk to work as a full reception experience, with notifications to the host possible via many channels, including email, SMS and Microsoft Teams.

Kiosk mode works alongside QR code check-ins, so those who do have phones can stay contact free.

What's next for EVA Check-in?

We're working on further enhancements to the check-in experience, including more advanced workflows for different types of visitors and organisations and adding geo-fencing options for check-in/out reminders through the mobile app.

See all EVA Check-in features