This article is the sixth in the series on Covid-19 and Cloud Integration.

In the previous article we looked at specific Covid-19 business scenarios for Government.  In this article we address the final set of business scenarios looking at Service Businesses, Recreation, Entertainment, Travel, and Risk management, identifying where integration technologies can assist in our progress. 

Service / Repair
This type of scenario involves physical location proximity.  It includes scenarios such as a person coming to your house to do work or bringing an item (e.g. automobile) to a business location for service.  Customers in these scenarios are trying to understand and minimize their potential health risk.  Businesses need to provide information regarding their interaction process and steps they are taking to minimize customer risk.  Businesses should also try to maintain a safe social distance when possible to allow the worker and item to be co-located safely.  For example, dropping the car at the service shop and leaving the keys in the car as the owner moves away and the technician obtains control of the vehicle or service technicians arriving at a home yet keeping a safe distance from the customer during the work effort.

Solutions include using a mobile app for communication rather than face to face discussion.  Data regarding the repairs, estimates, approvals, etc. are transacted via the app rather than verbal agreements and signatures.  APIs are used for authenticated access of both the customer and service technician.  Messaging is used to put work on a queue for the next available technician.  Application integration updates work records and retrieves the information to be sent to the customer.  And, events are used as status changes along the process to move the scenario forward.

Recreation / Entertainment
Social isolation has been challenging for many and people are looking for things available to do safely for recreation and entertainment.  For many this has started with movies, games, or other content downloaded to their computers or tablets.  Large file transfers are used to download this content, with APIs to handle requests and application integration and messaging to take any payments involved.

For outdoor recreation activities, scheduling of safe and available activities is needed.  The line/queue techniques described earlier along with reservations/appointments support this type of recreation activity.  Some predict that alternatives that allow for social distancing may make a comeback – such as drive in movies.

Travel
The travel industry has been tremendously impacted by Covid-19 with people simply not traveling.  The industry is changing procedures to ensure the safety of their customers through enhanced cleaning, spacing between customers, and providing/using protective personal equipment.   As more people start to travel the increasing numbers may stress these new processes and systems which were able to function in a reduced travel situation.  As flight schedules start to return to normal and turnaround times between planes or guests in hotels or rental car customers start to challenge the time for readying the plane, hotel room, or car for the next iteration the processes need to become more efficient.

Integration technologies help make effective use of the time between customers.  Events signify an approach of a plane, departure of a hotel guest, or exiting rental car customer.  Application integration and messaging start the processes necessary to have all the required personnel and materials in place and ready to perform the enhanced cleaning as soon as possible to maximize the use of resources and minimize the extra time required between clients.

Risk Management
Covid-19 introduces a new form of business risk.  We have already discussed supply chain disruption as an example.  Businesses in some industries want to obtain data to assess their risk or opportunity.  Accessing information regarding Covid-19 spikes in certain regions and trends upward or downward affect business planning and contingencies.  The Covid-19 analytics dashboard mentioned previously is a source for this information.  Insurance companies can provide Covid-19 information to their clients to help avoid business interruption and use the information themselves for understanding / estimating the exposure of their clients.  Changes in data are provided as streaming events and APIs and application integration are used by consuming businesses to incorporate the risk information into business processes and file/data transfers are used to acquire the core data as needed.

Disclaimer: these scenarios are not based on actual implementations although many businesses may already be executing in a similar manner.  Suggested implementations are only one example as to how each scenario may be addressed. These are provided to provoke ideas, not prescribe a solution.

The series continues and concludes with a call to action.

If you have questions or want to engage, please let me know.  Connect with me via twitter @Arglick or Linkedin to continue the discussion.  

Graphics courtesy of Pixabay.com – Annalise Batista, Markus Distelrath, Jan Vašek, and Mohamed Hassan