Microsoft Business Applications MVP Rick McCutcheon speaks regularly with members of the Microsoft Business Applications channel, including Microsoft leaders, partners and ISV leadership.
Below is a transcribed record of his conversation with ITRAK 365's Michelle Bryan.
It has been edited for clarity and abridged for concision.
Rick McCutcheon: Great to talk with you again, Michelle. Can you tell me about your background and how it relates to ITRAK 365?
Michelle Bryan: Sure, Rick. Great to talk with you too. I’ve been working in health for 10 years. I’ve been a health and safety coach within the oil and gas, agriculture, logistics and transport industries.
I built a sort of (web-based) safety platform (to facilitate my clients’ needs) and as their needs grew, I was unable to meet what they needed and that’s when I found ITRAK 365. ITRAK 365 really helps a safety consultant save time. Instead of administrative work, we’re actually making a difference out in the field.
RM: How so?
MB: ITRAK 365 has 130 specific controls that are Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)-related or environment-related such as a risk matrix, hazard assessments and corrective action processes. They’re very fine-tuned to what an OHS professional, quality or environmental person is looking for. It allows you to work on what really matters and not spend all day in a spreadsheet.
RM: What kind of work are you doing that’s related to COVID-19?
MB: As OHS professionals, the ITRAK 365 team has developed 15 common use-case processes to assist employers with the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these include a worker’s self-assessment to determine if they’re fit to come to work, and a system for contact-tracing once they’re on the job site. We’re also working with our safety community and developing best-practices to determine what going back to work looks like. What are the hazard assessments, for example? There’s a process that each company is going through, asking, “Hey, should I be going back to work? Can I still work from home until things are back to normal? Is it economical?”
RM: How easy is it to pivot the system to whatever new rules come out?
MB: I can tell you that I developed new COVID-19 related forms and got them out onto the app for a client in a couple hours. They needed a couple changes, I tweaked the system, asked them to sync while the were out in the field and they said, “Wow! That was fast!” It’s a great platform and if you do need to change or tweak something, it’s super easy from the administrative side. (The client) can have it live in their hands right away.
RM: You’ve got both your user conference and your partner conference coming up. They’re going to be digital events, obviously. What can you tell me about them?
MB: At our annual conference, we like to showcase all the new things that our developers are doing. We’re always improving at ITRAK 365. Client requests come in along with some pretty cool use-case scenarios which inform the direction of our development. We love to showcase our new technology. We also have round tables with technical people and OHS people, and are doing some interesting work with associations that may not be safety, but are doing audits. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, auditors are unable to go on-site. We’re developing systems to administer audits remotely.
RM: Can somebody who doesn’t use ITRAK-365 attend one of your conferences?
MB: Oh! Absolutely! The conference is open to all and it’s definitely a good learning experience. From an OHS perspective, you can use it as personal development points for your CRSP or any sort of professional designation. We can provide points for continuing development and learning.