Rapid Response launched with Pamoja Cloud service

Rapid Response, the recipient of numerous accolades including the most-innovative submission in the ICT category of the International Labour Organisation’s Enterprise Challenge in 2013, is now serving the needs of South Africans by providing an immediate link to aid during emergencies. The award-winning emergency mobile app has engaged Pamoja, SEACOM’s Cloud services business unit, as the Hosting Partner. Pamoja is tasked to host the website, offer the required cloud solutions and avail access to the broader market.

Pamoja, recognized for its expertise in providing wholesale Cloud computing solutions, works with telecommunication firms, internet service providers, and other related services across Southern and East Africa.

Created with mobile, GPS, and NFC technologies in mind, Rapid Response has developed applications like Rapid Attack Response and Rapid Accident Response. The purpose of these applications is to instantaneously alert emergency services and ensure lightning fast responses to attacks or accidents.

Marlize Holtzhausen, Director at Rapid Response, espouses the uniqueness of their mobile emergency application which is an amalgamation of cell phone and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Holtzhausen, like many of her peers, is proud of the app’s potential to safeguard precious lives by rapidly deploying emergency services to the exact location.

The application’s user-friendly mechanism allows it to be activated either by operating the volume button on a mobile phone, tapping the “I am in Trouble Button”, or swiping any NFC tag carefully positioned around the house or a vehicle.

Additionally, the app transmits vital information including the precise incident location, a map to guide emergency services, and pertinent insurance and medical aid details. The ER24 call centre subsequently stays connected with the victim or their family throughout the emergency situation.

Moreover, Rapid Response comes with an automatic back-up facility for a phone’s contents. Through the Rapid Response website, lost or stolen mobile phones can be tracked and traced, provided there is internet connectivity in the area where the phone is located.

The origins of Rapid Response can be traced back to a harrowing crime suffered by Holtzhausen’s family. Along with her business partner, Gerrit Cloete, the duo passionately worked to conceive a more efficient and handy tool for people in distress to prompt an SOS for faster, effective reaction times by emergency responders.

Lastly, Rapid Response is available to everyone with a mobile phone, regardless of connections to insurance or medical aid providers.

Albie Bester, CEO at Pamoja, upholds the power of technology in empowering end-users and lends his full support to the initiative.

Seeing the considerable public interest since the product’s launch in July 2014, Cloete has confirmed that Rapid Response plans to roll out more services in the future.

*source: BizTech Africa*