iSafeNet has released Office Buddy, an iPhone application for lone worker protection, which is already being used by Linc-Cymru Housing Association’s field staff on their iPhones to complement their existing paper-based buddying system.
James Bulgo, senior ICT officer, Linc-Cymru Housing Association and developer of Office Buddy, said, “I had the idea for Office Buddy while reviewing some of the lone worker devices which we were looking at. I then started to work on this as a personal project as I am an independent iPhone developer in addition to my day job at Linc-Cymru.”
Office Buddy is a navigation application which enables users to locate their position using the iPhone’s built-in GPS facility and allows them to email or send a SMS text to a nominated contact with their location and one of the predefined ‘office buddy’ messages. The buddy will then receive an email that details the user’s actual location in a text format with a link to Google Maps.
Office Buddy is available now from the iTunes AppStore for around £1.99 ($2.99) per device. iSafeNet has also submitted an update to Apple which will allow users to dial the emergency services directly from the application; this is expected to be available soon.
