The Tech Companies Coming Together to Support Project N95
All of Project N95’s non-profit efforts greatly rely on software tools and technology that facilitate productive, secure and isolated working environments. Since the entirety of our incredibly devoted, yet distributed volunteer team is remote, our collaborative achievements would be nonexistent without the tools that enable us to work together effectively. And we’re not just talking about instant messaging or emailing platforms; helpful companies like AirTable and Zapier work to organize our intense databases and workflows, helping us to connect verified suppliers to the frontline workers that need essential medical equipment. Many platforms are even providing a significant amount of in-kind contributions that allow us to continue to function as a non-profit. Without these tools, our eight-week old organization would never have even made it off the ground.
Rather than “reinvent the wheel,” we instituted a variety of available software platforms to advance our workflows right from the start. Our selected services not only enable remote work, but they also offer verified systems that ensure the security of our data and contribute to processes that empower our team to respond to the COVID-19 crisis as efficiently as possible. With these tools, we feel confident that the information provided by frontline workers and medical equipment manufacturers is secure, ensuring safety and transparency when it comes to our sustainable procurement strategies.
Here are some of our valued programs and the in-kind services they are providing.
None of our work would be possible without our partnership with Airtable and their dedicated full-time staff. This central data platform organizes a variety of content into a spreadsheet like environment that allows each team within the organization to share data. Not only can each team leverage the platform to best suit their particular functions, but access can be controlled to promote data integrity, safety and accuracy. This year, Airtable will provide roughly $40,000 worth of enterprise to Project N95 and about 80 hours of support. And to help keep all our databases organized, we have…
This software tool layers a user portal on top of an Airtable (or Google) database for a view that’s easy to understand. The sleek interface permits users to create an app to control who can view and edit rows within a spreadsheet, highlighting only important info and ensuring unique data access across departments. It would be near impossible to keep our intense Airtable data organized without the addition of Stacker and their supporting team. So far, Stacker has sponsored six pro portals, saving Project N95 roughly $2,000 per month.
This scalable business messaging platform enables our team to directly connect with prospective and existing frontline organizations through their app, website and via email. Not only are they connecting us with the frontline workers that need vetted suppliers, but they are also comping us almost $9,500 per month while doing so.
This leading iPaaS platform addresses essential use cases required for automating integration services, allowing businesses to build functions and rollout automation securely. Workato empowers Project N95 by automating the movement of data between our Airtable database and Intercom communications. This means we get to stay in-sink and leverage Intercom to send timely, targeted communications to everyone involved with our work, including our volunteers and suppliers. Not to mention, Workato is comping all services provided to Project N95, which would otherwise have cost $1,500 a month.
LVRG is a comprehensive supply chain management platform that enables procurement teams to make informed and strategic decisions by using key business metrics through the collection of critical data. With their ability to automate vendor performance tracking and application of end-to-end sourcing modules that include intelligent matching algorithms, LVRG is providing invaluable engineering functions to support Project N95’s core strategies related to sourcing, matching and bidding. LVRG is donating $1 million worth of in-kind services as the technical platform that powers Project N95.
Panjiva – A division of S&P Global
Thanks to Panjiva, our team is able to view supply chain insights and identify alternative sources of PPE and other important medical necessities. Through easy to understand data visualizations that provide immediate insight into companies through various international supply chains, we are able to see real-time logistics on manufactures, buyers, shipping and other aspects of global trade without spending a dime. Through the services provided to Project N95, Panjiva has donated roughly $90,000 while supporting our efforts.
Instead of building our own custom CRON jobs or APIs, Project N95 utilizes Zapier. This tool integrates different apps and services to automate repetitive tasks that can be shared with our team. With a globally distributed SRE and security team, we can continue our work while knowing that our internal data and workflows remain secured.
Sendgrid is a customer-based communication platform offered by Twilio. With their email API, companies can send bulk emails, maximizing inbox placement and allowing our various teams to collaborate on critical communication outreach strategies.
In addition to Sendgrid, Twilio also offers…
This tool allows customers to manage contact centers through a cloud-based infrastructure on a fully programmable platform. Through Twilio Flex, developers can create, change or extend their contact centers, easily adding remote agents, new channels, chatbots and IVR. But that’s not all; in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Twilio has launched their Flex Boost program. This service provides technical, operational and financial resources for those that are struggling under the current crisis or for those that are working to directly assist those in need. With Flex Boost, customers have access to guides, tutorials and sample code that can be used as starting points for demonstrating best practices when operating a distributed contact center.
This incredibly devoted team has not only comped 100% of their services to Project N95, but they are also working to secure a grant that would comp $5,000 at a minimum.
As Project N95 began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our efforts required a means to quickly develop our website and establish an organized workflow while the majority of volunteers continued to work separate, full-time jobs. This could not have been possible without the help from Netlify. With rapid website deployment, this tool allowed our team to quickly deploy our site with dynamic integration functionality. This multi-cloud infrastructure is also automated to scale and provides reliability when it comes to the security of deployment pipelines.
These tools enabled our organization to launch as efficiently as possible at a moment in time when rapid action was notably of the essence. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we are confident that these tools will continue to aid our efforts in supporting those that need it the most.
To date, Project N95 has connected 2,271 frontline organizations with medical equipment suppliers through our vetting and procurement methods. This could not have been possible without the in-kind contributions of our various software tools. For that, we’d like to thank our platforms for connecting us to the frontline workers that need this medical equipment the most, to the vetted suppliers that can provide verified equipment quickly and, of course, to each other.
