Over the last two years, we have all become accustomed to crises. Pandemic, explosions, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, refugee crises, terrorist attacks, mass shootings… the list goes on. All of these things have happened over the last two years and across the globe. China, Lebanon, Haiti, the USA, Australia, Afghanistan, the UK; nowhere is free from the occasional catastrophe.

Fortunately, the world of the twenty-first century has once again provided the best tools to cope with these scenarios. Included in that number is software. New applications can relay data about the weather, seismic activity, volcanic eruption, temperature, sea level, etc. directly to almost anywhere in the world. Being able to condense this data into actionable insights is an important next step in the genre of crisis management.

Three companies have partnered together to ensure that this is exactly what’s going to happen.

Keeping watch on critical events

In 2018, Hugh Farquhar and Daniel Whatmuff founded WatchKeeper, a company dedicated to improving the way that security events are managed globally. Armed with 15 years of experience in corporate security and a background in software development and cloud-based platforms between them, the duo collaborated to develop the next generation of critical event management software.

They weren’t alone either, as Dataminr and IBM The Weather Company quickly joined WatchKeeper to form a trio of world-leading risk and geospatial data providers. Dataminr has since acquired WatchKeeper to bring their insights into their own crisis management services. Together, these three companies provide a bird’s eye view of world events – quite literally.

The WatchKeeper software allows users to monitor a single event feed with vendor risk data, triage events, filter events to find those that matter, and narrow down to a real-time risk newsfeed. Once you have narrowed the field to specific areas, you can even coordinate a response and assign tasks from the program itself.

The software even has a function for alerting the user to potential crises automatically. With the ability to track everything from tropical storms and winter weather to wildfires and water levels, this software presents a useful tool for those with a need to know about the world’s crises.
The WatchKeeper website boasts of the diverse usability of this software too. Just some of the uses include real estate management, smart city security, corporate security, non-profit uses, aviation, maritime, and travel.

One example of how this software operates is managing real estate. Managing a real-estate portfolio, as the WatchKeeper website aptly concludes, is a complex job. This software enables developers to keep tabs on potential risks to their assets, set automatic alerts for events near their properties, and send out mass notifications to tenants and security teams in the event of the worst outcomes.

The usability of WatchKeeper Crisis Management Software

As the news cycle will demonstrate, the number of critical events around the globe has seen an increase in recent years. Rescue.org released a prediction in 2020 that there would be three big things to watch out for this year:

‘The triple threat of conflict, climate change and COVID-19 is driving the crises in nearly all Emergency Watchlist countries, threatening famine in several in 2021.’

Needless to say, these predictions rang true as 2021 saw large numbers of people die from COVID-19, conflict in countries like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ethiopia; and climate disasters like the heat dome over North-Western America. The market for this software, unfortunately, is a growing one. Many countries experience the effects of disaster and crisis each and every day. Being able to properly predict, model, and respond to these crises is a significant aid in diminishing the effects of said crises.

The WatchKeeper software has broken into a niche that few have thought to develop in before. Being able to deploy AI and data-driven strategies to safeguard and even prevent crises from occurring is certainly a bit of next-generation thinking. The trends suggest that crises will continue to become more frequent, more violent, and more widespread as time goes on. The implementation of a large-scale piece of software like this three-year-old program could help to prevent the loss of life, assets, and more.

Outlook for AI-driven software

Artificial Intelligence software is becoming increasingly sought after across markets. Healthcare, life sciences, environmental protection agencies, crime agencies, justice systems, and research facilities are all seeking to benefit from the progress of AI.

Only time will tell how far the adoption of AI technology will go but the innovation of this technology in the field of crisis management is certainly a step towards a future where AI complements the interests of human beings at a functional level. Put simply, ensuring the perpetuation and longevity of the human race will come to depend, to some degree, on the progression and longevity of AI systems. WatchKeeper could be one of the first steps in that journey.

About the Author: Isaac Knowles

Isaac Knowles is a contributing current affairs Features writer. He focuses on social issues which face everyday people and has written on topics such as race, feminism, and poverty. While endeavouring to write in-depth pieces that make real-world impacts, Isaac has developed significant expertise in the fields of politics, economics, and human rights.