EWE NETZ introduces CALIMA digital emergency system
The young Berlin-based start-up CALIMA has reached another milestone in its corporate history. After the company was only launched last May, the founders Tim Hautkappe, Katharina Hochmuth and Michael Zerbin have now won their first major customer, EWE NETZ.
However, Tim Hautkappe and Katharina Hochmuth are not entirely new to the security industry. With their app "KommGutHeim," they have been making women feel safer on the road since 2014. "We developed KommGutHeim when we were both still in college. Due to the media attention, companies kept contacting us asking whether our app could actually be used to protect their employees. And that's how the idea for CALIMA was born," says Katharina Hochmuth about the company's origins.
The founders' first target group was the 8.5 million lone workers in Germany. Lone working refers to activities that take place out of call and out of sight of other people. In emergency situations, such as a fall, attack or medical emergency, there is no one on hand to provide quick assistance. Because of this problem, the DGUV (German Social Accident Insurance) has also already launched various regulations that place the onus on the employer to provide an effective rescue chain, especially for people working alone. "However, many companies have so far lacked effective and affordable solutions to meet this obligation. In addition to the serious consequences for the lone workers, they run the risk of the associated penalties," explains Michael Zerbin. Although so-called personal emergency signal systems already existed to provide this protection, they were impractical and expensive devices that employees had to carry with them. As a result, they were previously only used in critical hazard areas. "We wanted to make digitization usable for employee protection as well and offer a digital, intuitive and affordable solution," explains Tim Hautkappe, who is responsible for the technical implementation of the system.
The startup struck a nerve with this - and in less than a year has been able to acquire customers from a wide range of industries. These range from production, energy and service companies to public authorities and care services. Network operator EWE NETZ has now also decided to use this new technology to protect its employees. "The protection of our employees has the highest priority for us as a company. For this reason, we naturally want to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalization. CALIMA is a user-friendly and intuitive product. We are convinced that we can use it to protect our employees in the best possible way at all times," explains Wiebke Karpa-Muhle, chief security officer at EWE NETZ. The company has been using the technology since January of this year.
