Southland company leading the way for tracking COVID-19

6 May 2020

With tracing and testing capacity essential to the eradication of COVID-19, one Southland company is leading the way with their innovative traceability application.


Inspired by an obvious need to be able to track where people had been during lockdown, Invercargill company Digital Stock has developed, implemented, and now made available a touchless login system.

Even better still, they have made the system, known as ‘CHECKIN-19’, freely available so that all businesses can benefit from its use.

Digital Stock Chief Executive Jim Dowling said the application, which provided businesses with an effective and efficient way of capturing essential information, had already recorded 800 organisational checkpoints with over a thousand ‘no touch’ check-ins/outs occurring each day. 

“There’s no question that the outbreak of COVID-19 has challenged traditional workplace health and safety systems. We’ are excited that this application gives businesses confidence in their ability to track and trace essential information and keep their staff and customers safe,” he said.

One of those businesses is Great South, who has implemented ‘CHECKIN-19’ as a way of ensuring the tracking and safety of its staff who are required to carry out work on-site at the Awarua Satellite Ground Station and at its office on Spey Street.

Great South GM for Strategic Projects, Stephen Canny, said Digital stock’s application aligns with the approach being recommended by the World Health Organisation for strengthening contact tracing and managing priority populations.

“The ease of this application and the accuracy it provides, gives us an increased level of confidence in our operations and provides us with tools and information to keep our staff, and any contractors we may be interacting with, safe at any alert level,” he said.

Mr Canny said Great South was proud to be able to support a local business who had used a challenging and unsettling time to produce something of significant value for businesses across New Zealand.

“The innovative approach of Digital Stock, and the many others in the region who are supporting Southland’s economic re-start, is something we can all be proud of. With this initiative and innovative type of thinking the region is going to be well-placed to respond stronger than ever when the alert levels are lifted,”

Given the ease-of-use and significance of the application, along with the Government’s requirement to be able to trace people’s movement to track COVID-19, Great South has been advocating for the platform to be distributed through major application stores.