The world’s leading medical and travel security services group has unveiled its new Assistance App for 2014.
This essential tool is aimed at business travellers and expatriates. It delivers crucial information, advice and connectivity into the palm of their hands.
Brian Cheah, Business Development Director, I&T and Medical Consulting, SSEA said: “This is a traveller’s ultimate tool for overcoming obstacles they may come up against while overseas. Simple to use, it provides immediate access to the full strength of International SOS’ global information and assistance network.”
The new Assistance App is designed to assist the traveller in a wide range of situations, putting peace of mind into their pocket or handbag. It might be the need to speak to a doctor, or a security professional when a threat is developing on location. With the App in hand, travellers can also let their employers know exactly where they are when requiring help.
The Assistance App gives instant access to country guides and location-specific alerts, written by 120 travel security experts in five Regional Security Centres around the world. Further information is provided by a dedicated Medical and Analysis team, which is part of a wider global network of 2,000 medical professionals. These experts are based in our 27 assistance centres, International SOS clinics and on our clients’ remote sites.
Location check-in
Key to the app’s functionality is the new “location check-in” feature. This allows business travellers to share their location with their employer’s travel, medical and/or security support teams via the recently upgraded International SOS Travel Tracker platform.
This provides significantly improved traveller location accuracy than travel booking itinerary information does on its own. The result is increased peace of mind as well as a potentially faster, more effective assistance response.
Brian Cheah explains: “Imagine a traveller flying abroad. Using travel booking data their employer easily knows where the traveller’s plane is due to land. But what if upon landing, the traveller takes a 150km taxi ride to a remote work site? With one click, that traveller has the ability to confirm where they are located at that time, with their location details clearly visible on their employer’s Travel Tracker map.
“This location check-in is a huge step forward. It puts an end to much of the location guesswork that can exist during a crisis. With our fully integrated assistance capabilities, we can get help to travellers more quickly and sometimes even before they know they need it.”
Other key features include:
- Push Notifications that show travellers an alert, even if the app isn’t open
- One-click dialling to the nearest Assistance Centre, even before logging-in. Great if you forget your membership number
- Mobile-friendly medical and travel security advice for trip preparation
- Ability to store alerts when offline, or with data services switched off
- Setting favourite countries for fast navigation to travellers’ most used information
The International SOS Assistance App is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry smart phones from
app.internationalSOS.com.
The app is supported by a new, compact and interactive membership e-guide for members. This showcases real medical and security examples to help educate the International SOS end user on how best to use their membership.
Notes to Editors Assistance App downloads - To date there have been over 320,000 downloads of previous versions of the International SOS Assistance App for business travellers and expatriates and mobile employees.
Global mobile workforce - According to a recent study of mobility in the global workforce, assignee levels have increased by 25% over the past decade, with predictions of a further 50% growth in mobile employees by 2020. (Talent Mobility - 2020 and Beyond: pwc 2012)
- The Pew Research Center recently found that 56% of American adults are smartphone owners
- A recent report in BI Intelligence found that 22% of the global population now owns a smartphone, overtaking PC ownership which stands at 20%
TravelTracker The International SOS Assistance App works seamlessly with TravelTracker, an integrated part of International SOS’ extensive travel risk mitigation extensive solutions. This was pioneered by International SOS in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It was the first online tool to allow clients to identify the location of their employees quickly and reliably. It sends out health and safety travel alerts based on a person’s location and helps determine if immediate assistance is required.
Every year, it helps track 2.4m unique international travellers and is designed to handle stressful events such as illness, accidents, political unrest, and natural disasters.
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