We need to protect not just the safety of individuals but the safety of their data as well: Appian CEO

Matt Calkins, Appian CEO joins the On the Move panel to discuss the use of tech to get people back in the workplace post COVID-19.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Let's bring into the program Matt Calkins. Appian CEO joining us from McLean, Virginia, because you can use tech to get back to work and to get people back in the office. And as you point out, 53% of the participants in a survey you folks did have already started returning employees to the workplace. Do you see this continuing even though we're seeing spikes of coronavirus in different parts of the country?

MATT CALKINS: I believe it will continue. But if it stalls out for a little while, it just gives us a little more time to come up with a digital health strategy, and I believe every business needs one right now to keep its employees safe.

JULIE HYMAN: So, Matt, it looks like you are back in your office, if I might sort of deduce from your surroundings there. What does the process have to look like, right? And I know that you all have apps that are helping to track people. What exactly are those apps doing? Presumably you're using them there as well. Are they working?

MATT CALKINS: Great. Here's what they do, three simple things. First, they gather a lot of information because the more we know, the safer we can keep each other. Secondly, when there is an incident, like if someone gets a diagnosis or they have a temperature in the morning, we bring all that data to bear so that the decision maker can make a very informed decision about how to keep us all safe. And then the third thing is that when they make that decision, we take the decision briskly. If you want to close down a facility for a deep clean, if you want certain people to go home and take a test, if you want a quarantine to happen, those things can happen immediately, and speed is of the essence, when you're protecting people's health because of disease-- the disease spreads immediately, so we've got to take action immediately to stop that.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Hey, it's Brian Cheung here. So when it comes to the response, I guess, to COVID-19, we've heard a number of private companies try to offer up solutions. Obviously you being in the software space means that you have a lot of say in being able to help companies get back online here. But you can't do it alone, right? I mean, I imagine that there are other types of tangentially related industries, whether or not that's cloud-computing software or consultancies, perhaps, on the business side. How have you worked with maybe other private companies to engineer what is a more holistic response to helping companies reopen safely as we continue to work through this?

MATT CALKINS: You're totally right, Brian. A holistic approach is essential here. There's more things, tangible things, that go into the strategy, whether it's wearing a mask or rotating-- having only part of the team here on any given day, washing your hands frequently, elevators. There's so many things, but a digital health strategy has got to be part of it.

If you don't have a digital health strategy, you won't be able to move as quickly as you need to move to keep people safe, and also you won't be protecting people's private health information well enough. And I think that that's an easy thing to overlook these days, but we need to protect not just the safety of individuals but the safety of their data as well.

JARED BLIKRE: Jared Blikre here. Wanted to get your take because I assume you come into contact with a lot of businesses, a lot of business leaders. How are they differing in their approaches to this, and are you kind of like a guiding hand? Any surprises as you talk to some of your client's here?

MATT CALKINS: Well, one thing that just shocked me was that 90% of businesses in a recent poll have no digital health strategy, which is to say they're not using technology at all. They're going to rely on maybe a pen and paper or a spreadsheet-- and I'm not counting that as technology-- in order to guarantee health safety, which is really not enough. This is a matter of keeping our employees safe. We've got to do more.

We work with a lot of firms who are taking this extremely seriously. One of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world, one of the largest campuses in the world, one of the top sports athletic brands in the world and many others have all relied on Appian technology in order to keep their employee base safe. There are businesses taking this very seriously, and I believe that if we were all to do that, we would also feel more reassured about going into a place of business knowing that their employees have a digital health strategy keeping them healthy.

ADAM SHAPIRO: OK, Matt Calkins is Appian CEO. We appreciate your being here and wish you and your team all the best.