Homegrown technology services firm Pointwest Technologies Corporation is encouraging Filipinos to show their support for ARKO, a smartphone-based flood hazard mapping and monitoring application, in its bid to become one of the eight applications to win in the prestigious 2015 World Summit Award (WSA)-mobile Global Champion.
ARKO was one of the 40 applications that won in the 2014 WSA-mobile. It was one of the five applications that won under the m-Inclusion & Empowerment category.
For the year 2015, WSA-mobile is calling all 40 winners with the intention of finding out the final winners for each category. Aside from m-Inclusion & Empowerment category, the other seven categories are m-Business & Commerce; m-Government & Participation; m-Learning & Education; m-Entertainment & Lifestyle; m-Tourism & Culture; and m-Media & News.
ARKO was developed by Pointwest in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for its flagship disaster risk reduction and mitigation program called Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards or Project NOAH.
Pointwest President Ma. Cristina Coronel says ARKO embodies the creativity and enthusiasm of Filipinos amid environmental challenges.
Primarily developed due to the need to monitor flooding in critical areas in the Philippines, ARKO has so far helped disaster management agencies and local government units in the Philippines in saving lives in cities and municipalities that are constantly under threat by storm-generated floods.
“It’s a life-saving application, one that was borne out of necessity and one that we see would encourage Filipino developers to continue using technology to benefit the country’s population,” according to Coronel. “I also hope that governments or institutions in other countries can emulate what we’ve done for the Philippines.”
Arko remains a free application, downloadable from Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Since its founding in 2003, Pointwest has consistently provided best-in-class IT and BPM services to clients that include members of the Fortune 500 as well as top Philippine companies. Pointwest has helped companies in various industries such as transportation and logistics, healthcare, banking, retail and utilities. The company also offers digital services like cloud and mobile application developments which enables enterprises to leapfrog into the digital world.
