inSuit and COVID-19

Web accessibility and usability has become increasingly important in recent years.

In the last few months, people’s mobility has been drastically reduced and many administrative services offered by public sector bodies and companies were only possible online. In some cases, telephone assistance was unavailable, and services were only available via web. As a result, web accessibility and usability has become even more important than ever before.

Complying with web accessibility allows you to reach more users

A website that is more accessible and usable will ensure access to a greater number of people, enabling them to get the information they need, get paperwork and their shopping  done without leaving their homes, in addition to reducing the demand for telephone assistance.

Just like other changes of the moment such as teleworking, online shopping, or digitalization of business processes, the reinforced importance of web accessibility and usability, brought on by COVID-19, is here to stay.

The inSuit team: in full swing during lockdown

When the pandemic hit, the inSuit team responded rapidly. We were already fully prepared for teleworking and so, one week before the state of emergency was declared, we began to telework, protecting our team and ensuring uninterrupted good service. Our strong commitment to product development continues and we have carried out numerous implementations in recent months for new clients.

Moreover, one very significant consequence of this situation is the considerable increase in online traffic, which logically includes traffic related to navigation assistance provided by inSuit. This was especially relevant for our clients SEPE and COPE. We have followed these cases closely, maintaining close contact with the clients’ website managers to ensure high-quality services.

Great improvement in inSuit’s resources and response capacity 

We have expanded and improved the infrastructure of the inSuit platform:

• More servers have been permanently added to the service.
• These servers will turn on according to the time of day to respond to the daily variations in traffic.
• A number of automated mechanisms have been established, which will switch on machines during unexpected peaks in traffic which were quite common for SEPE and other public sector bodies. This was quite often the case when news came through related to the management of the pandemic as well as on media channels such as COPE radio network.

As a result, not only have we learned about the importance and value of web accessibility and usability for users, but also how to better respond to an unprecedented situation such as the one we have experienced in the last few months. Consequently, we now have a platform that is even more mature and robust than ever before, preparing us for future challenges.