Building a PWA to encourage energy industry safety

Energy Institute (EI) — a professional body with members from the energy sector and the environmentally conscious general public, were on a mission to improve the safety of the energy workforce and to enable the industry and customers to make their energy consumption aimed at lowering carbon emissions, safer and more efficient.

To achieve this objective, EI created Toolbox — a progressive web application (PWA) that aims to reduce fatalities in the energy sector by providing content and safety insights that span across high-risk situations such as confined spaces, driving, energy isolation, excavating, mechanical lifting, and more.

A powerful, flexible CMS

With Toolbox, online frontline workers can:

• Access learning and study materials before they commence a job
• Soon be able to access Toolbox learning and incidents content from their electronic permit system
• Access Toolbox content from any place and anytime on any browser or device

Toolbox also has capabilities to send users instant mobile, browser, and email push notifications when new content is added to the platform. By offering an offline mode that has no login, paywall, or password required, users can download and save content for later use. This ensures that frontline workers have 24-hour access to crucial safety information, therefore, reducing the risk of hazardous situations.

Built with Squiz DXP Content Management capability, Toolbox currently has over 500 pieces of content and counting, as well as content translation capabilities in nine other languages.

The content available on Toolbox is sourced via two methods:

1. EI has established a ‘Learning from Incidents Committee’, whereby a representative from each company meets with EI on a regular basis to discuss Toolbox content, translations, functionality, and analytics. EI then works with these representatives to prepare and upload content onto Toolbox so that it is available to use. By partnering with industry associations, EI is able to provide richer expertise on risk management and employee safety via Toolbox.
2. Companies and individuals can complete a form on the Toolbox website to submit content directly to the EI team. This content is then reviewed and edited by EI’s technical team to ensure information accuracy before it is uploaded onto Toolbox.

Violeta Argerich, Head of Digital Transformation at Energy Institute, says, “Squiz DXP Content Management is such a powerful and flexible CMS, there are no limits to what you can achieve with it.”

An exceptional search experience

Another factor for Toolbox’s success has been its robust search capabilities. By leveraging Squiz DXP Search functionality, EI has been able to improve the speed and quality of results that are generated on the Toolbox app for its users.

By using Squiz DXP Search, EI has been able to customize the search experience and give users the ability to search specific keywords and receive tailored search results for high-risk situations.

“I absolutely love working with Squiz DXP Search,” explains Violeta Argerich. “It’s been a great experience, being able to build our own searches from scratch, controlling the rankings of key search results, and placing certain search results to the top.”

Backing their success with the launch of Toolbox, EI worked closely with the Squiz team, which included their Account Manager, Project and Strategy Lead, a UX Designer, Technical lead and various developers.

The EI team were hands on throughout the development process — from design prototype phase all the way to MVP delivery. Being a part of the development journey, EI have been equipped with the background knowledge of Toolbox, therefore making future developments and iterations of the app more seamless since its initial launch.

Since its inception in 2019, Toolbox has become one of the leading industry platforms for health and safety, sustainability, and operational risk management. With monthly visitors from over 200 countries, Toolbox has also seen a steady increase in new users of more than 30% year-on-year.