Semonto use case: GPS tracker Mindme locates people in need

A personal alarm and GPS tracker

Simon's father founded Mindme in 2007. The company is now run by him and his sister, Katy. He shows us how the alarm works: “When you push the SOS button on a Mindme device, the alert goes out to a professionally staffed help centre,” Simon explains. “They can then talk to you to find out what the problem is and take appropriate action, whether that is to call the emergency services, contact one of your emergency contacts or just check that you are okay. Our devices have GPS tracking so the operator will know where you are. We also have devices which do not have an SOS button which are designed for people with dementia. They can get confused and wander off, and locating them can be challenging. If they have a Mindme device, carers can check where they are or even get notified when they go out.”

Freedom and peace of mind

But Mindme is not intended for impaired or senior citizens alone. “It's for anyone who wants peace of mind and independence”, Simon explains. “It allows you to be on your own when you want to, but have access to help when you require it. For example, it makes it possible for people recovering from an injury to get out of the hospital faster. Unlocking those beds relieves the increasing pressure on the health care system.”

Mindme devices come as a wristwatch or a pendant device, with or without an SOS alarm button. Learn more on mindme.care.

A need to be up and running 24/7

So, why does Mindme use a monitoring tool like Semonto? “Our service can save lives, so you can imagine how important it is to keep our platform available and running 24/7. Devices are constantly sending data into the platform and operators need to be able to look up devices at any time of the day or night; if there is an issue, we need to know immediately. Of course, our sysops and infrastructure team are keeping an eye on things. But their server monitoring is very bespoke and not visible to everyone. So I was looking for a solution that was more accessible and easy to interpret. That's how I discovered Semonto.”

Status pages to keep everyone informed

Semonto turned out to be helpful in several ways. “I wanted a basic status dashboard to tell customers whether our service is up or down, and Semonto's status pages are perfect for that. I am also considering creating a password-protected version for our corporate customers. This way, I can give them access to more detailed live information. And, of course, we also want to be able to do a deep dive into the details of any issue ourselves. Semonto offers all these things.”

“Our service can save lives, so you can imagine how important it is to keep our platform available and running 24/7.”

Simon Wolf, Co-owner and CTO at Mindme

Extended testing to check data processing

Simon also uses Semonto for more extended testing. “We cannot afford to have data processing tasks fail silently. So, we created an API endpoint to query every few minutes. It returns an alert if the process is not working as it should. We haven't yet had an alert, but it is good to have peace of mind. This type of custom testing is perfect for us. We will be building more of that as we go on, to watch various bits of the system.”

Unexpected dead links on the website

“While playing around with the different features, we pointed Semonto at our public-facing website. Surprisingly, we found a handful of dead links to fix and update. So that is something we will also continue to monitor with Semonto. The alerts help to keep our website in good shape. I like that about Semonto: it offers more than you would expect. Most uptime monitoring services don't check your security certificates. And they usually don't include broken link monitoring. I also like that you can monitor multiple websites from within one account."

Peace of mind and independence

So, in conclusion, would Simon recommend Semonto? "Yes, it is a very intuitive and useful tool. The funny thing is that Semonto and Mindme are very similar: both our companies offer a kind of insurance. We created Mindme to give people peace of mind and independence. And that is exactly what Semonto does for us. So we are definitely aligned in our company values. I look forward to seeing where this partnership will take us."

Want to try Semonto, too?

Are you wondering whether Semonto would be a good fit for your company? There is an easy and free way to ind out: create a 14-day trial on our website. No credit card details are required, and there is no automatic renewal, so you literally have nothing to lose. Feel free to play around with all the features and let us know what you think! And who knows, maybe our next testimonial will feature your story.