Cloud technology is helping some fashion employees continue business as usual.
In the midst of worldwide coronavirus disruption, and sweeping lockdowns that have stalled quotidian life first in China and now in Italy, one fashion software firm has come up with a plan to support users who may be barred from commuting to their place of work.
Late Monday night, apparel pattern-making and design software provider Tukatech said it’s allowing users to switch over to a cloud license at no additional cost. Any users still accessing its CAD design software through a physical dongle, the company said, can now use the program through the cloud, ensuring their productivity even if regular workplace operations have been disrupted by the global COVID-19 crisis.
“As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Ram Sareen, founder and CEO of Tukatech, which has been used by companies like American Apparel and Brandix. “We want to help our industry partners stay afloat through this unsure time and give our customers the luxury to continue running business remotely.”
The change applies to any users of Tukatech’s TUKAcad, TUKAdesign, TUKAmark, SMARTmark and TUKA3D software, the firm said. Cloud access enables users to log in via username and password from any desktop or laptop computer with “very little broadband connection,” Tukatech said, so that employees aren’t tied to a single workstation.
To date, more than 115,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, and the death toll has passed 4,000. On Monday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said the “threat of a pandemic has become very real” now that the virus has a “foothold in so many countries.” Italy, whose outbreak exploded in Milan and has spread throughout the country, took broad measures to bar non-critical travel in, out of and throughout the country, and schools and major events have been shut down as well.