Technology

First came BYOD.

Then in response, companies came up with MDM & and later, the more granular MAM & as part of an overall EMM strategy.

And now we're all moving toward UEM.

Got it

Allow us to explain: BYOD refers to employees who years ago began bringing in their own devices (smartphones and tablets) to work. That forced companies to come up with an enterprise mobility management (EMM) strategy to protect corporate data, which at first entailed mobile device management (MDM) and more recently, mobile app management (MAM).

This IT pilot fish is assigned to do a system installation for a bank that happens to be not far from his old hometown.

"It was for a small but important department at the bank," says fish. "The department head was my liaison in configuring the product and converting their current information.

"Working with him was fraught. Some days he had lots of questions, and he answered mine. Other days he seemed sullen, had no time for me and changed direction on critical decisions.

"Eventually I completed the job and moved on.

"About six months later, I was visiting family and picked up a local newspaper. It had an interesting article -- it seems that department head had just pled guilty to misappropriation of funds.

Swedish telehealth startup Kry, which bagged a $66M Series B in June for market expansion, is executing on that plan — announcing today it will launch into the French market on September 15.

This will be the fourth market for the 2014 founded European startup, after its home market of Sweden, along with Norway and Spain. When we spoke to Kry in June it also said it was eyeing a UK launch, and it says now the country is &coming up next& on its launch map.

Kryboast for its service is it lets patients ‘see& a healthcare professionalwithin 15 minutes— i.e. via a remote video consultation on their smartphone or tablet. It recruits doctors locally, in each market where it operates.

The French launch introduces a new brand name for the service, which will be called Livi in the market.

Livi will also beKrybrand for all markets outside the Nordics (derived from the Swedish word for ‘life& — which is ‘liv&).

European state-funded healthcare services vary by country but in FranceKry says the government isimplementing a national system for public reimbursement of digital healthcare consultations via video — &in light of unequal access, increasing costs and over-usage of emergency services&.

So itevidently aiming for Livi to tap into that public money pot.

&I am very excited about bringing our service to French patients,& said Kry CEO and co-founder Johannes Schildt in a statement. &Our vision is great healthcare for everyone, regardless of who you are or where you live. Using digitalization we will fast forward the future of healthcare, making it patient focused, proactive and economically sustainable. The fact that France is opening up for digital healthcare on a national level should be an inspiration to the rest of Europe.&

Over in the UK, the new minister responsible for health, Matt Hancock — who was previously in charge of digital matters — has made increasing the National Health Serviceuse of technology one of his key priorities, announcing yesterday a further £200Mto plough into upgrading NHS IT systems.

Which will also, presumably, be music to health app makers& ears.

Kry says its telehealth service has now generated more than half a million patient meetings, across its existing markets, saying it grew 740% in 2017 — which it claims makes it the largest digital healthcare provider in Europe.

In its home market of Sweden it also says it accounts for more than 3% of all primary care doctor visits.

While in March this year it added an online psychology service to its offering, and says itnow the largest provider of cognitive behavioral therapy treatments in Sweden.

Investors in the digital health business include Index Ventures, Accel,Creandum, andProject A.