Kyra’s Manual Image Review Application (MIRA) helps the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) during COVID-19.
During the challenging times of COVID-19, both businesses and families were impacted by federal, state, and local mandates that prohibited people from going to the office and performing work on a regular schedule. These mandates were necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of communities. Nonetheless, continuing business operations was critical to both business owners and employees. This ensures continuity of services to the public and provides employees with a revenue stream to support their day-to-day needs.
Kyra’s MIRA was designed to support remote tolling-image-review operations in case of temporary disaster-recovery events that could be caused by inclement weather in the sunshine state, Florida. MIRA’s design was tested adequately as part of its go-live implementation. Still, it came to the ultimate test on short notice and without much time to prepare for an extended period of remote work. Many factors can contribute to the failure of remote jobs. Home non-commercial internet connections, technical limitations introduced by home desktop or laptop computers, new cyber-security threats, etc.
In successful partnership-oriented efforts, Kyra and THEA prepared the tolling-image-review staff and its workstations to support the needed remote work. The remote network connectivity was segregated over a Virtual-Private-Network (VPN) connection to only allow access to Kyra’s MIRA servers. Kyra’s MIRA is an entirely web-based solution that does not require the installation of any specialized software at the workstation level. To access MIRA, remote workers only need access to modern and commonly available internet browsers, such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. MIRA’s unique and dynamic software design allows for transferring quality images over any essential internet connection without causing delays. This MIRA feature was vital to ensure the success of the project.
Kyra’s MIRA also provided THEA with the needed flexibility to ease the onboarding of temporary remote workers to prevent extended tolling image backlogs. This is related to built-in capabilities to deploy tolling-image-review training remotely and highly configurable modules to ensure quality work by the temporary staff.
The remote MIRA operations started in March 2021 and converted to a hybrid home-office mode in August of the same year. MIRA’s insightful reports allowed THEA to learn about and address minor operational deficiencies introduced by the remote work scenario and to continue remote work operations for the safety and convenience of tolling image reviewers and THEA staff.
After all the difficulties experienced during the peak times of COVID-19, it is rewarding to have the support of an excellent software engineering team and a fantastic Manual Image Review Application.
In 2019, the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) and Kyra’s Manual Image Review Application (MIRA) were recognized with a Certificate of Merit, issued by the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association (IBTTA).
