2023 was a milestone year for RSS marked by the successful launch of the Computer Ergonomics solution, our inaugural symposium, and our strategic vision for integrating AI into our suite of solutions. Summing these accomplishments recently prompted us to reflect on the foundational components that drive us. We ultimately attribute our success to a culture of innovation that extends to our self-perception, client relationships, and business strategy. To explain what that looks like, we discuss in this article three notable examples that get to the heart of innovation at RSS.

People before Product
As a safety and risk management software company, our overarching objective is to design tools that proactively prevent injuries and effectively mitigate risks. What sets us apart is our distinctive people-first approach, which serves as the cornerstone of how we conceive and develop solutions in collaboration with our client community. Embracing the reality that our clients may employ our software in ways we had not initially envisioned, our agile development methodology enables us to collect feedback and seamlessly integrate these novel approaches whenever possible. This adaptability not only enhances our products but also propels us continually forward, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of innovation in safety and risk management solutions.

Fail Forward
Being innovative requires new ways of thinking to make advancements and solve difficult problems, but with that comes a higher risk of things not working. Our organization’s founder and Executive Director, Safa Hussain, says it best: “If you create something revolutionary that has a 10% success rate, it’s 10% further forward from where you began.” RSS adopts this concept with every feature it develops. Innovation is incremental and requires that we take the 10%, refine it and test it and push it to its limits to create solid, well-rounded software that becomes invaluable to our client community. We consider setbacks and failures a given part of developing something revolutionary and encourage every team member to fail forward.

Pursue that which is Meaningful
Our development strategy has led to products that won numerous awards across several industries. That’s because we strive to create something meaningful for our client community. To truly gain the perspective required for this, we recruit staff from our client organizations. These on-staff subject matter experts have given us insight into what “meaningful” means to different organizations. Identifying the desire for an easy-to-use interface led to RSS hiring a dedicated UX team. Recognizing the need for more comprehensive training led to us creating training manuals and videos and holding webinars. Whether it’s time-saving measures, reducing workloads, or making tasks easier to complete—we constantly pursue the advances that are truly game-changing to someone’s day-to-day life.

Our innovative spirit not only defines our identity but also propels us to explore novel and exciting avenues of creation. As we venture into 2024, the trajectory is set for another year of technological development at RSS. Our commitment remains unwavering as we continuously strive to redefine the limits of what is achievable.