RigRun Challenge!

by Kim

We can only imagine the effect the pandemic has had on charities, with distancing and restrictions putting many fundraising events on hold. At Codify we love to take part in fundraising and charitable activities each year. It is an excellent opportunity to team-build, have fun and raise money for life changing charities at the same time.

With the world going virtual this year we have decided to make this year’s charity contribution a virtual event too. We are combining this with “eating our own dogfood” for a mobile app we’ve been building for a customer. That may sound disgusting, but we promise it isn’t! The term “eating your own dogfood” dates back to the late 80s. A Microsoft manager wrote an internal memo challenging the company to increase internal usage of the software they build. Over the decades it has become a well known term within the software industry.

Introducing RigRun – the customer we have been building the mobile app for. The RigRun competition is designed as a fitness challenge for remote site workers. The app encourages staff working at remote sites (for example an offshore platform) to keep active. Milestones are reached by accumulating minutes of exercise and each milestone results in a prize! Minutes also score points and teams from different sites compete against each other.

Our team are a competitive bunch, so when the chance came along to put the app into practice as an internal competition, we jumped on it! Kicking off on the 9th November, Codify will be taking part in a 5-week version of the challenge using and testing the mobile app. The first 3 weeks act as qualifying group stages, and the last couple of weeks are the finals stage where individual teams challenge each other for victory. The overall winning team will pick a charity to receive a donation from Codify.

The aim - certainly for some of us - is to reverse the effects of lockdown on our fitness! Also, to combat the temptation to simply hit the sofa as soon as you finish work on these dark wintery evenings (something I am definitely guilty of!). In addition to the physical health benefits, being active also has considerable benefits to mental health - which for many will have been impacted this year. We hope it will be a positive experience for all involved.

We’ll share the highlights (and lowlights!) of the competition on social media. It is surely going to provide some entertainment value – so watch this space!