American Megatrends Likes To Falcon On Roads!

BPOTimes.com : July 01, 2009

BPO employees are ferried to and from the office often in the wee hours without proper security arrangements. American Megatrends India's Falcon-i, a vehicle tracking system, uses Global Positioning System to trace the route of vehicles. With few customisations, you can stop the vehicle too in case of emergency.

Employees are valuable assets to any organisation and hence their safety becomes the top priority for any employer. A huge matter of concern for the security staff of an organisation is not just to safeguard employees within the premises but outside as well. The BPO boom has also brought with it a set of disadvantages including odd working hours. Employees are ferried to and from the office often in the wee hours without proper security arrangements.

After the gruesome murder of a Bangalore call centre employee came into the spotlight in December 2005, organisations are getting extra sensitive to staff safety and in particular about transportation. At any given point in time, there are hundreds of cabs and vehicles plying on roads. To track a vehicle and its route can be an uphill task in the absence of the latest technologies. Many manufacturing and IT companies have already geared up to make products which help track vehicles when they are on their way to drop or pick up employees.

With the advancement in technology and satellites support, companies can heave a sigh of relief. Innovative instruments and hi-tech gadgets are now being installed in cabs to be in constant touch with them. But to find a customised solution that fits into your set of requirements can still be an onerous job.

Possibility is you are still in dilemma of selecting the best of the gadgets available in the market. Here Falcon-i enters the picture. It is an advanced method of remote vehicle tracking and monitoring. Developed by American Megatrends India Pvt Ltd (AMI India), the solution helps in getting all details of a vehicle including its speed, fuel, temperature from a remote place. The solution comprises of a GPS device installed in the vehicle combined with a Geographical Information System (maps) available at the station.

Talking about security challenges faced by the BPO/ITeS industry in terms of keeping a constant track on vehicles, Jayaram Krishnan, CEO, AMI India, says, "Till the time employees are within the premises and route maps are finalised, everything goes smooth in the organisation. However, once a cab is out of the coverage area of the company, neither the employee nor the employers can tell the exact location of the cab and the number of employees dropped or picked, unless the drivers provide these details to them over phone. This puts the cab drivers, not the employers, in a complete control of the situation. The question remains, however, whether they can be trusted with this responsibility."

Explaining about the unique product developed by AMI India, Krishnan quips, "With Falcon-i solution, a company can not just track the vehicle but also keep records of each vehicle along with its speed, fuel etc. for the entire month. It uses Global Positioning System (GPS) to track a vehicle's location co-ordinates (longitude and latitude) with the help of the data provided by satellites."

Let's see how Falcon-i functions. "Each vehicle is equipped with a GSM gadget and is connected to a Web-based management system that receives the signals from the mobile service providers base station. The gadget which is installed in the cab has an embedded application which helps the system determine the position, location of the gadget with an accuracy of 3.5 metres. Additionally, it not just helps in tracing the route of the vehicle and the speed, but also, with few customisations, allows the provider to stop the vehicle in case of emergency," explains Krishnan. Krishnan here gives a note of caution: stopping the vehicle like that can lead to accidents at times so it is generally not recommended.

Listing some benefits that organisations get while installing this gadget, Krishnan adds, "The alert generation on deviation of predefined route helps keep an eye on the vehicle all through the route. It later saves time of the finance department during the clearance of bills as there is no false time sheet submissions and complete data is available for the management."

"Since employees are assured about their safety, it helps in building trust and thereby increases employees' productivity. The company can monitor driver's activities and locate the vehicle immediately in case of any security alert. This boosts the overall productivity as there is an increase in on-time log-ins and the attendance can be monitored as well."

The solution can also be customised for a number of alerts which can be set for some specific situations, points out Krishnan. Falcon-i gives a freedom to the delayer to combine with it other sensors like Fuel gauge, RFID (Radio-frequency identification), camera sensors, etc. to get the required information from the cab.

Krishnan adds, "Falcon-i can be connected with a surveillance camera which can then be used to check any kind of unwanted activity in the cab during commutation. We are also in the process of developing this camera." Along with this, the fuel gauge also be connected which can further help to keep a check on the amount of fuel used during commutation. This leaves no chance for the cab driver to generate excess bill for any route. That's not all. Falcon-i can be customised into a solution which can be combined with the RFID system. This can help the work-flow department to know the exact number of employees boarding and descending from a vehicle.

Falcon-i's installation when combined with the management software comes to around Rs 15,000 per vehicle. This is one-time cost. After this, the company just needs to pay the running cost and invest in buying the route map of the area from the company. AMI India also provides a complete after-sales support to its users.

AMI India is currently in talks with top BPO/ITeS companies for installation of Falcon-i. Krishnan discloses the trend is picking up as more and more companies are becoming aware of the available technologies in the security arena.