Date:13/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/13/stories/2006011301690500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

A security solution for BPO employees on the move

Staff Reporter

`It's an end-to-end automated solution monitored by logistics managers of BPOs'

The solution cannot be tampered with by any unauthorised person

It has already been implemented at four ITES companies and an international school in Bangalore

BANGALORE: The murder of a BPO firm employee Prathiba has heightened security concerns while call centre employees are transported to and from their places of work.

A Bangalore-based technology company has come up with a GIS, GPS and SMS enabled solution to provide security to BPO employees on the move.

Known as PRO-TMS, a trademark, it will include a GIS solution to fix routes of call centre vehicles and GPS to track the vehicles and a system activated SMS to inform employees details about the vehicle and driver assigned to them. Shashidhar Joshi, Vice-President of Proficio Geotechnologies that has developed the solution, said: "it is an end-to-end automated solution monitored by the logistics managers of BPOs and cannot be tampered with by unauthorised persons. We have already implemented it at four ITES companies and one international school in the city."

The system could be customised to suit the needs of individual companies and it reduced 18 manhours a month for logistics personnel, he said. The manual process of obtaining lists of employees, their addresses and then assigning vehicles and fixing routes and calculation of distances and time, which is usually a laborious affair can now be carried out faster, Mr. Joshi said.The logistics manager gets the list of employees from team leaders and this is entered into the GIS enabled routing system. This data in turn goes through a geo coding process, locating the places from where employees have to be picked up or dropped. By comparing this data with the number of vehicles available, routes are planned, making optimum use of time and distance covered. The computer generated "trip sheet" also enables an SMS sent to each employee, specifying the time and place they will be picked up from.

The logistics manager can track on a computer screen the movement of each vehicle which has a GPS unit and know exactly where a particular vehicle is and also if it has changed its designated route. If a sudden change of route is noticed, alerts go to the employee help desk and three senior officers of the firm. They can then act on this information.

Next to the driver's seat on each vehicle is a voice call facility through which communication with the help desk is possible. This communication device has emergency switches, one of which can be activated by passengers and another by the driver. This will alert the BPO help desk to any emergency situation.

"We have been working on developing this solution for over two years; it was not a hasty response to the recent incident," Mr. Joshi explained.