Adith Charlie
R. Savitha

Mumbai/Pune, Nov 19 The rape and murder of a Wipro BPO employee in Pune earlier this month has prompted the IT/BPO industry to take a hard look at security measures in place for transportation of its employees.

The incident seems to have brought the focus on the use of technology; especially global positioning systems (GPS) and GPRS-enabled systems to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

A GPS tracking unit can determine the precise location of a vehicle, to which it is attached. GPS systems have the ability to display real time details such as the route taken by the cab. Any deviation taken by the cab from the designated route can be tracked in a map background in real time.

Certain advance systems provided by vendors such as Micro Technologies even enable passengers to immobilise the cab engine by pressing a panic button in case of a perceived threat. GPS systems are available in the price range of Rs 6,000-Rs 50,000.

Statistics suggest that only two per cent of the major BPO firms in Pune had installed these systems.

However, IT/ BPO firms throughout the country are evaluating usage of these systems.

Mr Navin Joshua, Executive Director, vCustomer India, said the company has deployed GPS in the company cabs over a controlled sample in Delhi.

The system will be launched full-fledged over the course of the current quarter, Mr Joshua added.

KPIT InfoSystems has finalised a plan for installation of GPS system for tracking vehicles and is in the process of evaluating various vendors, the company spokesperson said.

GPS system vendors such as Core Projects, Dhanus Technologies and Micro Technologies are seeing a spurt in demand, not only from the IT/BPO sector but also from sectors such as manufacturing and aviation.

“Every industry with logistical issues such as commuting people during night hours will need this technology purely from a security perspective. The Pune incident has prompted various industries to re-evaluate their existing security strategies and take cognisance of such technologies,” said Mr Nikhil Morsawala, Director, Core Projects and Technologies.

Mr Ashish Bhogate, Marketing Manager of Micro Technologies, believes that very few companies had taken note of this technology before the incident, due to which fleet owners were casual on this front. “Now, companies are pushing fleet owners to install these systems as a preventive measure,” said Mr Bhogate.

Many vendors such as Dhanus Technologies are now looking at addressing the safety issue by creating awareness about GPS in the other major IT/BPO hubs in the country such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gurgaon.

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