FEATURE
“With the increasing use of smartphones there is
growing interest among organizations to use real- time location information to ensure the safety of their mobile employees at risk”, says Tim Daniel, Executive Vice President, International SOS. During events like the Haiti earthquake and the Mumbai terrorist attacks, knowing the location of employees made a major difference for organizations in their response.
global map interface, communicate with them and provide appropriate support immediately in an emergency.
Integrating value
“Location-based services is a technology that’s becoming commoditized. But what we’re interested in is finding the value for our clients”, says Ian. “We’re currently piloting a location-based services App internally to tell where the device is and send coordinates at regular intervals”.
Location-based services add capability to duty of
care requirements and extra functionality for tracking travelers. But organizations don’t always need location-based tracking for lower-risk trips and it doesn’t provide any forward-looking view of people’s movements. In fact the ideal for organizations to look after their employees is to have both as part of an overall response – sometimes deploying just one and sometimes a combination of the two. “What we can do is take what’s useful about location-based services, integrate it with what’s already used, and be able to turn it on and off when needed.” Tim acknowledges that in the end all these technologies could converge into one application. “But first we need to test the technology, the product and the market”, he says. “We definitely see new products down the line. What’s important is to look at what emerging technologies make possible – and then leverage that for the benefit of our clients.” ■
Extra dimension International SOS’ TravelTracker service uses itinerary-based information to track employees, for example their airline, hotel and car rental details. This provides access to travelers’ itineraries and enables communication through email or text in an emergency. These can be used at every phase: preparation before the trip, during the trip to respond to an event, and after the trip to analyze travel patterns and generate administrative reports. Tim Daniel thinks that real-time location services will add an extra dimension to these capabilities. “In terms of our ability to track a mobile device in real- time there are two technologies which are now pretty mature”, he says. The first is GPS capability (which all new smartphones have) and the second is the capability of smartphones to triangulate cell tower in order to determine their exact location. When location information is presented through a risk management tool it will become invaluable for travel and security managers. They can monitor employees’ real-time location information through the
TravelTracker Mobile
What is it? A mobile-enabled version of TravelTracker accessed via more than 5,000 mobile devices including iPhone®
, BlackBerry®
and other smartphones. The service doesn’t need any downloads or special set-ups. Instead users access the site by visiting the regular TravelTracker website address as usual.
Key benefits ✔ On-the-go access and searches of travel data and critical alerts.
✔ Tools for direct communication with travelers and executives.
When is it available? Available now as a free add-on to the TravelTracker subscribers.
For more information, contact
onlinehelp@internationalsos.com
TravelTracker is a product of the joint venture between International SOS and Control Risks.
important is to look at what emerging technologies make possible – and then leverage that for the benefit of our clients
“ What’s ” Hotline Silver Edition, 2010 15
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