the client’s own security director or an assistance company.
International SOS sends alerts through
its Assistance App to travellers, who can use a ‘location check-in’ button that enables them to use GPS to send their exact location to their company. They can also phone the nearest ISOS assistance centre using a ‘one-click’ dial facility for advice and support. But Concur’s Richardson feels that se- curity and assistance companies have not kept up with the advance of new mobile technology in how they alert travellers: “Technology is not a core focus for these companies – they’re not using new ways to contact people such as a mobile push apps or text-to-voice messages where people can type a text and it will ring a phone.” He adds that companies should pay extra to ensure they are only sending ‘priority’ text messages that are more likely to get through to the traveller’s phone than standard SMS messages, in case a network is overloaded due to a major incident. For those travelling to remote areas without mobile network or wifi cover- age, companies often provide satellite phones for travelling staff to use, such as Smartling devices, which can send emergency messages to a response centre via commercial satellites.
GOING LOW-TECH
Even the fanciest of smartphone apps need a mobile network or wifi signal to operate, so what happens when these are not available due to a network failure or deliberate shutdown? The answer it seems is to rely on ‘old’ technology such as land-based phone lines. Indeed, International SOS says
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that when it had to get some travellers out of Egypt during one of the country’s crises, the “swiftest way” to get in touch with them was by using landlines and fax machines. Concur’s Richardson adds: “In a major incident, the network can get overloaded or even shut down completely, which happened during the Arab Spring. If the network is overloaded, priority SMS messages should still get through as there are multiple gateways as part of the networks. Text-to-voice messages may work as well. “But if the whole communications
network is shut down, we can’t get through because we don’t have a magic wand. That’s when the plans of security directors and business continuity manag- ers come into the play. You may have to go really low-tech and use landlines – you should have details of the hotels and you can phone them.” Toby Guest adds that the failure of telecom networks during some incidents illustrates the unique selling points of the services offered by the security special- ists. “More sensitive businesses, such as finance, will pay for full repatriation services and not just tracking,” he says. “Tracking is all well and good in locating staff and ensuring they are safe and well at time of contact, but it’s what happens afterwards that really counts – keeping them safe and getting them either home or to a safe alternative. “Increasing global tensions and a new
mobile and global threat from terror- ist organisations – and what appear to be increasingly unpredictable natural events – mean that tracking travellers is not just easier, it’s also more of a necessity under duty-of-care.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
PRIVACY CONCERNS ARE HOLDING BACK the use of social media as an aid for tracking travellers. There has been a reluctance by travellers to mix their business and personal lives when it comes to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. International SOS says it wants to look into ways to integrate social media information into its Travel Tracker platform, but this has “proven either unreliable or intrusive of someone’s privacy”. Click Travel has also
experimented with using social media for travel alerts but this has so far failed to work because people were getting “flooded with irrelevant messages”, says Simon McLean. FCM’s Charles Brossman says privacy concerns are also discouraging the use of social media for tracking. “Privacy and discretion are critical when supporting travellers on the road from a safety perspective,” he says. “Their movement and communications need to be as private as possible.” ATPI’s Adam Knights says that companies may want to look at using private social media networks such as Yammer, which can restrict access to those who have company email addresses. “Clients don’t want to communicate with staff by using Twitter because it’s so public,” he says. “But you can post travel messages using Yammer, which works more like a company intranet.”
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