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SME Location Service Stresses Privacy |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Wednesday, 28 February 2007 |
Any company interested in
tracking the whereabouts of their employees is bound to raise a few
eyebrows around the AWA bargaining table. Nobody likes to have Big
Brother looking over their shoulder in the workplace and although it
makes a lto of sense for efficiency sake, many mobile workers will
resist the introduction of GPS tracking if they think their privacy
rights are at risk.
So a new solution on the Australian market called WorkScene tries to ease some of those fears about Location Based Services (LBS) and though it might not stop workers being watched at work, at least they will be able to ensure they are not being tracked out of work hours.
"WorkScene gives the employee the power to opt in or out of monitoring to ensure they aren't being tracked when they're off duty, on holidays or away sicksays Cheryl Quirion, Tenzeng managing director.
Location services developer, Melbourne-based Tenzeng has just completed trials of the solution from November last year to Januarywith a number of small businesses in the transport, plumbing, outsourcing and marine safety taking part in the trials which use mobile phones rather than GPS to do the tracking.
"It also provides a cost-effective alternative to installing a GPS-device tracking solution by utilising the piece of equipment most employees already have - a mobile phone," says Tenzeng's Quirion.
The service uses information from Telstra's GSM and NextG location platforms rather than the more traditional GPS tracking. Information such as mobile phone tower signal strength, direction and timing are combined to locate a phone to within 200 metres in metropolitan areas - even indoors. This service will soon expand to include other carriers, so customers of other mobile networks can also use Tenzeng's WorkScene service.
Sydney-based refrigerated transport company, Roadmaster, was investigating GPS-tracking solutions when it heard about Tenzeng's WorkScene and signed up its 120 prime movers for the trial.
"As a transport organisation, we have a large requirement for legislative compliance and a strong commitment to safety. We were looking for a solution that could assist this component of our business," says Zack Chisholm, Roadmaster National Systems Manager.
"While we are responsible for our employees and sub-contractors safety, we also need to ensure their privacy. The fact that WorkScene allows the driver to turn tracking on and off via sms is particularly good for our sub-contractors, who can easily switch it off when working on other organisations' jobs," he explains.
Chisholm says that once involved in the trial, he soon realised that WorkScene could offer more benefits to the business than simply tracking its equipment and sub-contractors.
"Once we started using WorkScene, we realised that it could help us to monitor our demurrage - the delays experienced when goods are not ready for pick up at scheduled times. Employees were able to register their arrival and departure times at pick-up and drop-off sites, allowing us to allocate a different truck to the next job if the assigned truck is held up.
"This form of record-keeping also enables greater transparency between clients and delivery centres, as there is no ambiguity over the accuracy of log sheets. In the transport industry, we are often held up at delivery sites, so being able to direct and manage this component immediately recouped costs for us," Chisholm adds.
Quirion says that while LBS was once out-of-reach for SMEs, it can now save them time and money.
"In the past, the cost for the hardware, software and technology was too high. With the introduction of web-based LBS that uses employees' mobile phones, costs are realised quickly through time, petrol and money saved," she says.
Quirion also says that WorkScene can adapt to advances in location technology in the future.
"There are new technologies making their way to Australia such as assisted GPS, also known as 'AGPS', which combines both GPS and network-based location components to give even more accurate location information - even when indoors. WorkScene supports both AGPS and normal handsets simultaneously, so it is easy for companies to upgrade to more accurate location technology when it is right for them," Quirion concludes.
www.tenzeng.com.au
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