This case study is provided by Microsoft
Banks, retail stores, financial services companies, and thousands of other commercial and government organisations rely on Brinks to patrol and secure their premises, transport cash and valuables, and keep their most precious assets safe. In business since 1859, Brinks is synonymous with trustworthiness and today its 70,000 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries.
Despite its unmatched pedigree, Brinks has to compete fiercely for business, because the security services market has become crowded, commoditised, and price-driven. Noel Boyle, managing director of Brinks, knew his company had to do something to break free from the competitive pack. “There are hundreds of companies providing security services, which have become commoditised,” he says.
Alan Durnan, Brinks director of security services adds: “As prices have been driven lower, most of our competitors have cut back on training and equipment to boost their margins.”
Brinks – one of the largest security companies in Ireland with 1,000 employees and many prestigious accounts – decided to take a different approach. Rather than reduce investment in its people, it decided to invest in modern technology and employee training as a competitive differentiator.
Brinks’ security guards, like its competitors, used electronic patrolling devices to record checkpoints as they made their rounds at customer premises. This process, however, did not integrate patrol data with back-end systems and produced reams of paper reports that were difficult for customers to read and customers could only find out about a security incident or patrol non-conformance up to a month after it happened. The paper-based process was also open to error and could delay billing.
In addition to its Irish team of 650 security guards, Brinks has a large contingent of field technicians who service ATMs, security cameras and other security equipment. These employees carried bulky laptops, which could be cumbersome in the field.
Arming guards with super-smart phones
In 2013, Brinks began to look for a more efficient way for guards and field technicians to document patrols submit reports, and perform their jobs. Brinks sought a mobile solution that would keep customer information secure; provide rapid data transmission; enable real-time information and device management; and operate on low-cost, user-friendly devices. It selected Arantico Service Pro software running on Windows smartphones.
Arantico Service Pro is a field service application that Arantico heavily customised to meet Brinks’ needs. It took advantage of the near-field communication (NFC) technology in Windows Phone 8.1 to collect data digitally. NFC is a set of smartphone standards that enables devices to establish radio communication with one another by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity.
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