El Dorado Communications: Applying technological responses to security, asset management challenges

A local wireless communications security service provider is seeking to partner with public and private sector agencies to help enhance capacity for asset protection and timely response to potential security compromises that threaten valuable property by infusing an enhanced level of wireless technology into property protection measures.

El Dorado Communi-cations Board member Rawle Aaron

El Dorado Communica-tions (ECI) a four-year-old company owned and operated by Guyanese Tyrone Williams says it is currently seeking to build partnerships with potentially vulnerable state and business entities and with the citizenry as a whole in the application of its security products to fighting crimes that have become commonplace in Guyana. While ECI concedes that its products have been applied elsewhere to help reduce the vulnerability of valuable property to theft and security breaches, it says its principal concern is with creating an enhanced awareness among a potential local client base of the importance of embracing new approaches to property protection that can even extend to the saving of lives in situations where crimes are committed or attempted.

Stabroek Business has seen a copy of ECI’s ‘master plan’ for popularizing the application of a range of alarm and tracking devices to help protect valuable movable inventory and immovable property from security compromises including theft, vandalism and break-ins. ECI says in its master plan that its vehicle equipment and machinery protection systems “surpass any alarm system” in the quality of service that it offers.

Noting that car-jackings and vehicle break-ins have become one of the more commonplace crimes in local urban communities, ECI says it can offer hi-tech anti-crime response systems supported by GPS devices, which apart from alerting third parties to hold-ups or irregular on-board occurrences, can also track stolen vehicles thereby assisting in their recovery and in the apprehension of the thieves. The company believes that its detection and tracking devices can play a critical role in protecting the assets of state entities and companies whose business operations are heavily supported by large fleets of continually moving vehicles including commercial distribution companies and taxi services.

ECI says the real value of this system inheres in the ability of clients to have a constant awareness of the movement and whereabouts of their vehicles and equipment coupled with real-time alerts to security-related threats.  ECI is banking on the timeliness of its security interventions given the pattern of local crimes. While the company says that it is under no illusions that its services will take the market “by storm” its outlook is indicative of an awareness of the need for patient, skilful and persistent marketing. Its focus is on a gradual expansion of its client base through the use of a small public and private sector ‘guinea pig’ clientele that can publicly demonstrate the value of its products. Government ministries and at least one company are among its immediate targets.

As part of its overall marketing strategy ECI is quick to state that setting aside the security considerations in its vehicle systems, there are also cost-saving considerations from which its clients can benefit.  The company says that its “fleet management” system is designed “to help its clients cut fuel costs and reduce manual management, improve fleet efficiency and save staff time.” Fleet management harnesses the company’s satellite and GSM tracking capabilities to enable the transmission of data over its mobile network. This facility, ECI says, enables state and private entities that employ fleets of vehicles, “to monitor their fleets remotely and plan more effective logistics based on where vehicles travel and how fast they do so; information that assists both monitoring and planning. The company estimates that the introduction of its vehicle tracking system can, in some cases, reduce fuel costs by as much as 23 per cent and improve operating efficiency by up to 15 per cent. ECI says that its GPS platform software allows its administration centre to monitor more than 2,000 vehicles simultaneously, “and to be clear on the exact state of each vehicle at every single second.” The company says that its platform provides real time access to previously unavailable information on vehicle movement including precise position, driving direction, speed, and fuel consumption. The ECI platform also offers a number of additional vehicle alarm systems that cover security-related considerations including illegal ignition. Its servers, it says, reside in a secure, reliable and redundant hosting system and that it has a capacity to provide monitoring services in all of the country’s ten administrative regions.

Meanwhile, ECI is also seeking to promote its personal and personnel security surveillance system, which it says allows its clients “to track any of its officers who, from time to time, may be sent on special assignments.” The company says that its range of services also seeks to address the security concerns of homes and small businesses through a range of low-cost gadgetry including door and window sensor, integrated motion detectors and smoke and heat detectors. Its current focus is on working on public and private sector agencies to determine how best its products can be applied to the specific needs of those agencies.

El Dorado is working with at least one local company in the testing of its vehicle security system and is seeking to build on the outcomes of its collaboration with that company.