THE GOAN NETWORK | PANAJI
It's not uncommon for businesses to discover to their dismay, as some popular ad-films portray, that the very men hired to guard their assets “ security guards “ are the very ones who could be responsible for pilferage, either by an act of omission or wilful connivance.
Enter 'Protektor Pro' “ a digital guard tour system which keeps a hawk's eye on the men charged with guarding any premises “ and chances of such events dwindle to zero, if at all.
Back in 2017, Gautam Rao and his wife Deepa, co-founded Spirogyra Software Private Limited in Panaji and headquartered it here. In less than two years, their start-up had developed and launched the 'Protektor Pro' software platform, months before the pandemic hit in March 2020.
This is how the Protektor Pro app works: The client’s security guards are issued an Android device with the Protektor Pro app and a QR code reader. They have to then scan the QR code, which may be placed at key indoor or outdoor locations (checkpoints) across the premises they are mandated to patrol and guard.
Scanning the QR code instantly uploads the guards' work IDs and time stamp to the Protektor Pro system, data on which their activity can be monitored in real-time, 24/7.
As the GPS coordinates of the checkpoints are recorded every time the guards check-in while on their patrol route, cheating the system is out of the question.
It simply makes the physical security team of the business concern more accountable, efficient and compliant and the software can be customised according to each business' requirements.
The system can also simultaneously be used by the physical security guards to send emergency alerts, besides tracking and recording events during emergencies such as break-ins, fire or flooding.
Despite the economic disruption of the pandemic, Spirogyra Software has managed to bag Siemens as its top Indian client for Protektor Pro.
The Raos are now eyeing a wider market and have forayed security sector in the Arabian Gulf.
"A client can subscribe to Protektor Pro system on a monthly basis and has to only pay for the data received from the system with no additional cost for hardware or software," says Rao.
Security patrol, fire prevention, anti-theft of factories, commercial and residential properties, shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, hospitals and schools are some of the target operations where Protektor Pro, is most suited for, particularly those operations which have been victims of internal sabotage by its security teams, Rao adds.
The system sends data to a secure cloud storage and it operates independent of the client’s onsite Wi-Fi network. It can go live within seven days’ time at the client's location anywhere in the world.
Besides the Middle East, Spirogyra Software owned by the Raos is also looking to gain a footprint in the security sector in the African continent and has picked Gabon in West Africa to push Protektor Pro.
To explain in a simpler fashion how Protektor Pro can be useful, Rao said: "Say, you have 10 security guards to physically patrol xyz locations at different times. How do you know that all xyz locations are being physically patrolled at regular intervals by them? Are all 10 guards patrolling the locations in real-time? Are the guards awake? As Protektor Pro oversees all these activities in real-time we offer our clients peace of mind.”
