Crime drops thanks to innovative IoT technology

• Vodafone field service engineers were experiencing an increased theft of specialist equipment
• Collaboration across the business has seen a solution produced in under four weeks
• 100% success using Internet of Things trackers to catch offenders

Vodafone’s corporate security team aims to alleviate threats across the business. Recently they realised that field service engineers were experiencing more targeted and aggressive threats, both to themselves and to specialist equipment.

Acting fast to keep both people and property secure, the security team collaborated with other parts of Vodafone to design a solution using our IoT trackers to protect engineers and reduce this threat. With help from Vodafone Automotive, we determined the most appropriate tracker, designed an innovative way to attach it to equipment stored by our engineers and deployed the solution. All in under four weeks.

This allowed the team in Vodafone’s Automotive Secure Operating Centre (SOC) to locate any stolen goods, including the speed and direction of travel. The combination of our GPS and quad band GPRS/GSM technologies enabled the constant transmission of the position data – across over 360 local GSM networks.

The teams have had 100% success in using the IoT trackers combined SOC service to catch offenders and reduce crime in targeted areas. Vodafone has also reclaimed £1.7 million worth of stock by working directly with the police and helped secure over 107 years of custodial sentences.

Although threats remain to Vodafone’s field service engineers, the placement of trackers significantly reduces this. It also provides reassurance to our engineers that their safety is our priority.