It started with some passing meetings.
Izzat Ishak was your regular university student who often found himself coming late to class, which led to him getting stopped a lot by security guards.
Somehow these constant interactions fostered friendships to the point that Izzat sought their help for ideas for his final year project..
Thinking out loud, the guards asked if he could come up with something to digitise their clocking system. So Izzat came up with an idea that ended up going further than just as his university days. It even landed him a spot as a finalist in the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow contest.
Now together with his team of 10, his idea now dubbed TrackerHero has turned into a viable business.
Bringing The New Into The Old
TrackerHero started out as mainly a security operations platform where they made it possible for security company operations to function digitally in Malaysia.
Founded back in May 2016, the team has come a long way and now identifies themselves as a company specialising in building integrated operations platforms. So their focus has broadened to include creating app systems and web platforms that could connect any industry’s operations.
They currently have 2 platforms and 1 system:
- PatrolHero: An all-in-one platform for security firms to monitor their guards. The real-time dashboard lets the management handle activity logs of the guards, check their attendance and payroll, and more.
Image Credit: TrackerHero TrackerHero also has a device which is like an Android phone integrated with a walkie talkie function. Guards can use this to tag the checkpoint devices across strategic locations to track their patrolling.
- CityHero: A platform for city and municipal councils where it combines citizen engagement with daily operations. Management can see cases and operations throughout Malaysia.
- VisitorHero: A visitor registration system that uses a QR system to log in all the visitors who come to a particular location.
TrackerHero has 200 users with over 10 companies going through the trial phase. Their clients come from primarily Klang Valley and Johor.
I could see how this would be handy, especially for big security firms.
As far as I know, security firms may have their HQ in one place but they’d have many other sites.
It has to be tricky to monitor everything real-time if you manage things via phone calls and what not.
Afiq Hazman, the co-founder of TrackerHero, agreed. The management is often one of the last to know if there’re any incidents that happened with their guards.
“By using our platform, information on operations records, emergency panic situations, attendance, clocking rounds, all are synchronised to a single cloud-based platform,” Afiq explained.
So their boss could be far away and still be able to keep track of what’s going on back home.
Price-wise, TrackerHero prefers to approach things from a partnership view rather than a one-off deal.
They do charge per single module, depending on what the firm needs, but they’d much rather focus on securing service partnerships with them. Afiq shared that it’s humbling when firms introduce them as their IT arm, so TrackerHero’s looking for that kind of relationship with their clients.
“A single service module that can be charged on a recurring revenue basis is more valuable to us. I can project my revenue stream consistently rather than have short term deals,” said Afiq to Vulcan Post.
It took them awhile to decide on this. In fact, Afiq shared that they went through a lot of trial and error to get to where they are today.
They were a part of Cyberview’s Living Lab Accelerator programme where they graduated from being in their prototype phase to preparing to go to market. They took the key lessons they learned from the accelerator to come up with an actual game plan going forward.
“Cyberview helped us pilot using their own building here in Cyberjaya. Through that, it helped to further refine our solution according to the feedback we got,” said Afiq.
The piloting also allowed them to realise how important it was to provide a seamless operational experience to roll out their products without needing to head down to every single site.
“I would suggest other IoT firms to do the same. Once you have a seamless model, you can actually replicate it anywhere else without having any fear of it breaking down and stuff,” shared Afiq.
Security and citizen engagement are just some examples of what TrackerHero’s doing to build up a smart society here in Malaysia but I questioned whether the citizens themselves were responding well to it.
How do guards who are probably foreigners or elderly folk—who might not be digitally savvy—adapt to their system?
The answer lies in how TrackerHero prioritises customer experience. They sit down with the user and develop it as per the industry usage.
When they rolled out CityHero in Johor, they had to teach users them step-by-step, but if the process is easy enough, people are willing to engage.
“Our system’s customisable so it can fit according to the company’s needs. But it’s scalable in the sense that 80% of our features are standards.”
“That’s how I want to position TrackerHero. We want our service to be replicable across other industries,” said Afiq.
Since their solution is mainly online, there’s not much need for them to be on ground at the security firms so much. But they want to provide close support.
“Our HQ is in Cyberjaya so most of the time, we can actually control our entire system from afar. We don’t have to be there on the ground but it’s reassuring for our clients that we’re there. That’s why we’re looking at opening a permanent office in Johor to support our operations there next year,” said Afiq.
Next year, their ambitions grow bigger. They’re looking at growing their site count to five times from where it is today.
They’re also building a SaaS platform to really spread the whole platform outside to make it more seamless.
“We’re aiming the overseas market too next year. If those numbers all come in together then I can say we’re in a good place next year,” said Afiq.
This article was written in collaboration with Cyberview.
Feature Image Credit: TrackerHero
