Friday, 16th October 2015
Written by Behonce Beh
As appeared on Focus Malaysia
IT’S a nightmare having your vehicle stolen and when such a misfortune strikes, the only thing you can think about is to track down the vehicle and possibly recover it.
While vehicle tracking through the use of global positioning system (GPS) has been around for over a decade, previous applications were not user-friendly, to say the least. One new solution is Katsana, a GPS tracking and fleet management system that places user experience at the forefront.
The idea to create this system stemmed from a series of unfortunate events. “It was in early 2013 when my friend’s car was stolen in Bangsar and a week later, my brother’s car went missing in Penang,” recalls Katsana co-founder Syed Ahmad Fuqaha Syed Agil.
Both cars were never recovered and this prompted Syed Ahmad Fuqaha to toy with the idea of GPS tracking of personal vehicles.
Syed Ahmad Fuqaha, together with ex-colleague turned business partner Mohd Irwan Ibrahim, developed a prototype within four months. Potential customers were convinced of the Katsana concept, enabling the duo to secure pre-orders worth RM30,000. They delivered the system to their first batch of customers in the first quarter of last year.
The second core of KATSANA’s system is its ability to analyse behavioural patterns based on the data collected. The company precesses about six million location data a day and when such data are pooled, they could provide a better understanding of traffic conditions, driving behaviour and most frequented locations, among others.
The processed data, says Irwan, can then be used by the likes of insurance companies or even the road transport department.
The idea of sharing such data may be unpleasant for those who value their privacy. However, Syed Ahmad Fuqaha assures that all data collected on customers ‘live’ tracking are kept confidential.
“We advise our customers that for us to provide accuracy in our service, we would be tracking the movements of their vehicles at all times. The data collected are kept safe within a highly encrypted system,” he explains.
The KATSANA system currently tracks over 1,000 vehicles with the furthest located in Pontianak and Jakarta in Indonesia, and Bangkok, Thailand.
“We do not have an official presence abroad but we have users who are keen to try our system,” says Syed Ahmad Fuqaha, adding talks are on-going with foreign partners in regional markets as KATSANA prepares to expand abroad.