Exactly six years ago, two Jozi-based entrepreneurs opened a small business with a big vision of stopping mobile phone store robberies in their tracks. Their solution was to create a world-first (CellVault™) that combined stunning simplicity with a dash of technology: secure lockers with a built-in time-delay that would deter robbers who don’t have time to wait around.
Today, VaultGroup™ has grown into a 40+ person business that is changing the face of the local storage security industry by providing high-tech solutions to the local market, offering custom-built secure storage to customers in two specific verticals.
CellVault is an ultra-secure time lock mechanism designed primarily for high-value, low-volume assets, and PackVault™ is a convenience product offering solutions for the so-called BOPIS (Buy Online & Pick up In-Store) market, click ‘n collect and residential complexes. The technology underpinning both solutions is developed in-house, and features custom-designed hardware and software, purpose-built to address customer needs, says VaultGroup COO Lance Baum.
CellVault can be found in more than 1 500 high end stores, and has prevented or minimised loss in its clients’ stores more than 600 times to date. “The system walks the fine line between ease of use and inconvenience, thereby allowing store operation to function as normal while being enough of a hindrance to deter thieves,” says Baum.
From a hardware perspective, a huge focus is placed on extensibility and simplicity. Each unit features a basic numeric keypad and a simple four-line screen.
“As with CellVault, the PackVault solution involves no keys. The PackVault platform offers the same hardware scalability and enterprise solution but features user-friendly customer interfaces, each purpose-built for the environment it is placed in. A combination of barcodes and touchscreen input allows for lockers to be reserved, allocated, freed, or cancelled, as per customer requirements,” says Baum.
“How do banks get new debit and credit cards to their customers without forcing them to come into a branch? How do couriers ensure valuable deliveries end up in the right hands, without the headache of wrong addresses and multiple delivery attempts? How do jewellers operate in a world where armed gangs break display cases and flee with their loot? These are the pain points facing South African businesses today – and we’re helping them solve their problems, using fully home-grown technology,” says Baum.
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