Students today are vulnerable to a variety of dangers before, during and after school, studies indicate. It�s learnt that schools are experiencing rising rates of bullying, victimization, and violence. Fortunately, the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications show promise for helping schools minimize these threats and boost student safety.
BRUNHILD (a subsidiary of Goolean, established in 2016) is headquartered in Gurgaon. The company is a leading provider of IoT based solutions and is recognized by the Government of India under its Startup India Program. BRUNHILD creates IoT based solutions for Predictive Security system for schools and an IoT platform for healthcare and hospitality sectors.
Ashish Puri, BRUNHILD Technologies, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.
[SR]: Can you tell us about your Market Landscape?
[AP]: In recent years, security of students in schools has been recognized as one of the major concerns globally. India, specifically, has seen a shocking increase in such incidents for lack of any preventive methodology or technology. The currently available technologies such as RFID, GPS, CCTV, etc. are merely good for attendance/tracking or video surveillance.
Currently, there are more than 1.5 million schools covering more than 260 million students in the country. The market size for preventive safety and security systems is more than 5 billion.
[SR]: How do you position yourself in the domain? How do you amalgamate the latest technology with business objectives?
[AP]: At the moment, we do not have any competition in this product category; hence we can�t define our market position at this time.
When we talk about amalgamating the technology with business objectives; it has proven fruitful. IoT, which is already disrupting several industries, combined with AI and Machine learning has an enormous influence on our product category. The combination has already shown many breakthroughs in Preventive Security, Preventive Maintenance, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Energy optimization and more. Simply put, whether its cost saving or revenue generation, the technology is always integrated with business.
[SR]: What were the biggest initial hurdles in building your business and how did you overcome them?
[AP]: Initially, we faced roadblocks in making our customers understand that the attendance/tracking-based products in place do not fall in the security category, as they were being pitched so. It was not easy to make them understand the technical and functional differentiators, but we did it somehow. We always had to carry, setup and demonstrate the product every time to showcase what we claim; that had an impact on our costs.
We understood that � for new products, a market has to be created.
[SR]: What would you say was the single most influential factor in your business� success?
[AP]: There were multiple factors:
-No competition for the product
-Right pricing and model
-Current scenarios and concerns for student safety
[SR]: How satisfied are your clients with your service?
[AP]: Our product has been applauded everywhere. It has built a sense of satisfaction and safety among parents and school administrations.
Our product, BR�NHILD Security, is creating much more value for the administrations at no additional cost.
Health safety, eWallet, brawl alerts, evacuation management and many more additional features have filled the much-needed gaps, for which no technology was available earlier.
[SR]: Who are your target clients? Any specific sector you want to highlight?
[AP]: Our current focus is purely on schools. BR�NHILD Security focuses on the same. Next year, we plan to extend this platform to employee presence and office safety domain.
[SR]: What is it in your company that makes it different from others in the domain?
[AP]: As mentioned above, our product is innovative, most importantly, it�s not available anywhere elsewhere. In the name of School Security system, other companies make RFID based attendance system or CCTV and GPS for bus tracking, which are nowhere near to the predictive and preventive safety.
Our product is conceptualized from the fact that �if you can predict, you can prevent.�
[SR]: What are your present and future focus areas?
[AP]: Our current focus is on an IoT based student safety platform and it will be available for corporates too, in the coming year. In addition, we are also preparing for Real-Time-Customer-Engagement product in the hospitality industry.
