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Netstar is expanding its reach beyond traditional vehicle tracking and recovery into a broader consumer safety and commercial asset ecosystem. The company sees this as a way to gain and keep customers in a competitive market.Rather than treating vehicle tracking as a standalone commodity, Netstar — a key business and source of growth for JSE-listed Altron — aims to build an interconnected platform that protects people, nonmotorised assets and commercial inventory. (Dorothy Kgosi) Altron has been under pressure to expand units such as Netstar after the unbundling of Bytes Technology. Once a dominant presence in the sector, Netstar had lost ground to competitors such as Tracker SA, Mix Telematics [which recently merged with Powerfleet] and Karooooo-owned Cartrack.In recent years, the concept of developing an ecosystem has been popularised by consumer electronics maker Apple. Like the Silicon Valley giant, some of Netstar’s competitors, like Cartrack, are also working on their ecosystem of devices and services. For Netstar, the strategy being employed by Warren Mande, the company’s recently appointed MD, can be broken into three segments. Regarding personal safety and consumer offerings, Netstar is extending its security services directly to individuals and families, regardless of whether they are near or inside a vehicle. Through app-based solutions, like the Netstar Companion app and hardware panic buttons, users can dispatch private armed response or emergency medical services to their exact GPS location.“In our consumer space … how do we help people look after themselves? How do we support our police force, and how do we provide an extra layer of security? So we’ve got personal security as a value proposition where people can leverage security services through a push on our app or one of our panic buttons,” Mande said.In addition, consumer applications allow parents or caretakers to track family members and create custom geofences, such as school boundaries, receiving real-time alerts if a child leaves designated zones, for instance.“We’re tracking people and making sure kids don’t leave their geo-fenced school boundaries. We want to make sure people are safe. That safety aspect extends to mobility and people on the road ... but it also extends to people who are not necessarily on the road but may be victims of crime,” Mande said.Regarding asset tracking and smart labels for businesses, Netstar introduced thin, self-adhesive, battery-powered tracking labels that function like a sticker or plaster, making them easy to attach to goods, tools or pallets.Operating on a proprietary Bluetooth network alongside standard cellular networks, these devices can be concealed in bulk cargo or pallets to protect shipments against inventory theft.Commercial clients can track not just the vehicle carrying the shipment but also the actual cargo inside or assets sitting within a warehouse.“We’ve got a new range of smart labels, and they literally look like a plaster. They can stick to any kind of goods, are battery-powered, and run on a proprietary Bluetooth low energy network,” Mande explained. “Because they’re so slim and thin, you can hide them in and among pallets. We’re also helping clients now protect either a load in a vehicle or just the assets they may have in their businesses.”Regarding Netstar’s push to consolidate its various apps, the company operates multiple applications for different use cases, such as vehicle tracking, asset tags and emergency panic services.As such, Netstar is investing capital to integrate these services into a single, user-friendly app, reducing customer friction and increasing brand stickiness.“We’ve got three apps. We need one app, which is what we’re getting signed off on … to integrate everything into one app and simplify these [offerings] to be more user-friendly,” said Mande. Over 30 years, the company has evolved from reactive recovery to proactive prevention with antijamming tech, early-warning key tags and comprehensive fleet management encompassing fuel saving, environmental benefits and AI-powered driver safety cameras.Mande plans to increase the number of associations that customers have with Netstar. If this works, it can help to push new income lines while driving the core stolen vehicle recovery business.Business Day
