Absolute Scores Again for Swiss Football Association
Formed in 1895 as one of the first football associations founded outside the UK, Schweizerischer Fussballverband (the Swiss football association) is at the heart of the country’s football league. With over 80 staff members working across 15 different sites and coaches and managers often travelling across Europe, the use of laptop computers is vital to keeping the organisation running efficiently. “Although we don’t need computers to play football, we rely on them to organise the matches and to keep everything running smoothly. Communication is vital to us and when laptops go missing it really affects our organisation” said Marc Rauber, Systems Manager for the Association.
Challenge
Last year the association experienced a break in at their headquarters in Bern, Switzerland. The thieves managed to get away with 15 of the association’s laptops. At that time the laptops weren’t protected by Computrace® so there was little chance they would ever be seen again. The loss of these laptops caused major disruption to the running of the association. Following the break in Mr Rauber was concerned that this could happen again and he decided that he needed to safeguard the organisation against future risk. He explored the options available and when he spoke to Dell, Computrace from Absolute® Software was recommended as the ideal solution.
Solution
When the replacement laptops were ordered Computrace was preinstalled by Dell at the factory. Knowing this solution was already on the laptops provided peace of mind for the football association. “I feel better now knowing that our PC assets are protected. Our employees work across 15 different locations so it used to be difficult to keep track of our IT assets. With Computrace I can now track the assets at all times. Knowing where the laptops are and knowing that we are safeguarded against future theft means I sleep better at night!” commented Marc.
On 3rd February 2008, the thieves struck again, this time four laptops were stolen. Mr Rauber believes they used a key which was stolen from the first robbery proving that physical protection just isn’t enough. As soon as the burglary was detected Marc made one phone call to the Absolute Theft Recovery Team to inform them that the laptops had been stolen. The Theft Recovery Team began tracking the stolen laptops right away. Almost immediately one of the laptops started ‘calling in’ to the monitoring centre every 15 minutes to relay information about its location. Within one day the recovery team was able to supply the Swiss police with the name, address and phone number of the person who was using the stolen laptop. Within three days of the break in a suspect was already in custody. When asked about the recovery Mr Rauber responded “I was very surprised and impressed. The process was so quick and efficient - I really didn’t expect it. I only had to make one call and before I knew it I had the laptops back.” Within a week a second laptop was also back with the association. “The extra security we have installed at our offices combined with the Computrace solution means all of our assets are now properly protected.”
On 3rd February 2008, the thieves struck again, this time four laptops were stolen. Mr Rauber believes they used a key which was stolen from the first robbery proving that physical protection just isn’t enough. As soon as the burglary was detected Marc made one phone call to the Absolute Theft Recovery Team to inform them that the laptops had been stolen. The Theft Recovery Team began tracking the stolen laptops right away. Almost immediately one of the laptops started ‘calling in’ to the monitoring centre every 15 minutes to relay information about its location. Within one day the recovery team was able to supply the Swiss police with the name, address and phone number of the person who was using the stolen laptop. Within three days of the break in a suspect was already in custody. When asked about the recovery Mr Rauber responded “I was very surprised and impressed. The process was so quick and efficient - I really didn’t expect it. I only had to make one call and before I knew it I had the laptops back.” Within a week a second laptop was also back with the association. “The extra security we have installed at our offices combined with the Computrace solution means all of our assets are now properly protected.”
Results
“I have been very pleased with Absolute software and its Computrace solution and have recommended it to others. They are always impressed when I tell them about the successes we have experienced.”
