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Taking Loss Prevention to a New Level
Application-level convergence can help retailers and other businesses achieve higher levels of efficiency and productivity
By Guido Jouret
For retailers, loss prevention (security) is very serious business, as they have to be constantly on guard against losses from theft, whether perpetrated from the outside or the inside. One major retailer recently connected its loss prevention system to its corporate IP network. Not surprisingly, this company discovered by converging video surveillance on their IP network they enhanced the loss prevention group's investigative capabilities, improved the loss prevention staff's productivity and enabled greater operational flexibility to support future investments, including the integration of other systems.
This is becoming a common story. More and more, organizations are discovering that application-level convergence delivers unique capabilities that support vital aspects of their businesses. With this level of convergence, companies are achieving new levels of efficiency, productivity and cost savings that go beyond loss prevention and hold the potential to grow top-line revenue.
Securing the Floor
Like many retailers, the major department store chain described above deployed a system of still security cameras over every point-of-sale (POS) terminal and a system of pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) cameras over every door. For many years, analog video from both systems was delivered to a central point in each store and converted to a digital format for image storage and retrieval.
After more than a decade, the video recording systems began to fail — and when one recorder failed, it impacted 32 cameras. The video recording systems were not easily repairable and the vendor had moved on to newer products, rendering obsolete the decade-old recorder.
After considering several options, the retailer decided to implement a network-based video surveillance solution, which would cost-effectively extend the capabilities of its existing IP network. This converged network eliminated the redundancy associated with a separate analog system and related infrastructure to perform security surveillance. They were able to manage video, camera and recording connectivity and event correlation on one network, enhancing the reliability of their system while creating the ability to integrate video with other business applications to attack loss prevention in a comprehensive way.
Network-based surveillance solutions are integrated with POS systems in more than 22 stores, delivering new insights into exceptions and suspicious transactions. With a Web-based interface, all loss prevention staff and store management can use the solution, making it easy for them to focus on reducing loss and enhancing store safety. The company's IT staff manages camera and network recording platforms connectivity — as they do other network edge devices. And they can easily scale the system by simply adding cameras. As a result, the loss prevention group can focus on its core responsibility and IT provides regular maintenance support, just like many other critical business systems and applications.
“Viewing specific transactions on video is now 75 percent faster than with the old system,” the retailer's operating vice president says. “The system maximizes the productivity of our loss-prevention staff — especially in smaller stores that have only one or two loss-prevention members.” He expects to add more PTZ cameras and has IP cameras in some locations. As new video analytic technology becomes available, he envisions the system becoming much more than a security system. With video analytics, the solution's high-quality video can be applied to marketing, merchandising inventory and risk-management challenges, further enhancing the solution and future-proofing the converged network.
