Integrating Video and Alarms

Last week I sat in on the monthly ECR video in retail working group, where the focus of the discussion was on the integration of video and intrusion alarms. This month’s session, like others, attracted considerable interest from those in the working group, which now consists of over 200 video experts, from security, IT and loss prevention, representing more than 60 different retailers from all corners of the world, especially the USA, Europe and Australia. Colin Peacock, the Group Strategy Coordinator, led the session and facilitated the ECR Retail Loss Group.

The session started with the presentation of the results from an online survey on intrusion alarm monitoring, with responses from 34 retailers, from Europe (21), the USA (13) and Australia. One of the key findings was the expansion in remote monitoring, especially in Europe, where now 86% of the retailers reported that they are now able to “see” their stores remotely, this compares to a similar survey conducted in 2016, where just 13% of the retailers surveyed reported that they could remotely monitor their stores. Impressive industry-wide progress.

Next up was Ryan Themm, Corporate Investigations Manager, Meijer stores, who shared how he has been using his Video Management Software (VMS) to monitor live any intrusion alarms activated in the store, especially at the entrance area (for public order incidents, etc) and the fire doors, often ORC push outs. He also shared on screen a short demonstration the system and explained how they interact with law enforcement. His talk then started off a broader discussion with the group.

In this discussion, one retailer reported how their overnight monitoring team were able to act on the alarms with law enforcement in real time to deliver a 40% clear-up rate on their intrusions. We also heard from another retailer, who by being able to visually verify the possible reasons for the alarm, a member of staff arriving early for work, triggering the alarm, a rodent, new point of sale visuals, etc. Retailers reported an average 53% reduction in false alarms when they were able to determine via video the cause of the alarm. Fewer false alarms lead to improved relationships with law enforcement, safer and faster responses to real incidents and reduced costs.

The final interesting that came out of the discussion and online survey was that 35% of the retailers were now remotely monitoring the stores and alarms with their own internal teams, with others indicating that this was a direction they were also looking at in the future, and that for this set of retailers at least, there was now a reduced reliance on the use of third parties.

In summary, I took away three significant points:

1. The remote monitoring of retail locations, and the ability to “see” all the stores, is becoming the standard for the market, and increasingly the expectation of top management
2. The ability to integrate sensors, such as intrusion alarms can deliver immediate value and cost savings. And beyond these alarms, there is a growing appetite amongst this set of retailers for further integrations, fire alarms, refrigeration, and air conditioning were all mentioned, all of which when connected could help unlock even further cost savings and productivity improvements.?
3. Finally, there is, in this group of retailers, a noticeable growth in the use of their own internal teams in the operating of and monitoring of the video data, behind this trend is the motivation from these retailers to build additional capability using new data that might not be so easily shared with third parties, such as POS sales, and for the further integration of even more sensors, that can help transform video from being just a reactive tool for security, into a business tool for the whole enterprise.??

If you want to learn more and request the recording, please apply here:

https://www.ecrloss.com/event/there-is-nothing-more-frustrating-for-the-store-manager

The next session will be on the use of the cloud for video systems, this will be on October 13th

https://www.ecrloss.com/event/assessing-the-role-of-cloud-computing-for-video-in-your-businesses