A Video Surveillance Upgrade Reduces Losses

The owner management of Mr. Smith, a company that manufactures and sells gardening tools, is in the fourth generation. Young visitors of the discotheque in the neighboring industrial area have been climbing over the wire mesh fence at night and products exhibited outside are often damaged or even completely destroyed. Inside, there are irregularities at the checkouts too. This is why Mr. Smith Junior decided to improve and extend the video surveillance system.

Although Mr. Smith Senior had already taken preventive measures during his time as Managing Director, when his business contents insurance company canceled the contract because of too many claims, Mr. Smith Junior made the decision that something must change. The friendly lady from another insurance company told him that his insurance costs would be much lower - in comparison to his old insurance - if he installs a suitable video surveillance system. According to statistics, this measure would reduce the number of burglaries and hence also lower the insurance risk. He would therefore kill several birds with one stone.

The company also successfully exports its goods to European countries. His customs specialist informed him that there are new requirements to be met by export companies, if they want to retain their status as an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) in the future. One of the criteria for receiving the AEO certificate is the recording of material flow of incoming goods, to warehousing, to production and through to distribution. Here an intelligent video surveillance system is an optimum solution because there is then no need to hire more staff for the tracking of the products.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Father‘s preventive measures had included the installation of three analog cameras outdoors and one camera behind the cashier, the data being recorded for years on a digital recorder, but the investment had not yet paid off because the existing cameras were not sufficient for complete control. Two branches of the company are located in the north and the south of the home state respectively where circumstances are about the same. One branch was equipped with just one camera. The other branch was equipped quite well with eleven cameras but even those images were not very valuable.

The management had noticed quite often that many more of the smaller containers of engine oil had been sold than were actually in stock. On the other hand, the more expensive packages were regularly missing from the retail shelves, although according to cash entries they should not yet have been sold. Other local businessmen told similar stories: cashiers set the price of a cheaper product manually, take the full price of the purchased product from the customer and were lining their own pockets with the difference. The management had no proof of this because the videos did not show what prices were set by the cashiers while selling a product.

Enhancements
To get a second opinion and to have a better basis for decision-making, Mr. Smith Junior instructed an Axxon certified partner from the area to have a first-hand look at the difficulties. He noted that the existing cameras were good and also the positioning was quite good too. However, the wrong lenses had been chosen as they were too wide-angle. A huge area could be recorded but, in the case of an alarm, there was no usable material because the records were not detailed enough. The Axxon partner also had a solution for the problem with the cash desk accounting.

The outdoor area complement was enlarged from three to eight cameras. This made it possible to use camera lenses with smaller angles, and the resultant image quality left no doubt about the recorded events. Some new and clearly visible signs were fixed on the fence to make potential thieves aware of the video surveillance. This measure not only met legal regulations but also has a continuous dissuasive effect.

The warehouse and the production area also now have video surveillance so that all finished and unfinished products are under constant observation. The products are registered into the system with an external integrated bar-code recognition software and the data stored. This enables management to always have a current inventory available.

In Sync
Because there are three branches of the company, the Axxon partner advised Mr. Smith Junior to use the larger software variant of Axxonsoft called Intellect 4.8. This software can be enlarged to an unlimited amount of cameras, and all types can be integrated and easily managed within the system. One server was placed in each branch that communicates with each of the others. The client was installed in the head office, enabling management to access all the cameras installed in all the branches. To prevent frequent false alarms, the software is programmed so that an alarm is only given if an object comes over the fence from outside, enabling customers to move freely within the sales areas to look at the products. All movements at night trigger an alarm of course.

The Axxon partner advised Mr. Smith to expand the software with the "pos" module for the checkouts. Every price entered into the keyboard of the cash register is synchronized with the video recording. Thereafter, management can have a look at any event when, for example, the price of a smaller package has been entered and then have a look at the corresponding picture. It is then possible to establish if the smaller package has changed hands or whether one of the more expensive packages has gone over the counter.

Order Restored
The operation of the Axxon Intellect 4.8 is very simple, even for those not so familiar with computers, thanks to an intuitive interface. All essential elements are directly reachable and a single mouse click gives access to the individual records. A list of incidents shows what happened most recently. The selection of cameras from the position plan simplifies handling greatly. If needed, the system can even inform via e-mail or SMS, and live images can be viewed on suitable mobile devices.

After informing the cashiers about the new checkout software, there has not been any difference between the nominal and actual inventory. Also the boundary fence is still intact after half a year. There is a small dent where someone has tried to climb over - as can be clearly seen on the video for this moment - but the intruder was deterred when the light was turned on as an automatic reaction of the software to such an event. Whether Mr. Smith receives the AEO certificate depends on the result of the official authorization process. But, in any event, certification will not fail because of the incorrect registration of material flow within the company.