STORES Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 66)

LPINFORMATION / VIDEO SURVEILLANCE Screening for Scammers Exception-based DVR system helps c-store operator pinpoint fraud BY ED McKINLEY V ERC Enterprises, a New England convenience store operator, has entered a new era of loss prevention. Shrink originating with customers: Managers at the chain’s 21 locations used to spend three hours a week randomly reviewing surveillance videos, hoping that if a theft had occurred they might, by chance, stumble upon it. Now, they devote just an hour (or less) per week to watching video automatically screened to show only potentially suspicious events at the point of sale. The change came with the installation of Image Vault, a digital video recording system supplied by New Albany, Ind.based FireKing Security Group. And, by reducing annual shrink rates by half a percentage point, the new system paid for itself in two years, says Barry Ahern, VERC’s director of operations and human resources. Operating a traditional four-camera VCR system costs about $4,300 over five years, compared with $4,000 for the PRO Command digital video recorder (DVR) system, according to FireKing. “Our typical payout varies, but a six-month payoff on the entire complete new installation is pretty standard with our product if they previously had an antiquated system,” says Brandon Ring, the vendor’s national sales manager. Exception alerts drive the efficiency of the Image Vault DVRs, he says, and could help any retailer smooth the surveillance process and cut losses due to theft. Even before it installed the Image Vault system, VERC store managers viewing surveillance tape saw POS data alongside the images of cashiers punching the information into their machines. By sheer luck, a manager might happen to view footage from the exact moment 66 STORES / JANUARY 2009 70-80% Source: VERC an employee took the money for a carton of cigarettes, rang up the price of a single pack of smokes and pocketed the difference. Confirming employee theft required seemingly endless rounds of rewinding and replaying the tape. Now, instead of poring over tape in a search for misdeeds, store managers can use exception alerts to watch only the relevant portions of the video. Besides making the alerts available to WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - January 2009

STORES Magazine - Jauary 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Mechanical Marvel P&G Invests in Ocado Now I Remember What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Breaking the Monotony Multi-Channel Concept2Watch E-Commerce Analytics Category Management IT Systems In-Store Technology IT Systems Communications Website Strategy Communications SOA Energy Video Surveillance Employee Theft Online Fraud Industry Perspective Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword End Cap

STORES Magazine - January 2009

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