3 Ways to Increase Profitability Using Video Surveillance with Analytics
Why the Need for Analytics?
For the past three decades, video surveillance has proven itself beneficial in helping businesses reduce costs, stop losses and increase productivity. However, these systems either require additional manpower to monitor video feeds live, or are only used to review recorded video, after the fact. Even then, the effectiveness of the video is only as good as the human's ability to comprehend what is seen on the live or recorded video. This problem is compounded with multitudes of cameras and hours upon hours of video.
Today's advanced video analytics (intelligent analytics) has changed everything. It has taken the basic premise of video surveillance and recording to a whole new level, turning these passive monitoring and recording devices into active intelligent technology capable of analyzing the video streams in real time, and taking or initiating action based on a pre-established set of rules and protocols.
Could you increase profitability through the use of intelligent video technology? Yes. Most companies can benefit from a little help, and that's what we at United Security Alliance do. We help companies find ways to increase profitability without increasing the burden on them. We do this through intelligent video analytics.
Please read on. Let's start with the first strategy to execute using video surveillance with analytics, which will increase profitability: Reduce Costs.
1. Reduce Costs
You can only reduce and control your costs; you can't eliminate the cost of doing business completely. One of the ways we can help is by using our experience with the different video and analytics technologies, and our recommendation of those that can be applied to your specific goals.
What controllable areas of your business cost you the most money? Employee productivity, inefficient processes, carelessness, and waste/spoilage, just to name a few. If you could control these areas of your business operation, then you essentially decrease costs. Consider the following examples.
Increase Productivity
Are employees gathering outside or in the break areas for large amounts of time? Is the productivity currently running at a level, lower than expected? If so, could you benefit from knowing in real time, using video surveillance and intelligent analytics? Lost productivity not only costs more through wasted payroll and/or overtime expense; it also causes a loss from a decrease in production, output, or billable hours. Maximizing production will maximize profits.
Improve Customer Service
Are your customers waiting for unnecessarily long amounts of time? Are they being greeted promptly, or processed and cleared quickly? If you are in retail, are they waiting in lines too long? Our analytics technology can monitor these situations and alert management when circumstances like these exist. Businesses that take a proactive approach to customer service, produce a higher level of customer satisfaction and gain repeat business. Again, this adds real dollars to the bottom line.
Reduce Full Time Employees (FTE's)
Businesses pay human beings to watch, monitor, and check certain things. The alternative is setting up intelligent video analytics to do the monitoring and in some instances, initiate actions that employees would normally be required to perform.
Monitor & Control: Production/Processes
Obvious benefits can be obtained through extensive and consistent monitoring of processes, traffic flows, production, and patterns of behavior. When something is not right, off track, out of sequence, or missing, intelligent analytics can sound an alarm and the appropriate actions can be set into motion immediately. Equipment can automatically be shut down. Especially true in manufacturing, distribution, production, and industrial environments, associated downtime can be significantly reduced when something goes outside of normal ranges. In one example, an existing customer stated that using video analytics for early jam detection reduced their downtime time clearing those jams, from the normal 3 - 4 hours, to approximately 3 - 5 minutes saving them thousands of dollars.
Monitor Production Lines
Conveyor lines are prone to jams and other problems. Are materials not going through as expected? Video analytics can measure expected amounts and alarm you in advance of causing a slowdown or stop to production. Machinery can be down 5 minutes to prevent a problem instead of 5 hours to fix a problem.
The possibilities are endless and can be explored for your specific needs. We can help you do this, based on our extensive experience in reducing costs for similar businesses. A second way is to eliminate losses. Read on.
2. Eliminate Losses
The elimination of losses was the first use of intelligent video analytics. Eliminating losses caused by vandalism, trespassing, unauthorized access, fire and theft is a huge area in which video analytics has been proven to increase profitability.
Managers or security personnel, on or off-site, can be automatically alerted in all situations by these intelligent systems. Buildings can go into lockdown in order to protect people. Fire alarms and/or protection systems can activate in order to protect assets and product. Every dollar saved through the prevention of a single event, drops straight to the bottom line and can easily make a business more profitable.
Consider the following examples of ways to eliminate losses using video analytics.
Detect Fire Early
Prior to detection by conventional smoke and heat detectors, which typically result in significant damage from the event or the resulting activation of sprinklers, smoke and flame can be detected at the earliest stage through intelligent video analytics. If a business operation is down for several days due to fire or water damage, it could easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Detect Movement
Any unwanted movement of people or vehicles across a defined perimeter or into an area, can be easily detected using video advanced video analytics. Upon detection, the system can automatically initiate actions including alerts, alarms, automated verbal warnings or lockdowns; all without the typical human intervention normally required. The possibilities in this area are virtually limitless.
Monitor and Locate Lost or Stolen Assets
Intelligent video analytics has the capability of learning what assets are supposed to be within view of the camera and can automatically create an alert/alarm when those assets are removed. Alternatively, you can easily use the smart search feature within the analytics to quickly find lost, stolen, or damaged equipment. By simply defining a region of interest within view of the camera, you can use the intelligent search analytics to find the last known movement or activity within that region.
Safeguard Facilities
Various levels of video analytics can be utilized to monitor and detect when somebody goes in or out of any door in your facility or business. Protecting the areas that are critical to your business, keeping your business operations up and running, and running smoothly by preventing unnecessary interruptions to your business are additional ways that analytics can reduce losses and add profitability to the bottom line.
Detect Large Gatherings of People
Typically, a large gathering of people in a business, retail environment, secured facility or educational facility could signal a fight, flash mob or another type of unwanted problem. Video analytics can count the number of people in a defined area and alert management or authorities to potential problems before they occur.
United Security is expert at finding ways in which video analytics can be applied to eliminate losses. Another way is to mitigate risks. Read on.
3. Mitigate Risks
Consider the following story. A person claims an injury occurred while on the job or while in your business. They sue. You go to court and produce evidence through video analytics that proves otherwise. You win.
Decrease Insurance Liability
Video analytics can be used to ensure safety rules and regulations are being followed. For instance, do forklifts stop at stopping points and intersections inside your warehouse facility? Prevent the risk to pedestrians by using video analytics to monitor actions and alert to breaches immediately. Do your employees ever allow customers into in a hazardous area or to watch while performing a particular task? Are safety cones and other protocols followed when a floor is wet?
Decrease Workers Compensation Fraud
Workers can be monitored and recorded and intelligent video analytics can be utilized to flag specific events and search for incidents, claimed to have occurred during a specified date and time period. Decreasing fraud makes a huge impact on the profitability.
Conclusion
Even with all of these benefits, not all video security companies (integrators) capable of deploying video analytics are actually doing it. We believe this could be caused by several reasons, such as fear of going outside the known ways of doing things, or simply not having knowledge or technical staff to offer these intelligent systems. A March 2014 study released by IPVM (IP Video Market) stated that 66% of security integrators rarely or never deploy video analytics.
United Security is part of the small group of highly qualified integrators who are "often" deploying video analytics to increase profitability for its client base. It works. We know our customers can't afford to sit and watch video monitors or recorded footage. Creating more work for you is not feasible so we program video analytics to do the job for you, and show you how it will be profitable for your operation.
Call us today at (866) 620-0505.