Those who have begun integrating video have found they can benefit from having a visual component paired with transaction data. But is the technology really there yet? Some retailers have had success while others say it’s not quite ready — at least not without some time and money, something many retailers don’t have a lot of right now.

POS/video and access control integration accounts for 75 per cent of the business Odyssey Technologies currently does in the market.

The company’s video management system offers text insertion and full report generation that is customized for a POS system.

“The customer can go back and search for voids, no sales, discounts, etc., and get court admissible video to prosecute or terminate an employee. This is also a great tool to see if the employee has a need for further training,” says Harris Douglas of Odyssey Technologies based in Laurel, Md.

“Right now it’s all software and it’s more cost effective to do it with one piece of software rather than put a black box at each register,” says Douglas.

Odyssey Technologies, which works with Micros Systems Inc. in Canada, is installed with U.S. retailers such as McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts in the Boston area where they have high staff turnover — mostly teenagers working part-time.

Text information from a transaction is sent in real time over the network — rather than when the transaction is finalized — and placed on top of the video image of the cashier and customer. All transaction exceptions including voids, deletes, error corrects and cancels are matched against the corresponding video. Actions at the counter can be checked against what the cashier rings up.

“We use it to help them manage theft and to manage training issues and really, manage their bottom line. You can see them ringing up a transaction and if it’s a void and they take the money out of the register you see that as well, so we’re doing text insertion which is rare. We use it to help them manage staff and manage training issues,” says Douglas.

Dunkin Donuts uses Radiant cash registers and a DVR is plugged into the router with the POS terminals and it picks up the conversations between cash registers.

CCTV integration with POS is something Steve Waldron, director of loss prevention with Danier Leather based in Toronto, experimented with it several years ago, but he has since backed away from it. Danier has cameras located over the cash registers but they are not currently tied into the POS.

“Integration in all its forms is on the radar. I’m always looking at it but I think that privacy concerns/compliance, migration costs and sustainability will be the big challenges,” says Waldron.