|
Can video integrated with POS deliver the goods? |
|
|
|
|
| Written by Jennifer Brown, on Tue-December-2009 |
Page 1 of 2
Special Online Report Retailers routinely lean on their point of sale systems to help them identify trends and determine when fraudulent activity is happening in their stores.
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.
|
