Category Archives: Loss Prevention

Loss Prevention in the ‘Fast Lane’

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Posted in: Loss Prevention, Restaurant

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According to the National Restaurant Association fast food joints, or “quick service restaurants,” lose up to seven percent of sales to employee theft.  Even more astonishing, according to an anonymous survey of fast food employees sponsored by the National Food Service Security Council, 49% of respondents answered “yes” to the question, “I can steal from my employer anytime I want.”  Dishonest managers are in an even better position to steal higher amounts of cash as they have the power to manipulate sales figures. Do you find yourself at the end of the month wondering when your profit left the building?

Best-in-class restaurant establishments have put the proper controls in place by establishing effective loss prevention programs.  A key component of a successful loss prevention program is video surveillance cameras and already 90 percent of retailers monitor their staff. However, this can mean spending hours reviewing video footage and by themselves are not enough.

QSR’s such as Chipotle, Carl’s Jr.®, and Qdoba are utilizing MVaaS (managed video as a service) solutions that combine the visual data with transactional data from business systems such as point of sale (POS) greatly improving the power behind the loss prevention program. MVaaS solutions allow franchisees to monitor their business from afar, transforming reams of video footage into searchable, actionable information.

Join us to learn how restaurant operators maximize profitability with every transaction, gain detailed insight into store operations and improve loss prevention efficiency with video in the upcoming webinar sponsored by Envysion ‘Top Loss Prevention Tips for Restaurant Operators.’

Register Today: Top Loss Prevention Tips for Restaurant Operators

  • Date: June 6th
  • Time: 1:00 p.m. ET

RILA Loss Prevention Show Wrap-Up

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Posted in: Loss Prevention, Marketing & Sales, Retail

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The 2012 annual Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) Loss Prevention Audit & Safety Conference was held last week in Dallas bringing together asset protection and safety professionals from over 80 companies. Attendees were able to hear from thought leaders in the industry on the latest advancements in asset protection and find solutions to the challenges they face.  The conference covered a number of pertinent topics but a key theme rang true, retail loss prevention technology is quickly evolving and organizations are eager to invest in technologies that will not just help LP, but the entire retail organization at whole.

Many of the breakout sessions discussed how these emerging technologies can be leveraged including the case study presentation ‘Managing Video as a Service to Drive Loss Prevention Results and Deliver Demonstrated Profitability Improvement.’ Alecia Camps of Big Lots and our own CEO, Matt Steinfort discussed the benefits of Managed Video as a Service for the retail industry using a case study on Big Lots.  MVaaS solutions integrate video with business systems such as point of sale extending the impact of loss prevention to cover more locations and support more investigations and prosecutions. Envysion’s easy to use exception reports enables loss prevention specialists to quickly identify high risk transactions and instantly review the corresponding video, allowing LP teams to rapidly determine and document cases of theft or fraud.

Further, the meaningful visual footage can be shared across departments throughout the entire organization. The video can be integrated to merchandising tools adding a whole new dimension to understanding customer behavior and give retailers unfiltered real-time insight into operations.  Beyond loss prevention the video solution can be used to ensure consistent execution on the brand promise, identify best practices for training purpose and gain unfiltered insight into the execution of marketing programs.

We’re pleased to make the slides from the RILA presentation ‘Managing Video as a Service to Drive Loss Prevention Results and Deliver Profitability Improvement’ available. Specific examples of exception reports, transactions and videos demonstrate how Big Lots and other multi-unit retailers are using MVaaS to improve the results of loss prevention and other departments – ultimately driving store-level profitability improvements. View Slides

Big Lots is Big Win for MVaaS

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Posted in: Business Intelligence, HR, IT, Loss Prevention, Marketing & Sales, Operations, Retail

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Retailer Big Lots was announced this week by Envysion!   Big Lots has selected MVaaS and has already rolled out to over 1,200 locations.  To my knowledge this is the largest implementation of managed video to date and reinforces the broad applicability of MVaaS across segments and store formats.  The importance of large anchor customers is well covered territory and we are happy to see an industry leader like Big Lots join the roster of leading retailers who have moved to managed video solutions.

Just as importantly, Big Lots sees the broader value that can be delivered by video-driven business intelligenceTM across their enterprise.  This broader usage beyond loss prevention and value recognition across key areas such as operations, marketing and HR is key.

 “Successful loss prevention professionals recognize that theft is only one of many factors that reduce profitability. With that in mind, we wanted a video tool that would give us a more comprehensive understanding of store-level operational challenges,” says Lance Williams, director of loss prevention at Big Lots. “Envysion enables us to give hundreds of users from our operations, marketing, risk management and HR teams enhanced visibility to the store.”

Our belief is that over the next few years multi-unit operators (retailers and the like) and their management teams will expect and require video-driven business intelligenceTM be used across the enterprise.  Profit after all is made and lost at the store level and unfiltered visibility and visual understanding of the context behind the numbers (through video to data integration) is what will allow operators to take action and drive improvements.  Another trend supporting adoption is the increasing use of big data.  Mobile and web experiences provide data that allows for analysis and instant modifications never before contemplated.   Well what if retailers could bring their mobile and web big data approaches to their bricks and mortar stores?  Sounds like opportunity for competitive advantage.  We’ve written a white paper on it, let us know your thoughts.

In the meanwhile a big MVaaS welcome to Big Lots!