Insights

5 Ways to Leverage the Power of Cloud Video Surveillance

November 19, 2019

From restaurants to convenience stores, gas stations to retail outlets–outdated video surveillance systems linger on. They offer varying degrees of quality, and offer limited playback features for review. What you see on the screen is what you get – there may be lighting issues or blocked camera views–this is so 1990s.

Modern video surveillance technology is all about integration. It combines the latest digital camera technology with a data management platform and a mobile app. Business owners and managers can trust that they can keep an eye on things, even when they are not on the premises.

Beyond simple visual surveillance, today’s tech can help businesses find and solve problems. User-friendly region mapping and search features make it easy to filter through hours of security camera footage in seconds. This capability can be paired with the other software systems used in the business – from staff scheduling software, to POS and inventory – to easily correlate and cross-reference specific activities, transactions and other events that took place on the premises.

It is the fusion of video, data and analytics that delivers true business operations intelligence.

See how Solink improves your business operations.

Below are the top 5 ways that video and data will change the way you run your business:

A person holding a tablet with a video on it.

1. Your second set of eyes:

Even if all you want is video surveillance without the data analytics or integration with other systems such as point of sale (POS), a modern video surveillance platform is still far more versatile than older technologies. Motion Search, for example, allows you to isolate a specific region or area within visual range of the camera, then monitor this region for any movement over a set period of time. An alert can be sent to your phone when motion is detected. This also allows for hours of video surveillance footage and POS monitoring to be reviewed in a matter of seconds–enabling you to be “virtually” in the store, even when you’re not.

2. Work with your existing technology:

As we said up top, video can be integrated with the POS and other technology solutions like staff scheduling and inventory – we will explore how this works and the benefits that come of it in future blog posts.

3. Protect your business by storing the video that matters:

Raw video footage is a data and bandwidth hog. Cloud storage has the advantage of providing an off-site backup, but that costs money. A modern video surveillance platform can enable the business owner to compress video and selectively determine what needs to be retained and stored for compliance or investigative purposes. All this helps you reduce the cost and complexity around managing your video footage and related data, either onsite, or in the cloud.

Two women in aprons working in a coffee shop.

4. Identify & solve problems with video monitoring:

Just like pro sports teams use video as a training tool to help players see their mistakes and improve their game, you can use actual video surveillance footage to help your team achieve a new level of performance. This also ensures that policies and customer service levels are best in class.

5. Identify supplier incidents in minutes:

Are you experiencing what appear to be acts of theft or vandalism with deliveries left at the back door? Issues with garbage collection? Again, a modern video surveillance system with a motion search feature can quickly get to the bottom of it.

In the coming weeks, we will dive deeper into these various areas, with case studies and stories from our technology partners and customers.