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The consumer landscape is evolving due to lasting preferences from the pandemic and increased digitalisation of services. Meanwhile, many businesses continue to recover from their survival period in which they continue to find ways to cut costs and protect working capital. Additionally, concerns are mounting over a major increase in shoplifting rates, thought to be driven by the escalating cost of living crisis (1). Leaving business owners and managers need to make changes to their everyday operations to cater for new consumer preferences and control rising business costs and security threats. The crime report 2022 by the association of convenience stores explained that £246 million is invested in crime prevention across the sector over the last year, with the second top area of investment being in CCTV (2) Showing many companies are investing in VSaaS systems as a way of preventing potential incidents. From a surveillance perspective, the landscape has now shifted from Standalone CCTV and traditional door locking systems to hosted video surveillance and access control solutions. Furthermore, companies now want to unlock a range of powerful benefits to enhance operations as well as traditional security benefits such as protecting people, premises, and assets. Meaning that more businesses are contacting Morphean looking for a customisable solution that meets their needs.

SCALING UP SECURITY NEEDS WHILST SAVING COST

The cost-saving features of a SaaS system are a huge benefit for businesses. When using onsite servers, you will also have to budget for recurring costs such as video footage backups, system updates, server maintenance and space alongside the energy costs involved in these servers. For example, your servers have an average lifespan of that server is only 5-8 years which means you’ll have to invest in a whole new system when that time comes. Also, with rising energy costs running servers is getting increasingly more expensive. These additional costs multiplied on each site can create a high cost that could easily be controlled. Furthermore, if your business is growing faster than your onsite storage allows, you do not need to purchase extra servers just extra amounts of cloud storage which means you can use this additional saved budget on expanding other business functions.

Another example of a key benefit of implementing VSaaS and ACaaS within hospitality and retail is that it is a flexible, scalable solution that is adaptable to changing requirements. As it is offered ‘as-a-service’, for a convenient monthly payment all software and firmware updates are included, and you only pay for what features of our service you need. This means it’s easy to use and add or remove the video and access control devices you want on the platform, making the solution completely flexible as your needs change. Additionally, if you have a lower security budget it’s easy to upgrade and maximise your existing system with the simple and fast placement of Axis cameras, sensors, and access control devices on your existing IT network. Meaning your cameras and devices can be connected to the platform in a matter of seconds.

SECURITY BENEFITS

VSaaS and ACaaS can offer high levels of physical security, both inside and outside a site. Solutions like Morphean are perfect for businesses of all sizes, for instance, in smaller sites that often have lower amounts of staff and no onsite security team as your events and processes can be managed remotely. Access control points can be opened from any location to securely provide access to visitors, employees, and deliveries to an unmanned site. Meaning that you can cut costs whilst still maintaining high standards of security by knowing exactly who’s entering your premises. Using our alarm zone feature, any unauthorised attempt at access can trigger an alert on-site to avoid false alarms or either to an alarm receiving centre (ARC), security personnel or the Police, providing peace of mind for management and staff alike. Furthermore, security features such as loitering and aggression detection can monitor for intrusion, vandalism, and other undesirable activities that can be used across your locations.

In retail, staff are also becoming more vulnerable to incidents of abuse with 25% of independent retailers having experienced violence in the last year (2). Features such as aggression detection will send an alert when raised voices are detected at the checkout, while a hidden panic button can be pressed when employees feel threatened and alert relevant authorities by attaching access to the video evidence of the incident securely through the cloud. Features such as these can help your staff members feel safer when working which can help with staff retention and employee wellbeing.

CONSUMER INTELLIGENCE AND OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

With constantly evolving consumer preferences and increasing use in e-commerce, cloud surveillance platforms can optimise your operations with business intelligence features. People counting can be implemented by placing sensors which can collect data on the number of people entering and leaving at any time. These can be connected to your point of sale to get figures of how many of these people are making a transaction, while queue management can count the number of people waiting in line and send alerts to staff members. Additionally, hot zones allow you to see how people move around your space and optimise your layout maximising sales potential.

The increased demand for online purchases has caused new problems for retailers to face. Footasylum, a fashion streetwear and sportswear retailer with over 65 stores across the UK, saw that although their online orders were increasing, they were refunding customers for missing items. The profit protection team needed a greater overview of the packing and delivery process so that they could understand where problems were occurring. To this, Morphean proposes the use of its business intelligence in their warehouse location by installing a cloud video surveillance system, comprising network video cameras in packing areas, and utilising analytics, which now allows delivery queries to be checked and verified at the click of a button, representing significant savings while greatly improving the customer experience, reducing the number of delivery items reported missing by customers by 50% and improving its courier success rate by 25%.

Whether you have one location or a hundred, a cloud surveillance platform like Morphean is easily scalable across your sites and can be fully customised to your business needs. If you are interested in finding out how we can transform your business, contact us and get a free trial.

References:

1. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/stores/shoplifting-on-the-rise-as-mounting-cost-of-living-bites/667686.article
   
2. https://www.acs.org.uk/crime-report-2022/