How Absence Of E-surveillance For SMBs In India Can Affect Their Growth?

Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are major contributions to accelerate India’s economy; present in abundance, all around the nation; these businesses are no strangers to security threats like break ins and pilferage.

SMBs around the globe have been quick to recognize the added value video surveillance and management systems can bring to their organizations, however the same has not been the case in India. SMBs in India have had to gradually build their trust, taking small calculated steps towards any automating facilities. Still governed by traditional methods of going about their transactions, small and medium sized businesses have been rather reluctant about transitioning from their old ways to newer ones. The reasons are wildly expansive, ranging from the ignorance of entrepreneurs regarding the benefits of e-Surveillance systems to believing that these artificial intelligence based-management systems are only for larger businesses and organizations.

If not e-surveillance, how are SMBs in India secured?

We’ve all seen that warning sign placed in every retail and non-retail business around us, ‘You are under CCTV surveillance’. If that is the case, the enterprises should be safe from threat, right?

Unfortunately, that is not the case. While numerous people believe that installing a CCTV camera or a system of cameras is enough to secure the assets and resources of their organization, security requires more than just that. Installation of cameras is only the first step towards securing your premises and the inability to control and regulate its functioning in real time makes or breaks a security system.

To believe that the presence of the CCTV camera(s) in the premises is enough to establish a secured work space is the same as stating that having a seat belt is enough to ensure your safety.

Irrespective of what some people believe, unless you wear a seat belt while travelling in a car, you’re not safe in lieu of an accident; unless you make use of the surveillance system installed at your premises, you’re not safe from the horrors of intrusion or pilferage.

The limited number of cameras installed at a store, depending on the size of the establishment, is often enough as long as it is followed by a system of smart reception and application of real time benefits and monitoring abilities.

In other words, SMBs in India started on a marginally right path, but many stopped right after the initiation.

Misconceptions about video surveillance

Cameras installed in the premises is enough as a security system

As mentioned previously, installation of cameras is only the first step towards securing an enterprise. SMBs in India are often managed with the idea that their security system is enough to maintain a healthy and harmless workplace, which unfortunately but often turns out to be far from the truth. Traditional cameras with on site footage storage makes the system in itself vulnerable to tampering and theft. Unless the camera is equipped with smart abilities like that of motion detection or facial recognition and accompanied by real time alarm systems; it is rendered useless in the face of a criminal occurrence on site.

A system that isn’t equipped to stop a crime from happening and can only assist the owner once the crime has already been conducted isn’t really a surveillance system.

My enterprise is too small for a video surveillance system

While a high tech, full-fledged surveillance system might be a little over the top for a quiet little café, a salon or grocery store; both in terms of its capital investment and excessive functioning abilities that may not be useful for its purpose, a business has still been established after a good deal of investment in assets and equipment, requiring one to prevent it from any harm. A video surveillance system is a customizable structure that not only can be personalized according to the security needs of a business but is also scalable, allowing owners to expand their security system with expansion in their business.

Guarding the premises is enough to strengthen the security system

A number of stores employ security guards as an added ornamentation to their surveillance propaganda, illuding to the illusion of safe and secure premises. However, we’ve already read through too many news articles where the robbery happens either in the presence of a ‘sleeping on duty’ guard or an ‘injured on duty’ one. Both cases leave the enterprise in a vulnerable position, the second one with an added horror of loss of life.

The realization

Your security system is customizable to your security needs

As more and more reliable resources are coming out with better and personalized information, an increasing number of people have started to realize that every security solution is different in terms of its capabilities. Every solution built around a common structure of smart devices, a cloud-based platform, network connectivity and a swift command center can be customized depending upon the security requirements of an establishment. From a system supporting 4 cameras, an alarm system and a bunch of sensors (access door, smoke/fire, intrusion) for a small grocery store to a system supporting 20 IP cameras, ten different types of smart sensors, along with order and executive management systems all bound together, storing their data onto the unified cloud destination; a solution can be simplified or made more complex depending on your requirement. Your enterprise, small or medium, needs security just as much as larger enterprises.

Smart placement > 10 cameras

The idea of installing tens of cameras at your location may seem like too much of a hassle to some, and rightly so. For your establishment to be safe from internal and external harm, it is necessary for you to recognize areas that truly require surveillance; some basic locations being the entry/exit points, cash registers, or the shelves/aisle. Recognizing your pain points prior to investing in a surveillance system can make a big difference when it comes to securing premises. You do not need a complicated system; a few IP cameras, a simple alarm system and intrusion detection sensor might work just fine.

How to be a smart businessman

How a business goes on about its values and practices is for it to decide, but our expertise is in making their enterprise smarter without putting too much load on their wallet.

Small and medium sized enterprises seem to be juggling with the idea that greater security means greater cost. While it might be true to some extent, keeping in mind that the smart system is comparatively costlier than an old school CCTV system; its eventual benefits in terms of advanced security and reliability to deter a crime can easily cover up that cost, bringing home a greater return on investment. Not only that, the scheduled device health checks and self-diagnosing abilities of a video security solution reduces the unprompted cost of a system breakdown. The add on cost of additional security in the form of security guards is a sure add-on to the long-term cost of maintaining a traditional surveillance system without adding much to its value. SMB’s in India are opening to the idea of digital India, a necessary advancement towards technological evolution to bring these enterprises at par with other developing and scaling businesses.

Get in touch with our surveillance expert today and get a free evaluation of your business capabilities to security threats.