Impact of CCTV Surveillance on Business Operations

A wide range of operations, offices separated by geographies, and hundreds of employees working under a wing; businesses have a myriad of diverse but action-specific sections to orchestrate. As a business witnesses its expansion across verticals its surveillance demands scale as well. Cloud-based CCTV surveillance provides a comprehensive solution for all enterprise security needs while also aiding businesses to establish an efficiently operating business. The added advantage of AI-based analytics gives businesses a competitive advantage over other businesses that still believe in leveraging analog CCTV surveillance mechanisms.

Introduction

A business is an integration of multiple operations spread across sites. Moving out of the commercial office building, a business venture out into every stage of a product’s journey – starting from the manufacturing process right onto its storage, followed by its transportation to other market areas, all the while ensuring optimum employee and customer experience.

An enterprise is responsible for the fulfillment of a large bracket of operations, right from a commodity’s production to its consumption. Once a consumer gets tied to a business because of buying a certain product or leveraging a service, it creates an unending cycle of the customer- enterprise relationships. Right from asking for the customer’s feedback to sending personalized suggestions based on activities, a business is involved into multiple interactions in the long run.

The Coca Cola Company, for example, is one such global enterprise that manages a multitude of manufacturing sites, warehousing units while undertaking basic operations to boost sales.

With the multitude of manufacturing sites, warehousing units, and retail locations under major businesses, the points of vulnerabilities also increase. As the number of operational sites multiplies, a similar multiplication can be observed in the threats faced by these sites. From break-ins to internal pilferage, a wide range of surveillance threats are faced by businesses today.

Outdated analog CCTV surveillance

Every business understands the requirement of a basic surveillance solution, and for some small-sized businesses, an analog system might work just as well. However, for entrepreneurs looking forward to expanding their operations or hoping to hop onto the bandwagon of becoming an attractive investment joint for customers, employing a more comprehensive solution goes a long way.

Analog CCTV surveillance systems lack smart detection capabilities, leaving it to the vigilance of surveillance staff to monitor who enters or exits the premises or what operations are taking place in the premises. While this might work for small businesses that put a majority of their trust in manual guarding, this solution might fall short in larger organizations with a greater area to cover and a variety of operations to monitor.

While employing security guards and analog CCTV systems help businesses secure their premises from intrusion and other security concerns, there are limitations to its benefits. Other than acting as a criminal deterrent in real-time or as an evidence recorder for future verification and investigation purposes, an analog CCTV surveillance system is deficient in its capabilities. The analog cameras being strategically stationed in the intruder’s direct field of vision can deter criminals but does not aid the surveillance staff in realizing that such an incidence is taking place. The inability of these systems to provide proactive assistance to situations at hand make these the secondary choice for enterprises.

The surveillance take over

Organization’s security needs have evolved over time. Having witnessed a downfall in the quality of a manually operated surveillance mechanism in a digitally-driven world, businesses have come to terms with the limitations of an analog CCTV surveillance system. As the first initiative towards digitizing their enterprises, business owners have started to invest in a modern IoT-enabled CCTV surveillance system. Along with providing round-the-clock protection to the assets and people involved, the solution also provides employers with operational insights to improve the organization’s performance.

How CCTV surveillance benefits business operations

For businesses, a rather big chunk of their revenue goes into their enterprises as investment into new assets and remuneration to their employees. This increases the need for enterprises to provide top-notch security to their resources (human and others). Some basic benefits of CCTV surveillance systems include:

1. Sense of security

While establishing a CCTV surveillance system, the major purpose of it is to protect your business. While an analog security system can protect a premise by deterring criminals, it still leaves a large scope of activities to be reviewed manually. From unauthorized entry inside data sensitive areas to procrastination during work hours, all activities inside and around the premises are to be continuously monitored. With cloud based CCTV surveillance solutions, employers and employees can work without the worry of intrusions and thefts while at the same time ensuring their own performance standard as they are being monitored as well.

2. Increases productivity

The surveillance footage being reviewed in real-time provides deep insights into the daily operations of an organization. Being in the field of vision of a camera, employees tend to waste less time. Not only do they spend more time on their work but also follow through with all instructed guidelines whether regarding their safety or the optimum utilization of equipment. While it is a great mechanism to monitor employee productivity, employers have to make sure that the privacy of all employees is respected. Following the privacy guidelines of an organization, such as not installing cameras around leisure rooms or changing rooms, employers can win the favour of their employees. The fine line between employees feeling protected and feeling like their every movement is monitored, can make or break their trust in the organization.

3. Reduction in crimes

Whether internal or external, a business organization faces threats from all sides. A cloud-based CCTV surveillance solution not only allows employers to manage the activities around the perimeter of the premises but even in the nooks and corners of their establishment. With motion and thermal detection systems, surveillance staff can detect the presence of an outsider during any time of the day (or night), validate his/her identity and take associated steps in real-time. The cameras installed inside the premises can be trained to monitor certain sensitive areas or detect the presence of unauthorized people or objects inside the premises. Following the identification of these objects or people, surveillance staff can issue warnings via a two-way audio mechanism.

4. Operational efficiency

With technological advancements taking over every industry known to us, surveillance too has changed it course. Legacy surveillance infrastructures that started out as deterrents for criminals and recorders of evidence for validation purposes have now transformed into smart systems driving organizational efficiency. Today’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) powered systems can detect deviations across operations and provide useful insights into the pain points of the organization. Ranging from energy wastage due to running machines during break hours to low stock levels, the surveillance system can monitor all of it.

Conclusion

As businesses grow and flourish, the challenges they face also grow. Security challenges faced by enterprises today are wide-ranging, requiring a comprehensive surveillance solution to tie all the operations together. CCTV surveillance solutions allow employers to have a stronghold over the performance of the enterprise. These systems leverage AI and ML technologies to customize solutions as per a business’ security requirements while also establishing a well-functioning smart enterprise.

To know more about how IGZY’s Cloud-based Video surveillance solution can help your business operations, click here .