As a security and fire contractor, we’re seen as an essential service to the businesses we support. When a company has a breach of their security systems, ours is a critical service that they need straight away. Whilst we do use remote response to support clients up and down the country, for those close to home in West Yorkshire and across the M62, our location is an advantage for responding to time-critical jobs. Lots of major retail brands are now using West Yorkshire as a hub for their distribution centres, given the ease of access to the rest of the country. As a result, Oracle Vision is ideally placed to design, install and maintain commercial alarm systems, access control and VSS in West Yorkshire to these large, complex sites. In this blog, we look at how we supported one of our retail clients in West Yorkshire with VSS that went beyond a mere security solution, and discover how it improved their operations.
VSS for security AND operations
Although VSS is traditionally used as a security solution, these days, the majority of our customers work on a 25/75 split – 25% of their VSS use is for security, while the remaining three quarters is for operational services. We see time and again just how useful the intel from a security system can be (you can learn more in our blog – ‘When are security solutions not security solutions?‘). As part of our design system, we bring those insights to our customers and help them to maximise what they can get out of their system too.
The brief: VSS for a West Yorkshire retail distribution centre
Our client is a well known high-street retailer with a massive distribution centre in West Yorkshire. The security brief was fairly textbook – to secure the perimeter and access to the site, and to ensure use of the site was safe and secure.
Our solution: going beyond security
The commercial VSS system that we installed for our client was the usual high-spec technical kit that we are expert in, and met the brief fully. The high definition picture you get from all this VSS equipment these days is ideal for preventing and detecting ‘up the jumper opportunists’, especially when coupled with access control.
However, we identified an opportunity to harness the capability of this equipment to also advance the distribution operations. We were able to use the cameras to monitor products leaving the site, and to link that to the packing and distribution software. Not only could the retailer see when products are dispatched, they could also share this information with the customer, improving their experience.
Our installation meant we had one single solution operating in two parts, serving two requirements. This became a shared resource in terms of recording, playing back and downloading evidence.
The result: efficient solutions, effective operations
The solution we implemented made use of a limited budget by sharing resources between security and operations. Because operations are part of the day-to-day running of a business, they have greater perceived use than a security camera there ‘just in case’, and often have more budget. The business can secure funds for VSS systems through the operations side, but have security link into cameras if at any point the system is breached.
Fundamentally, this two-pronged approach to VSS for this West Yorkshire distribution centre helped the company to save money. They have a secure site with vastly reduced opportunities for someone to steal something or get hurt. What’s more, they’ve gained a fuller operational overview that allows them to improve their processes. Not only that, the end customer benefits too, since they can now be notified with visual evidence when their package leaves the warehouse.
