Impact of Video Surveillance on Business Operations

1. Deter crimes

Video surveillance systems installed across businesses form a proactive deterring system, keeping a check on all activities in and across the premises, notifying employers in case of deviations and unauthorized activities. Just the presence of a strategically placed video camera or a sign indicating its presence is often enough to deter possible criminals from going forward with their apparent goals. On the other hand, the proactive real time alerts sent to authorized users in case of any unwanted detection support immediate reactions from users, maintaining overall security of the business. 

2. Monitor internal loopholes

While harm from external threats is a major security concern for businesses, internal misconduct, criminal activities, inefficient operations and inability of complying with performance & SOP standards can negatively impact an enterprise’s overall performance as well as taint its reputation in the market. Video surveillance systems give employers a true and live picture of their employees and their conduct inside the premises, reporting any mishap, whether related to hygiene and safety adherence or their entry to an inaccessible and restricted area.  

3. Analysed data

IoT based surveillance application has had a great impact on businesses worldwide, one major benefit being the deduction of useful insights for the growth and improvement of overall business operations. From the analytics applied onto recorded data, a business is able to break down their data ocean and turn it into a knowledge pool; turning big data into useable information, further breaking it down to find pain areas, and working towards optimizing business performance. 

5. Increases employee and customer satisfaction

The two categories of people involved in a business are the personnel responsible for operating the business and the ones receiving the benefits of the products or services provided; the employees and the customers. Thus, establishing a business structure that not only provides them with the benefits they desire but also promotes their security and comfort as a priority wins points in the public eye. An e-surveillance solution provides employers with the right tools to turn their premises safe. This employee and customer friendly environment so created has led hundreds of companies across industries towards success. 

6. Reviewing incidents

Not only do surveillance systems equipped with their smart devices and cloud platforms allow users to view live streams of their premises but also enable them to retrieve, download or share any historical footage for the purpose of reviewing an older incident and validating the incident or for evidence purposes in the course of an ensued investigation. Even during real time incidents, if a sensor supposedly detects abnormality in the environment, it sends notifications and priority alerts to all authorized users, along with the video snippet of the time period. 

7. Multi user access

Businesses premises require more than one invigilating officer to monitor the activities taking place inside as well as outside the facility, whether in person or from hundreds of miles away. Surveillance systems allow multiple users to access different levels of the system, depending upon their status and authority in the business. This ensures that during an emergency, notifications are sent to multiple people, reducing the probability of the alert going unnoticed. The actions taken forthwith by any accessor of the platform are permanently stored on the dashboard.  

8. Access Control

Smart sensors are often employed at access doors to validate an employee’s identity before allowing them entry into a particular part of the premise, especially data and hardware sensitive areas. This system not only stops unauthorized people from entering the area but also notifies personnel of attempted entry, helping security personnel realize if the intruder was trying to cause a disturbance or was unable to enter due to some system inefficiency. This type of system is especially beneficial when applied outside server rooms. A similar access control is put up when trying to access a business’s security solution dashboard. 

9. Emergency detection and alarms

Every video security system is constructed around the same basic structure, smart devices attached to a cloud based platform via secure network and gateway; being accessible via applications on user’s monitor or other devices. The smart sensors and IP based cameras can be employed to fulfil a multitude of purposes, ranging from simply recording footage and detecting intrusion, to recording and livestreaming footage while detecting intrusion, fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, change in temperature, humidity levels, deviation in SOP adherence, vibration and other unwanted things; combinations being customizable. Depending on the sensors and cameras chosen by a business as per their use cases, the security systems can be trained to act a certain way while detecting a foreign object, person or activity.  

10. Integration, monitoring and administration

The whole point of investing in an e-surveillance solution is the integrated ecosystem that it creates, providing a general follow through mechanism for every operation taking place in the organization. While a good day’s work and secured premise raises no alarms; an unidentified person entering the premise or accessing a ‘staff only’ arena will be logged onto the surveillance platform as an intrusion notification, to be validated by any authorized officer; upon which either a warning can be warranted to the intruder or the information can be relayed to law enforcements; depending on the gravity of the situation.