A security camera system can be one of the best investments for your business, helping you strengthen your security and optimize your workplace productivity.
However, there are a ton of different options on the market.
If you haven’t upgraded your system in a while, it’s not always easy to know what aspects of a security system can benefit your business the most.
Below, OpenEye uncovers what features to look for in a security system and how they can help you maximize your ROI while fortifying your security.
1. Remote Access
Being able to access your security camera system whenever you need is crucial as a manager or owner of a business.
If reviewing and analyzing footage involves having to physically drive to a specific location, the process of owning and utilizing a security system becomes less like an investment and more of a burden.
Because of this, remote access is absolutely something you’ll want to have for your security system as a business owner.
The ability to quickly pull up relevant footage wherever you are at whatever time provides a level of insight previously unafforded to systems that didn’t offer this feature.
2. User Management
If you’re running security over multiple locations, managing different user access and privacies starts to get tricky fast.
Without the right security system in place, employees or outsiders can easily take advantage of this weakness within your surveillance.
To confront this problem head on, it’s important to find a system that offers some kind of streamlined user management.
User management ensures that only authenticated users are granted access to your video surveillance system.
Multiple layers of security make up the backbone of the best surveillance systems. Ensuring that the same user access policies and rules are applied consistently across your organization adds an additional layer of protection.
3. Loss Prevention
Loss prevention tactics can be an extremely useful set of tools for a security system, especially if you’re looking to defend your retail or food-service business.
Inventory management is a complex undertaking, and without the proper systems, it can quickly overwhelm even the most thorough team.
Because of this, inventory shrink and theft can easily go unchecked. Implementing the proper security measures in place is an effective way to put a stop to this problem.
One of the best loss prevention strategies business owners can use is point-of-sale (POS) integration with their video systems.
POS integration can easily and effectively reduce shrink while opening new ways to improve customer service and streamline investigations.
By combining point-of-sale data with a powerful video platform, you’ll have an effective toolkit to get a better return on your loss prevention efforts.
4. Centralized Management
Unless you’re in the unique situation where your business only has one employee, managing multiple user permissions for your security system should be at the forefront of your concerns for your business.
Centralized management gives you the necessary tools to not only fortify the cybersecurity of your security system but also to take some burden off your IT department by streamlining user management.
5. Automated Health monitoring
If one of your cameras or recorders goes down and you’re unaware of it, that can leave you completely in the dark as a business owner, especially during critical incidents.
A business security system with health monitoring is crucial, as this feature will keep you updated on whether your system has suffered any outages, or a camera has lost power.
From there, you can easily fix any issues that arise within your system as they pop up, meaning you won’t be wondering why your cameras aren’t recording properly if one goes down.
6. Video Analytics
A security system equipped with video analytics can be one of the most efficient ways to fully optimize your surveillance.
They can dramatically improve day-to-day operations, whether used to increase video retention or alert your team to an incident.
AI-powered video analytics help expand the capabilities of your video system by providing specific alerting and search capabilities.
Some of those analytical capabilities include:
- Person and vehicle detection
- Line crossing
- Mask detection
- Loitering events
- License plate recognition
- And much more
Video analytics is a rapidly growing asset thanks to advancing technologies. The abilities currently available for many video analytics platforms are sure to grow in coming years.
7. Video Export and Sharing
Being able to easily export and share video can be the difference between any investigations moving along as efficiently as possible or slowing to a snail’s crawl.
Video export and sharing benefits business security in many ways, one being the avoidance of physical backup devices.
Instead of having to retrieve, download, and deliver a USB or other external device, you can easily export and share important video via a link in email, while managing access to whomever can see it.
Whether that video is for local law enforcement or for management, having the ability to quickly access and share video in a time-sensitive manner helps support the overall security of your system and safety of your business.
8. Cybersecurity
Protecting your video from outside access becomes a necessary part of the conversation when working with cloud-managed video.
It’s important to respect and manage you and your employees’ privacy, as well as safeguard video that may be used in a police investigation.
A business security camera system that has built-in cybersecurity measures is crucial. With the proper stops, you won’t have to worry about outside attacks on your surveillance.
9. Intrusion Alarm Panel
Many business owners will have preexisting security measures set in place before they opt for video, including alarm and intrusion panels.
To get the most out of your system, and to avoid having to rip and replace your existing security measures, business owners should find a camera setup that both integrates with and compliments your surveillance and access points.
10. Real-time Alerts
Finally, prioritizing a system that sends alerts based on customizable events to you is a must, as it can benefit the overall security of your business and help identify operational inefficiencies.
Finding the right system means finding one that can consistently keep you up to date, whether that’s someone leaving a door propped open or a vehicle entering the parking lot after hours.
Combined with video analytics, investing in a system that keeps you alerted during specific events can help produce fewer false positives, meaning you’ll only have to worry about situations that require your attention.
Interested in seeing how cloud-managed video can help you get the most out of your business’ security camera system?
Check out OpenEye Web Services (OWS), where you can fully optimize your new or existing security system by taking full advantage of a cloud-based video management platform.
Get a personalized look at how OWS can work within your business: