Business Intelligence Integration is Leading Motivation for IP Adoption

More than a quarter (27%) of UK retailers cite ‘integration with business intelligence applications’ as the main reason for adopting network IP, according to a Centre for Retail Research (CRR) survey.

It’s the third year running that the survey, which is commissioned annually by Axis Communications to examine trends in the retail surveillance market, revealed that the added value offered by business analytics was the most popular motivation for upgrading to or installing IP cameras.

Superior image quality soared by 40% – a bigger rise than for than any other factor – as a reason for adopting network IP cameras.

Other major drivers for the adoption of IP technology included ‘better remote access’ (18%), ‘scalability’ (16%) and ‘reduced total cost of ownership’ (12%) – all increasing on average compared to last year’s survey.

Of the 278 UK retailers polled – encompassing some 20,350 stores – 93% currently use CCTV, 60% of which are planning to convert to network IP technology.

An average of 31% of retailers based in northern Europe said that integration with business intelligence applications was their main driver for adopting network IP, peaking at 35% in Denmark.

“Sweat the assets”

“The migration from analogue CCTV to network IP continues to be of huge importance to the retail industry and will be the biggest single factor impacting on retail security as digital surveillance and network video become the standard,” says Andy Martin, retail business development manager at Axis Communications.

“The UK high street is still the origin of the bulk of retail transactions, but unfortunately stores also carry the highest overheads, so the need to ‘sweat the assets’ is vital with surveillance systems being no exception. This is where network IP really has the advantage as it can be used to improve both service and sales, not just security, to deliver a real return on investment.

“Operating on increasingly smaller margins, reducing costs are a key priority for retailers. While IP-based video surveillance does make a noticeable improvement in the top line and revolutionised loss prevention, the long-term aim of superior image quality should be for lowering total cost of ownership, as it enhances detection and improves forensic investigation.

“I see retailers’ use of business analytics and intelligence applications continuing to mushroom in line with cloud computing and big data. With network cameras’ capability to provide higher resolution video and be connected from everywhere 24 hours a day, retailers are receiving more data from more sources.

“Business intelligence applications are needed to help them manage this huge amount of information, such as images and videos, and to help them interpret it into something useful.

“As network video is an open platform solution, it can seamlessly allow integration with emerging technologies and therefore, transforms the surveillance camera from a forensic tool aimed at solving problems to a proactive tool designed to optimise business processes and reduce cost.

“This is clearly evident from the survey as nearly half of the UK retailers polled stated that queue management (49.9%) and people counting (49.2%) were the two most important non-security network IP applications that most interested them.”

Says Professor Joshua Bamfield, director at CRR: “The survey clearly highlights the continued move towards IP-based camera systems across the retail sector, a growing trend that is driven by the need for HD-quality images and the increased adoption and use of business-focussed analytics – two areas where IP systems demonstrate a clear advantage over older technologies.

“It further suggests that retailers continue to appreciate the added benefits that an IP-based system can deliver which is evident in the high convergence rate each year.”

Continues Andy Martin: “Customer theft is still the biggest security challenge facing retailers at the moment, as nearly a quarter (25%) said that their main reason for using CCTV is to prevent or investigate theft and a huge 80% of respondents cited prevention of internal or external theft and better safety as the main driver for the use of CCTV, seeing and average fall in loss of 15%.

“As a whole, the UK has embraced the benefits that CCTV can bring and this is especially true of the retail sector. Certainly for the UK, I believe that the migration to network IP has become the norm and it is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ the technology will be adopted.”

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