Chile. Tottus Supermarkets implemented Genetec technologies to improve security within its stores, decrease response time to events and leverage its security system to improve its operations and obtain business intelligence.
Tottus has 70 branches in Chile and another almost equal number in Peru. For about three years, the retail chain worked with different video surveillance, access control and intrusion platforms to ensure security inside its stores. This diversity of platforms generated different operational problems, such as high response times, different software interfaces that required different training, and a very high bandwidth consumption.
Faced with these problems, Tottus decided to modernize its security systems with a platform that would unify the operation of its different systems, that would be flexible, support hardware from different manufacturers and that would be scalable to support its aggressive growth plans. Additionally, the new platform had to meet the company's high cybersecurity standards.
After an evaluation of several platforms from the financial and technical point of view, who managed to meet all their expectations was Genetec™ Security Center. According to César Venegas, Information Technology Manager of Tottus: "In addition to the fact that Genetec managed to cover all the requirements that we had, what left us very calm in the selection we made were two things: one, the ability to expand the platform, and second, the high representativeness it had worldwide".
The first step was to unify all video surveillance systems of different brands on a single platform with Security Center Omnicast™. Then, it began with the unification of the access control system with Security Center Synergis™ and finally, the integration of the fire and intrusion systems, to centralize all the alarms in a single interface. All these systems were installed on streamvault™ servers, which allowed to optimize resources and manage large bandwidths of around 6,500 cameras.
The direct result of the implementation of this solution was the improvement of security within the stores. Thanks to the great scalability of Security Center Omnicast, Tottus was able to increase the number of cameras installed in each store by 2 to 3 times, which significantly increased the monitoring coverage and identification of theft attempts.
Additionally, the response time to events was reduced. With the new platform, operators could respond to incidents in a time of 30 seconds to 1 minute, while with previous systems it took more than 10 minutes. This meant a reduction in response time by 90%.
Third, thanks to the video's resolution and the platform's ease of gathering evidence, security managers have been able to share key information with police to enforce justice processes. In 2017 they had approximately 1,500 people who were accused of a crime, today they have more than 4,000. This in turn has had a deterrent effect on criminals, increased customers' perception of security, and increased the number of people visiting stores.
As a side effect of the implementation of Genetec Security Center, Tottus has managed to capitalize on the information obtained through the security system to improve its operations and obtain business intelligence with a direct impact on increasing sales.
"What we do is we handle statistics that we deliver to the operation so that they know in which store, for some reason, they have problems, whether operational or commercial proposal. That increased productivity and sales. I think that is the greatest added value of Genetec, which started being security, but today is opening up to this commercial world, "said Dario Quintanilla, Loss Prevention Manager of Tottus.
To expand security in the future, in the short and medium term, Tottus will be implementing phase two and three. In phase two, they will install KiwiVision's™ perimeter detection video analytics solutions on the fences outside each of the stores, to take precedence over theft. In phase three, they will install a license plate recognition system in parking lots with Security Center Autovu™, in order to have a registry of patents that are correlated with crimes and collaborate with the police to prevent any incident.
"At Tottus we are very happy with how we have been advancing in recent years in technologizing our processes. Genetec has supported us in that and we hope to continue doing so in the coming years through the expansion of the platform that can give us a more efficient contact with our customers, "said César Venegas, Information Technology Manager of Tottus.
