What are some of the new areas of spend that you will be able to assist your Loss Prevention department with in 2013?
Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and COO at SafeSourcing.
As the economy continues to try and right itself, retailers are still looking for ways to save money and cut expenses in their budgets. This mindset is helping Procurement departments achieve things they historically have not been able to before assisting many new departments with their spends. Loss Prevention is also increasing its impact as companies are trying to harder to keep the things they have. Today we will be looking at the relationship between these two departments and some opportunities for them to work together in 2013.
Wireless Infrastructure – Blog after blog has been written about the growing trend of mobile devices in business environments everywhere, so it is no surprise that a big emphasis for retailers in 2013 will be to leverage the power customers’ mobile devices in new ways. A big part of making this happen involves upgrading the wireless infrastructure within the retail locations not only to interface with customer wireless devices but also with wireless devices Loss Prevention can use to protect the stores. IP Security cameras, security tags and other new technologies are just a few items that will be leveraging upgraded in-store networks.
Video Equipment/Software – Video surveillance is nothing new in the retail industry as VCRs, tapes and cables running through the ceiling have been transformed into High Definition Wireless IP cameras that can stream video to a remote location thousands of miles away. In 2013, the trend continues as the technology surrounding Network Video Recorders, IP cameras and Video Analytics continues to improve in performance and cost. Loss Prevention departments will be exploring all of these technologies in 2013 and will be significant opportunities for procurement departments to assist with.
EAS/RFID – As with video technology, RFID/EAS tags continue improve not only in their size, performance and cost but in the new uses they are able to help retailers with. In today’s retail world companies are using RFID tags to track promotional items and to ensure brand authenticity. Also being researched are the new software solutions that always come with improved and new uses of the hardware. 2013 will present many opportunities to work with Loss Prevention to understand these new tools and uses for existing hardware they may have in place today.
Virtual Monitoring – As much as mobile device technology has been written about, cloud technology ranks right up with it. There are so many new cloud based solutions but one that will get the attention of Loss Prevention departments everywhere are the companies who are offering retailers not only the capability to store video in the cloud but also providing the services to remotely monitor that video from a Loss Prevention standpoint. Providing trained dedicated resources allows Loss Prevention teams more time to focus on the other aspects of their business and also gives procurement departments an opportunity to help them find these services for their business.
To understand more about how we can help you source your Loss Prevention spend projects, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.
We look forward to your comments.
