Page 34 - Security Today, June 2017

it should be, and he is still surprised by the reluctance of retailers to move to modern access control methods, with everyday card keys or biometric readers that allow trusted employees to do their jobs faster and more efficiently.
“It is time for retailers to rethink the brass keys,” Lindsey said. “Better access control improves the customer experience with faster turnaround, and increases employee productivity. The cost of copy- ing keys can reach tens of thousands of dollars annually for a large retailer—that alone should motivate these locations to make a change to keyless access control.”
The use case for keyless access extends beyond the traditional brick and mortar locations to employee areas, warehouses, lock- ers, and anywhere that people and merchandise are coming and go- ing. In our omni-channel world, it’s about having flexible access to align with flexible logistics. The advancement of access control when implemented at scale increases transparency and accountability for people and inventory.
Put Sensors to Work Across Channels
“Omni-channel brings interesting opportunities and risks to physical security teams”, said Clayton Brown, product manager at ReconaS- ense, a proactive situational awareness platform.
A recent report from McKinsey and Company notes that “In sev- eral sectors, ‘click and collect’ is proving a popular and increasingly efficient means of serving the customer. More than 50 percent of Walmart’s online sales and around 40 percent of Best Buy’s already are picked up in stores—a multichannel mind-set must be embedded in the store design and in employees’ new ways of working.”
Like the challenge of protecting assets with better access control,
the flexibility of omni-channel means that for retailers to be success- ful, inventory is dispersed. So tracking it, and reducing shrink, is more complex and more important than ever.
At the same time, every retailer’s goal is to take the customer expe- rience across channels to make shopping seamless and relevant. IoT devices that are in use today, including beacons for real-time offers and sensors to optimize store layout, are just some of the technolo- gies that could also be leveraged for physical security.
“What retailers are not doing yet is looking at every single con- nected sensor as an input to your physical security posture. We look at each one of these devices as giving us contextual clues to detect potential theft and other threats before an incident takes place,” Brown said.
Today customers can receive their order myriad ways: order online and pick up in store, retrieve from a locker, or have their order deliv- ered at home through a network of contract drivers. The convenience of these options means a better customer experience with increased risk to you: your chance of experiencing theft, less employee account- ability, and variance across your supply chain increase greatly.
To mitigate the risks that these options bring, Brown suggests re- thinking the intent of each IoT sensor.
“It’s time to look beyond how these connected sensors were meant to be used to see how they can be optimally used,” Brown said. “Every place from your social media account, to your parking lot, distribution center, and delivery drivers offer clues about security of your entire operation. Putting these patterns together puts your security team in control.”
Getting to that point will accelerate the value that you will de- rive from sensors. McKinsey said, “Interoperability between IoT
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