Page 12 - Security Today, November 2017

INDUSTRY
VERTICAL
Branch Banking UAsing video analytics to re-imagine financial strategy
With Stephen Joseph
sk a Millennial and they’ll probably tell you, “Brick- and-mortar banking is sooo last century.” They prefer online banking,
tapping their phone at the checkout and, on the rare occasion when hard cash is necessary, visiting the nearest ATM. This has left financial institutions racking their brains for ways to draw the next genera- tion of customers through their doors. A surprising solution in this quest for branch innovation has been the use of network video camera systems. With the advent of sophisticated video analytics, network cameras have stepped beyond their tradi- tional sphere of security surveillance and loss prevention and into the realm of op- erational business intelligence.
Here is an example: A short while ago, in a discussion with a credit union that was opening a new branch office, they were trying to decide whether to lease out part of the space to a coffee shop and build an entrance from that shop directly into the branch office. The idea was to attract new customers by increasing foot traffic from the retail business. But how could they de- termine if the proposed model was a good business decision?
The suggestion was made to add cross- line detection analytics to the security cameras monitoring that doorway. The analytic could measure how much actual traffic the branch was pushing to the cof- fee shop and how much traffic they were pulling from the coffee shop into the branch. Being able to measure that flow of traffic throughout the day would help the credit union assess the potential value of carving out a piece of their property and leasing it to a retail enterprise. An analy- sis of the foot traffic they pushed to the retailer would also help the credit union justify how much they planned to charge per square foot to lease the space.
An Analytic for All Reasons
While retailers have been incorporating video analytics into their daily operations
for decades, financial institutions have lagged well behind the technology curve. But this cautious, wait-and-see attitude is starting to wane as more banks begin to appreciate the immense value of busi- ness intelligence that video analytics can provide. The variety of specialized video analytics is quite broad and continues to expand with more applications being in- troduced to the market every year.
On the surface, many appear to be se- curity-oriented, but, with a little creativity, can be applied to operational situations as well. Rather than list the complete catalog of video analytics currently available, I’d like to share just a few of the ones I con- sider having the most potential benefit for financial institutions.
Cross line detection. This video ana- lytic is a tripwire application that detects moving objects that cross a virtual bound- ary. Crossing the line automatically trig- gers an event. A branch could use the analytic for something as simple as count- ing foot traffic as mentioned in the credit union example above. Or if the event oc-
cursafterhoursataspecificlocation,the software could be programmed to send an alert to security that there’s an intruder on the premises.
Demographic identifier. This sophisti- cated analytic generates demographic data about customers as they do their brick- and-mortar banking. It is able to determine a person’s gender and approximate age range by detecting and analyzing their face. The analytics lets a financial institution compare gender and age statistics across branch locations and times of day. This helps banks to target marketing efforts and tailor the customer experience to the de- mographic segments likely to visit certain branches at certain times of the day.
Facial capture. This advanced analytic captures, indexes and catalogs the faces of people entering the branch or using the drive-through teller. Powerful search algorithms enable financial institutions to quickly find the recorded video of persons of interest to expedite investigations of fraud, robbery or identity theft. With facial capture analytics, banks can build stronger
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