Cinario’s Enterprise Manager – which can remotely control and monitor security equipment like in-store CCTV, article surveillance systems and intruder alarms – is already said to have helped the retailer’s security teams foil an armed robbery during an initial trial.
The system lets Asda staff quickly perform key security functions that may have been overlooked by colleagues and should allow managers to produce reports that highlight problems such as the deliberate misuse of security equipment.
Operating for less
A series of loss prevention dashboards will be used by staff at all levels, including executives, and have been designed to indicate how individual stores are performing against Asda’s wider security standards. Twenty-five key performance indicators will be used.
Sean Bowen, head of security at Asda, said, “We have a business goal at Asda which is, ‘we operate for less’, which means that we run our business as efficiently as we can with the benefit reflected in the low prices we can offer our customers”.
“We’re therefore continually looking for ways to both reduce our losses and to improve our operational efficiency.”
Automation capabilities
Cinario’s system, which was selected after a thorough executive evaluation and selection process, is designed to be deployed in environments where thousands of premises are monitored at the same time.
“The system also has additional intelligent management and automation capabilities, which we will use throughout our business,” said Bowen. “This project will enable us to operate a more effective loss prevention policy, whilst reducing our in-store operating costs.”
He added, “Asda has been working with Cinario for more than two years and we have been impressed by its ability to bring data from all our systems together in a format designed by the end users, allowing us to deploy key security management information across our estate by exception.”
Cinario’s CEO, Charlie Sherlock, said the American-owned supermarket is well-known as an innovator in the UK retail industry and as the leader in its approach to loss prevention.
“This is an exciting project, which will enable Asda to have a level of visibility and control over its environments which was just not achievable before,” he said.
“As a result of this project, Asda’s operational risks and losses in the stores will be reduced and it will also see an immediate reduction in its in-store operating costs.”
Cinario is an Irish software firm specialising in the development of intelligent building and risk management solutions. It hopes to have rolled out the Enterprise Manager system to 81 Asda stores by the end of November.
