POS Integration
Following find more information of POS integration.
Loss prevention in the retail businesses is concerned with inventory shrinkage and the shortage of currency. Losses related to POS transactions can be a main cause of the shrinkage for the most part.
Keeping track of transactions
In the ongoing battle against employee theft, business owners are constantly searching for new ways to improve their loss prevention procedures. Employee theft is responsible - directly or indirectly - for 30% of all bankruptcies. It is estimated that over 95% of all businesses experience employee theft, without even knowing how much their company is affected and how to measure it. One prime area business owners have always been concerned with is the POS (Point of Sale) since the first cash register drawer was opened.
Owners have tried just about everything from visual observation to transaction record review. But monitoring POS activity has always been a time consuming effort and has often led to frustrating conclusions that losses were hard to determine and often unidentifiable.
People are always on their best behavior when they know they are being watched and are less likely to steal if they know they could be caught. Cashiers can be creative in their search for ways to circumvent the system at retail and restaurant locations. It is the classic "cat and mouse" scenario. Promotions and discounts are not typical LP areas to track. Alert cashiers can quickly become aware of this and start taking cash from the register by performing no-sales or drawer opens between orders. This event is not usually tracked by transaction logs. The bottom line is if a cashier or employee wants to circumvent the system they will.
The solution to the shrinkage that retailers and any business with cash registers is the total integration of the POS system with the surveillance cameras and audio. A POS-DVR surveillance system uses video text overlay technology to provide visual contextual awareness that helps reduce shrinkage and protect assets against business losses. It captures information from the POS, ATM, or cashier system, and overlays the information directly onto the live or recorded video images. Now business owners can see the employee, hear the employee, and match the sale of every transaction.
Most common ways a POS system can be useful
Short Rings: Goods are charged out (to an accomplice) at a much lower price than the correct one.- Sweetheart Deals: Similar to Short Rings but where goods are charged out in fewer quantities than actual.
- Substitute Scanning: Scanning a tag of much lower value than the actual goods being sold.
- Short Changing: Providing less change than is correct.
- Voids: Voiding a sale after the customer has left.
- Returns/Refunds: Refunding cash on a non-existent return.
- Cancels: A transaction is partially rang in and if the customer does not ask for a receipt, is cancelled after the customer has left.
- No Sale: A dishonest sales clerk using some of the methods above must remove the accumulated cash from the cash drawer before shift end. The most common way to achieve this is to ring in a "No Sale" just before shift end and remove all the extra cash at one time. "No Sales" can also be used simply to take cash out of the till, without other forms of fraud being used.
How POS Integration works
Most video providers that pitch integration with point of sale are selling a promise that they can't or don't deliver. The promise is simple – the system can show you the video associated with any transaction you want across your company. Look up any product, any employee, any amount and simply click on the transaction and you'll see the video. Sounds pretty simple.
Text overlay isn't a meaningful integration. POS integration for many video vendors means text overlay of the receipt data onto the video itself. While they can accurately argue that this "works" in a lot of cases, text overlay doesn't give you the capability to find video based on POS data, it gives you the ability to see POS data when you have found video. There is a big difference. It also only gives you the data that shows up on receipts – where do you get the voids, cancels and no sales (the data people really want to see)?
Wouldn't it be nice for you to be able to search through out the day's transaction for keywords like void, or no-sale , or if your employee tells you that the guy in question bought a pack of Marlboro light, you just be able to search and find lets say 10 transactions, just click on each and immediately see the corresponding video rather than watching hours and hours of recordings and finally don't find what you were looking for. Wouldn't it be nice for you to get a text message on your cellular phone any time a certain product is sold or the amount of a transaction is over a certain limit or any other criteria you chose? That's what a real intelligent cash register integration with surveillance system is promising and that's exactly the way we do it.