Technology Game-Changers in Small Business Security

Regardless of what business you are in, security probably plays a role in what you do.

Ideally all small businesses would have great security systems in place, but in the past factors such as cost, complexity and effectiveness have tended to force business owners to compromise on their security

So what were the problems, why do small business owners need to shift their thinking, and what are the benefits to small business owners from moving to modern cameras based, smartphone controlled security systems?

What business security used to look like

The most common security systems for business in Australia and internationally, has long been a monitored alarm. You have a range of sensors in and around your business premises, with a siren, flashing light and phone connection to the alarm company.

The down side for business owners were always ongoing monitoring fees, extra call out costs, and no way to easily tell false alarms from the real deal.

The other tool widely adopted by businesses was CCTV. Security cameras in strategic locations fed footage to a central location where it was recorded with the option to watch it live on attached TV screen.

While very useful from a business perspective, recordings from a surveillance camera system were often difficult to access when needed, and if you wanted to view the footage live, you needed a dedicated security person to do that. The missing link was the lack of any connection between your CCTV system and your security systems.

How security systems have changed

High powered smartphones, almost ubiquitous data connectivity and relatively cheap but high image quality IP cameras are the three key components that have made modern business security camera systems possible.

A product like CleverLoop uses these as the core of their system. It adds motion analysis algorithms to both indoor and outdoor security cameras, provides local and a cloud storage option for footage, and then pulls the whole thing together with a smart central hub. All this while also giving you you a powerful, but free, business security app for your phone to run it all from.

For a business owner, the big benefits have been streamlining your security, reducing upfront and ongoing costs, and giving you the business owner or manager control over your own security.

Streamline your business security

With CleverLoop, one system handles all of your business security needs, and gives you complete control.

Record the feeds from any or all of your cameras direct to a hard drive and you’ve got a CCTV system, but better options for viewing footage.

Arm your cameras, either individually or the whole system, and your Base Station analyses the footage for movement, filtering out anything minor, and sending alerts of anything important that happens straight to your smartphone, complete with a snapshot of what caused the alert.

Adding cameras to your business security system gives you a massive advantage over traditional sensor based security, namely you can see what is happening. Add in clever learning algorithms and a range of fine-tuning options, and false alarms are a thing of the past.

Reducing business costs

In a like for like comparison, a CleverLoop system, fully installed, costs less than all of it’s serious competitors, and about the same as a modest traditional monitored alarm system. Where the savings really begin is the first day that you start using your CleverLoop business security system – with no ongoing fees.

Then the next layer of savings start happening. It could be retail shrinkage (otherwise known as shoplifting) or employee theft, of stock or cash, that is hurting your bottom line. Either way, a CleverLoop security system is a big part of your solution.

Simply having cameras in your business, and the stickers in your windows, acts as a deterrent. Having video footage literally at your fingertips gives you a powerful tool to deal with whatever sort of retail loss you are experiencing and help you protect your profits.

Putting you in control

With a CleverLoop working for you in your business, you are in control of every aspect of your security. Using an app on your smartphone as your main interface means your business security is always close at hand.

Grab your phone to live view the cameras covering your business, even when you are in a different city or country. Checking up on stock, staff, customers or just how business is going has never been easier.

Use your phone to switch recording to hard drive on and off for individual cameras, and to access the footage when you are on the premises.

And finally you can arm and disarm the camera system and receive alerts and video of significant activity wherever you are with a few clicks on your smartphone.

Ready to step up your business security?

So business security, particularly for small businesses, has gone through a significant shift in technology. Are you making the most of this disruption in the security sector to protect your business?