H-E-B Retail Food Industry Innovator
Enterprise Retail Security Solution for 300 stores throughout Texas
Developing a Made-To-Order digital video system fully integrated with H-E-B’s Point Of Sale and Central Station Monitoring applications
When you have a large company with many locations, planning security is much more challenging than dealing with a single site. Upgrading, deploying and training with new technology when you have a 300 store grocery chain, 60,000 employees and revenue approaching $11 billion becomes a logistical nightmare if you haven’t chosen both the right technology and the right partner to work with in its implementation.
With that many locations, a company’s security system clearly must provide high performance, advanced technology and reliability. Increasingly, those systems must also be easy to use, as system operators are primarily focused on taking care of customers. This is especially true when, for example a retail chain like H-E-B converts from VCR and early DVR technology to an integrated digital video system.
All these challenges were presented to H-E-B recently when management decided there was a company-wide requirement to upgrade security imaging and integrate it with existing systems. H-E-B is a retail food industry innovator headquartered in San Antonio, Texas that is more than 100 years old with stores in Texas and Mexico. The company has also been listed by Forbes magazine as the 11th largest privately held company and consistently is rated very high in the Top Retailer and Top Grocery Store Chain rankings. The reason for this is that a friendly customer service-oriented approach is the hallmark of the corporate culture. When it came to choosing the technology and partner to overhaul its digital video system, corporate management wanted the best technology it could find as well as the ability to work with a company that valued customer service as much as they did.
“We were in the process of upgrading our security imaging across the entire chain,” said Lexie Granderson, Director of Loss Prevention Planning & Analysis at H-E-B. “We were moving to digital technology and went through an RFP process in which we considered not only the technology, cost, efficiency, and ease of use of the products, but also the company we’d be working with. Some operators at our stores are not trained in the technology, so we knew we needed a system that would be advanced but easy to operate and backed by a company that valued us as a customer, just as we value our customers.”
They knew they needed an enterprise level DVR that could communicate through advanced software across the chain-wide implementation. Store management simply wanted a system that was as easy as plug-and-play, but sophisticated enough to service the analysis and monitoring necessary for a large retail operation.
“Another issue was that we deployed the technology on a massive scale, completing 160 locations in four months and more than 200 stores in one year” said Ron Wenzel, Manager of Field Operations at H-E-B. “The logistics of such an effort required a great deal of comfort with the product and the equipment supplier.” After the RFP process, H-E-B chose the Mitsubishi DX-TL4516 DVR and DX-PC55U video management software.
Preparing for the large-scale deployment, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America helped to craft a standard installation document for field technicians, allowing them to ship the DVR’s out to the stores and have people who had never worked with a DVR before quickly install and learn the system.
“Mitsubishi gave us a lot of flexibility for ongoing maintenance, allowing us to choose from field repair to unit replacement while still upholding the warranty,” said Ron. “Indeed, we did not have any out-of-the-box failures when we started deploying the Mitsubishi solution over a year ago, and since deployment we have not had a single unit fail in any store. Confidence in the product is backed up with Mitsubishi’s five year warranty”.
Mitsubishi’s video management software gives access
to any of the hundreds of DVR’s across the network, so
that live and recorded images can be monitored on site
or remotely. Likewise, video of crucial events can be
copied onto a CD from any H-E-B location, saving countless
trips to stores to retrieve video. Furthermore, full
control and programming of each of the DVR’s can be handled
remotely so that installation crews and administrators
do not need to be on site, a critical advantage when
you have hundreds of locations.
“Our store personnel, as well as Information Solutions, Loss Prevention and Risk Management departments, all have different needs when using the video management software” explained Lexie. Authorization codes range from access to specific cameras to system-wide monitoring; and from searching for events to administrator configuration of the DVR and network settings. Mitsubishi went out to all of our regions to roll out the new system and to provide customized training classes for the different groups using the system”.
According to Flora Bell, National Accounts Manager at Mitsubishi, H-E-B’s application of Mitsubishi-brand security systems reflects the increasing need of retailers for custom-level solutions that address business critical issues unique to each retailer. “We had the opportunity to work closely with H-E-B to develop a solution carefully engineered to protect H-E-B’s business,” Flora explained. “Beyond the configuration of the DVR and video management software, new applications have been developed to enable the video system to interface with H-E-B’s existing POS system as well as to integrate with H-E-B’s Central Station Monitoring.”
In a unique application, they are installing an application that integrates the digital video system with H-E-B’s existing POS, or “Point of Sale,” system. POS images are matched with the data from that particular transaction. For example, they can search for a frequent price inquiry and go immediately to the corresponding video. Or, they can enter the receipt number, item description or dollar amount of any item mistakenly left behind by a customer and view the matching video. This integration of video with POS data allows events in any store to be quickly identified and researched, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and increasing operational efficiency.
The new digital imaging system is also fully integrated with H-E-B’s central alarm monitoring. For instance, if there is a security alarm in the store, the associated video automatically comes up in the Central Monitoring Station, showing a split screen of live video and archived video, allowing staff to review what is currently happening in the store and what happened when the alarm went off. This integration of video with alarm systems enables quick and easy verification of alarms, and leads to better response and protection of H-E-B’s customers, employees and facilities, as well as saving thousands of dollars in false alarm fees.
A third element of the project is the system health check software which monitors the status of hundreds of DVR’s at H-E-B; checking connectivity, recording status and synchronizing with H-E-B’s network time protocol. The enterprise health check software alerts operators at Central Station when, for example, there is a loss of video signal. In this way, an operator can investigate immediately without those images being lost for days before it is discovered.
Of course, this is a sea of change for the entire company, having migrated from the costs and inefficiencies associated with previous technologies. The Loss Prevention and Risk Management departments can now remotely access and retrieve video. System Administrators can configure settings to their standards, relieving individual store managers from the task. And the integration with the POS system allows them to quickly investigate and substantiate suspicious activity. The centralized architecture of the imaging system with location-specific access has enabled H-E-B security managers to respond better to alarms as well—saving time and money. A streamlining of the security operation at a company with so many locations has resulted in improved security, cost savings, increased efficiency and a more advanced technological platform for a multi-billion dollar company to operate from and build on in the future.
