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 Does Your Information Technology (IT) Highway and Loss
Prevention Highway Intersect?
By Bill Napier, LPC, Board of Directors Loss Prevention
Foundation
When was the last time you spent some quality time on
strategic planning for your IT connected programs? This
could include IP video equipment, video storage, video
analytics software, and integrated programs such as burglar
alarms, card access or any loss prevention tools that reside
on your network. Taking it one step further was your Chief
Information Officer (CIO) at the table for the planning?
If you are like me you might have just taken a deep gulp.
Here is a short self-audit to determine if you should bring
your CIO to the table for your next strategy session.
| • |
Do any loss prevention tools
reside on the network? |
| • |
Are you planning to migrate
to an IP video solution? |
| • |
Do you have current analog
equipment that you intend to migrate to IP
storage? |
| • |
Do you have a third party
integrator that accesses your network? |
| • |
Do you store images or data
on the cloud that is accessed across your
network? |
| • |
Do you need a seat at the IT
enterprise platform planning committee? |
| • |
Is there room for improvement
on the equipment lifecycle plan? |
| • |
Do you see the IT team
getting more involved with equipment
specifications, buying decisions, systems health
monitoring? |
| • |
Does network security have
protocol that must be followed for data storage
and retrieval? |
| • |
Have business partners from
other departments asked for data that you have
such as video images, video analytics or door
access reports? |
| • |
Do you need to facilitate a
meeting with your loss prevention equipment
solution providers and the CIO? |
Answering
yes to any of the self-audit questions should be a call to
work on the partnership with your CIO. It is no secret that
technology is moving quickly. This means the old analog
equipment that ran separately on a DVR or on a desktop in
your office could soon reside on the company server as data.
As more and more data is housed on the company server it
makes sense to partner with the CIO who is in charge of how
much storage is used. In addition the CIO is in charge of
bandwidth.
If the CIO does not know your requirements for storage and
bandwidth in order to forecast needs you could find yourself
competing with several other departments for resources at
the last minute.
Here are some suggested next steps to get started on the
intersection of the loss prevention highway and the
information technology highway.
| • |
Get your loss prevention
leadership team together and hammer out your
loss prevention equipment vision for the next
five years. |
| • |
Dive into the details of
migration from old technology, equipment
lifecycle, storage and bandwidth requirements,
as well as who else in your organizations needs
the data from your equipment. |
| • |
Facilitate a meeting with
your IT leadership team to share your loss
prevention equipment vision. |
| • |
Bring your loss prevention
equipment solution providers together for a
summit and share your equipment vision, be sure
the CIO attends. |
| • |
Volunteer to get involved in
the IT vision, enterprise IT platform and data
storage planning. |
Don’t wait for the CIO to find you, find the CIO. |
