5 Jun 2008

When New Zealand's Foodstuffs South Island Ltd. began crafting a blueprint for a common, chain-wide security and loss prevention platform, a key requirement was that all the pieces had to fit together.

The challenge

Foodstuffs South Island, a 137-store supermarket co-operative in New Zealand, offered its members a full range of head office-type services, including warehousing and distribution, marketing and advertising, accounting and information technology.  However, responsibility for loss prevention was left in the hands of owner-operators, resulting in a mix of analogue and digital systems across the chain.

The solution

Foodstuffs' board of directors decided that a common, chain-wide solution integrating video recording, alarm monitoring, access control, exception reporting and point-of-sale technology was required to optimize loss prevention.  Management evaluated solutions from 30 vendors before selecting March Networks technology.  Video and POS data integration, a reliable Linux operating system, storage capability and advanced health monitoring figured prominently in the co-op's decision.