Eagle Eye reseller Firetrol Protection Systems solved University Federal Credit Union’s (UFCU) security challenges at standalone ATMs, corporate headquarters, and bank branches, while delivering streamlined operations, simplified management, cost reductions, and strengthened cybersecurity.
The challenge
With 375,000 members and dozens of locations, Texas-based UFCU was experiencing high theft rates at its standalone ATMs in Austin and surrounding areas.
The legacy on-premise video surveillance system did not consistently capture video, and maintaining servers was labour-intensive and expensive for the IT department—running up to $30,000 per ATM unit. In addition, downloading and sharing important video footage internally or with law enforcement was difficult and often impossible.
Key challenges
- Ongoing server maintenance: Building custom servers on-site was time consuming and expensive
- No automatic updates: Legacy system required manual updates for cybersecurity patches, feature updates, and operational management, consuming valuable IT resources
- Difficult video access: Inability to retrieve and share video footage quickly and efficiently
- Privacy concern: Limited ability to assign user permissions based on job function, hindering security and privacy controls
The solution
The system can easily scale by adding cameras or locations without significant hardware investments
Firetrol implemented a cloud-based surveillance solution using Eagle Eye Cloud Managed Video Recorders (CMVRs) at the 9 standalone ATM locations. This provided greater flexibility than traditional DVRs, including the ability to remotely access and manage video footage from any location with an internet connection.
The system can easily scale by adding cameras or locations without significant hardware investments. This also eliminated the need for in-house server builds and simplified video search and sharing, reducing UFCU’s costs, workload, and operational headaches.
Cybersecurity and privacy protection
Eagle Eye’s granular user permissions ensure videos are shared only when essential and only with authorised personnel. Automatic updates eliminated the need for manual intervention, improved cybersecurity and privacy protection. Following this success, UFCU requested a tailored solution for its Austin corporate headquarters, which also houses its data centre, and for seven additional bank branches.
“Leveraging the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS takes the guesswork out of UFCU’s operations. The system enabled the credit union to streamline operations, eliminate labour-intensive server builds, and view and share video footage with ease,” said John Rogers, Security Sales Specialist at Firetrol.
The results
“Not only have we slashed costs by eliminating expensive servers and a labour-intensive process that takes our IT team’s focus away from other priorities, but we’ve also streamlined our network, reduced equipment costs, and simplified management. From IT to maintenance to the fraud department, UFCU is experiencing improvements all around,” said UFCU Sr. Facilities Security Specialist, James Billingsley.
“Compared to our previous system, which required extensive space for in-house servers and frequent configuration adjustments, Eagle Eye has reduced our workload and maximised our network bandwidth so we can focus on critical tasks,” said UFCU IT Network Engineer, Gerardo Duarte.
Key UFCU results:
- Simplified operations with significantly less work for the IT team
- Effortless centralised video viewing, managing, and sharing
- Saved an estimated $270k in equipment build and replacement cost in the first year
- Cost-effective, cyber-secure cloud video surveillance
Cloud-based security
“With easy camera replacements, effortless on/off controls, and outstanding support from Firetrol and Eagle Eye Networks, our IT life has never been smoother."
"Transitioning to cloud-based security has further enhanced accessibility and efficiency, making this improvement a game-changer for our operations,” said Jesse Owens, UFCU Facilities Security Specialist.