Faster LP Investigations with Searchlight

Sixty-five stores using March Networks solution

Tommy Bahama deploys March Networks Searchlight 

Tommy Bahama, the island-inspired clothing and home furnishing retailer based in Seattle, Washington, has selected March Networks’ comprehensive retail solution to gain faster, more robust loss prevention (LP) capabilities, improve recovery and apprehension rates with higher-quality video evidence, and better safeguard customers and employees at 130 stores worldwide.

Tommy Bahama’s Director of Loss Prevention and Operations, Mark Anderson, led the search for a new video surveillance solution to replace an older system that was no longer performing as needed. The winning solution had to be extremely reliable, bandwidth friendly and able to support both existing analog and new IP cameras. It also had to have centralized video management and offer advanced tools to help his team conduct video searches and LP investigations faster and more effectively.

“We’re saving literally hours a day, and the frustration factor is gone entirely.”

Following a six-month evaluation done in cooperation with Tommy Bahama’s IT group and leading systems integrator Diebold, the retailer selected the March Networks solution as its standard for all new locations and retrofits.

65 stores deploying solution

Sixty-five stores are already equipped with the technology, which includes new Searchlight for Retail software, 8000 Series Hybrid Network Video Recorders and MegaPX WDR MiniDome Z IP cameras, all managed with March Networks Command Enterprise software. An additional nine sites are expected to be up and running before the end of the year.

“The March Networks system performs extremely well in our networked environment and the quality of the images from the IP cameras is outstanding,” said Anderson. “The most important factor for us, though, is the Searchlight for Retail software. What would take an hour or more to find using our old video and exception reporting systems takes me just a minute or two to access with Searchlight. We’re saving literally hours a day, and the frustration factor is gone entirely.”

Rapid searches across all stores simultaneously

March Networks Searchlight for Retail is video-based business intelligence software that integrates surveillance video with point-of-sale (POS) transaction data in a powerful browser-based reporting dashboard. The software enables Tommy Bahama LP staff to conduct rapid searches across all stores simultaneously by transaction type or amount, and create customized reports based on key performance metrics, such as showing all voids or cash refunds between specific dollar amounts. Staff can simply review the daily reports and click through to the associated video to see what happened in further detail. If a theft has occurred, the combined transaction data and visual evidence is easily exported and serves as compelling case evidence for use in recoveries or prosecution.

Searchlight also integrates intelligent video analytics — including people counting, queue length and dwell time — to provide retailers with valuable insights into customer behavior and service, store operations and promotional success. In combination with the software’s business analytics reporting, it offers retailers the ability to analyze and compare store performance and trends at one or many locations and identify opportunities for improvement.

“With fully integrated applications like Searchlight, retail organizations get the relevant data and transformative insights they need to cut losses, improve operations and increase profitability,” said Net Payne, Chief Marketing Officer, March Networks. “Our comprehensive video solutions are used by leading retail organizations like Tommy Bahama because they are highly reliable, offer exceptional enterprise-class management and deliver new capabilities that extend well beyond security.”