Saving manpower and increase security transparency at Auchan

The task was to visualize the alarms of the intrusion detection system so the security personnel could overlook the whole system at one glance, for increased transparency and to make their job easier.

The Problem, aka life before Siwenoid

  • 40 cash registers with panic buttons.
  • Automatic alarm whenever a customer buys products over 30 euro worth.
  • Acknowledging the “intrusions” took entering a 5 digit PIN number and resetting the alarm.
  • The cashiers often pushing the buttons by mistake
  • It was difficult to overlook and handle multiple alarms at once.
  • Resetting an alarm took a minute or so, in every two minutes

With more than 40 cash desks signaling alarm every 2 minutes the work of security personnel was a bit difficult, since acknowledging an alarm took 30-40 seconds each. On every case of alarm the guards had to use the manual panel of the Honeywell Galaxy intrusion detector, which took entering a 5 digit PIN number, selecting the alarm and resetting it.

Difficulties increased when multiple alarms signaled at once. In these cases it was hard to distinct which gates are open, resulting higher response time.

Cumulatively the handling of cash register alarms took hours of manpower every day, distracting the guards in the security room from other tasks like watching the CCTV system.

The solution

  • Integrating Siwenoid “on top” of the instrusion panel
  • Installing an economical and energy saving mini PC for the software
  • Integrating the software for the existing Siwenoid server

With the integration of Siwenoid 2.0 on top of the Honeywell Galaxy intrusion detection system the guards can see all alarm on a well structured grafical interface.

The acknowledgment of an alarm only takes 2 mouse clicks now, 1 for noticing and one for reset.

The guards don’t have to look away from the CCTV for more than 5 seconds.

The benefit

  • The alarms are neatly visualized on a single monitor
  • The Guards saving time and effort to know where the problems occur
  • No missed alarm in the chaos of the control panel
  • The original operation is still avaiable, but not necessary

While maintaining the integrity of the intrusion detection system, Siwenioid overlooks its alarms and status changes.

No need to press any button to see where the alert came from so the guards in the shop area can be notified about the location of the intrusions. This way they save time and can interfere faster in case of actual shoplifting.

With all status changes viewable at once there are no missed or unreacted alerts.

The guards in the security room can focus on more important tasks.

Siwenoid made security faster, easier and more user friendly.