October 15, 2007 -- McDonald's restaurants in Scandinavia are now using an integrated point of sale and IP video surveillance system that employs Milestone Systems' open platform XProtect IP video management software.
According to Milestone, the McDonald's system, installed by MDIS and IT Gruppen, is a version of Checkpoint Systems' CheckView platform that has been developed for the retail sector to help manage shrinkage. Milestone notes that the previous surveillance system at several McDonald's locations in Denmark only focused on traditional security issues, such as theft and vandalism, and did not address the specific and future needs of the restaurant.
The decision was therefore made to implement the Checkview platform, which is based on Milestone's XProtect software. The company says the software provides integrated features, such as remote clients to monitor retail transactions from the POS system, which are easily searchable and viewable simultaneously with the IP video images from the cash registers.
The installed CheckView platform is designed to help the restaurants better analyze and manage transactions. The system's Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) module records every transaction from the cash register and combines them with the correlated event video in the Milestone XProtect Transact database by date, time and location. This capability makes it possible to quickly search transactions by specific information. Such searches can also be done remotely, over the network, allowing the restaurants to monitor internal theft and administrative errors, for better control of inventory shrinkage.
"The system is incredibly easy to manage, and I am confident that we will receive a fast return on our investment," says Casper Scheibye, supervisor of McDonald's in the Copenhagen suburbs of Valby and Hvidovre. "Our investment has received a lot of attention from other company locations."
The system's video component provides digital surveillance using megapixel technology from Axis, IQinVision and Vivotek.
"Our old surveillance system no longer met our requirements and needs. One of the main reasons for choosing CheckView with the Milestone IP video platform is the ability to upgrade with the newest technology available. The megapixel cameras improve the quality of the pictures, and we can clearly monitor the restaurant, as well as the drive-through areas. With the CheckPoint/XProtect integration, we can also manage shrinkage much more effectively," continues Scheibye.
"The solution is based primarily on Milestone XProtect Transact," adds Michael Hygild Sørensen, account manager at IT Gruppen. "Our collaboration with MDIS creates the perfect set-up, where we are providing the platform, and MDIS offers the know-how to the restaurants."
