Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/34202
12 NEWS www.securitysystemsnews.com JULY 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS Bank meets goal of being ‘VCR free’ By Leischen Stelter GREEN BAY, Wis.—For more than 18 years, Mark Heffernan has been working in the private sector of the security industry, but his previous career in law enforcement still dictates his approach to security. As the man- ager of physical security at Asso- ciated Banc-Corp, one of the top 50 bank/financial services hold- ing companies in the U.S. with $21 billion in assets, Heffernan is charged with protecting more than 270 branch locations and corporate offices. But the video surveillance system the bank had in place as recently as 2009 just wasn’t cutting it—for the bank or law enforcement. “I’m embarrassed to say, but in 2009 we still had 150 sites oper- ating on VCRs,” he said. “When I would turn a VCR tape over to law enforcement, they would look at me like I had two heads because it was such a dinosaur of a system and they didn’t have the capability to get quality images off of that video tape.” The bank set a goal of being “VCR free” by the end of 2010. The DVR system that the bank had in place previously was failing rapidly and the manufacturer was no longer in business. Because of this, it was even more important RECESSION Continued from page 6 for 2011 was better than it was for 2010. A majority, 51 percent of you, said your prognosis for 2011 was better than for 2010. A pretty near even split said your 2011 outlook was either worse than 2010 (24 percent) or was about the same (25 percent). One respondent pointed out that the market would not allow business owners to increase pric- es, even though costs—especially for fuel—had gone up. Custom- ers, the respondent said, are more price-sensitive and expect extra value for the same money. Finally, we asked you whether or not revenues were up, with slimmer profit margins, as some had claimed. Forty-four percent of you said yes, while an equal 44 percent said no. Twelve percent of you wondered what revenue we were talking about. Mark Wagner, director of video services for Bedford Heights, Ohio- based integrator Bass Security, feels there are certain steps security folks can take to remain lean. “What we do really well is using subcontractors for installation and service and that keeps overhead down,” Wagner said. “Even with slimmer margins, doing so allows us to remain competitive and profitable.” SSN for the bank to find a solution that worked. Heffernan said he spent a considerable amount of time researching companies, attend- ing trade shows and talking with his peers at other banks about the solutions they had in place. Even though the bank’s budget was tight, the pain points caused by the previous surveillance sys- tem was so strong that Heffer- nan managed to secure funding for the upgrade. The bank began migrating to a hybrid NVR solu- tion by March Networks in Sep- tember 2009 and by September 2011, all of its branches and cor- porate offices will be operating on the new system. The bank now has in excess of 5,000 video surveillance cam- eras, with an average of 20 cam- eras per location, operating on 500 March Network NVRs. The search capability of the March system is one of the most sig- nificant benefits, he said. “If we get a call about vandalism at a branch over a period of 10 hours, rather than search all 10 hours, an ‘activity bar’ gives us the opportunity to only search when there is activity on the camera,” he said. Searching 10 hours of video footage takes less than 30 minutes, he said. SSN