When the industry was siloed, with different systems operating on different platforms, it was much less effective than it is today. With the move to networked, IP and browser-based surveillance and access control systems and services, security has become more of a business and management tool and that’s good news all around.

Manufacturers realized early on that recording was just an inkling of what they could provide the end-user. Products such as DVRs have stepped up big time to meet the needs of the increasingly integrated marketplace. Many now have built-in analytics, search engines, embedded biometrics and other practical management features.

The continued evolution of recording as a management tool comes at a good time for many verticals, especially the restaurant industry, which needs to add value in every penny it spends. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2009 Industry Forecast, while overall restaurant industry sales were slated to increase in current dollars by 2.5 percent over 2008, the numbers actually represent an inflation-adjusted decline of 1.0 percent. Restaurants overall haven’t grown and are feeling the pinch from consumers who may not have the disposable income they once had for eating out. That translates into the hospitality, restaurant and retail end-users looking for more value from security as well as tools they can use to increase their efficiencies and accountability.

NAVCO Networks and Security, Anaheim, Calif., one of the largest privately-held systems integrators in North America, prides itself on having the knowledge not only of the security side of the business, but the value-add associated with networking and converging and integrating products. And that’s just what they provided Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza as a dealer-integrator installation partner.

“We recognized early on that customer’s like Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza needed to get more out of their surveillance systems,” said Ryan Haley, regional sales manager-West, NAVCO. “In the case of Sammy’s, they wanted to tie exception-based reporting with point of sale. They had an existing DVR installation and to go about marrying the two technologies--recording and POS-- was tough, we’ll admit. But we reached out to the manufacturer, 3VR Security, and they were able to collaborate with us and write software to implement the application just the way the end-user wanted it.”