The Project

As a provider of a wide range of security products – from fingerprint locks for residential properties to full hardware instillations for businesses – Zicom has a substantial understanding of India’s security market.

An acute awareness of businesses’ security needs enabled the company to expand its operations and provide additional services, with the help of integrated surveillance technologies.

How was the solution reached?

Economies of scale surveillance.

Zicom made the decision to begin to provide a security, monitoring and surveillance service, known as Security as a Service (SAAS). In a nutshell, SAAS eliminates the need for service users to operate an individual security service, which, instead, can be provided by Zicom. A comprehensive security service is provided to third parties for a fee lower than the cost of operating an individual service. SAAS eliminates the trade off between cost-effectiveness and comprehensive security coverage, made possible by the surveillance solution provided by Veracity.

Banking on Veracity.

SAAS is used by one of India’s national banks. Zicom was awarded a number of contracts to monitor 000’s of its ATM machines located across India. Outsourcing the monitoring of ATMs to Zicom has eliminated the need for the bank to dedicate expenditure to security personnel. Inadvertently, security risks posed to personnel working throughout the night in dangerous places have been abolished.

If an incident occurs at one of the bank’s ATMs, Zicom’s SAAS control room is immediately made aware. CCTV footage will be streamed to its control room and displayed centrally on the operator workstation and, if required, on display wall. Control room operators are then able to utilise real-time two-way audio communication: recorded audio can be played at the sight of the incident to deter the offender, and audio captured close to the ATM can also be recorded and streamed to Zicom’s control room.

“Banks are very happy with the offsite surveillance as this comes with a quick response team which includes motorcycle-borne guards who will arrive at the site within minutes of an incident,” said Pramaud Rao, Managing Director of Zicom Group in the Times of India.

Veracity’s integrated surveillance solution has enabled the provision of SAAS, to the benefit of Zicom, its clients and public safety.

Multi-pronged surveillance service.

To provide SAAS, Zicom invested in a fully integrated control room, which multiple information flows feed into to keep Zicom aware of the security of its clients assets. Information captured on DVR cameras, intruder sensors and alarm panels, to give a few examples of hardware in use, is continuously displayed on media walls. Zicom’s technological enables it to provide six services:

• Customer Footfall Solutions, for clients who need access to commercially useful data concerning the use of their services.
• Time and Attendance, to keep on top of the whereabouts and punctuality of personnel.
• Monitoring the Health of CCTV, to optimise equipment usage and be made aware of any hardware faults.
• Fire Alarm Monitoring, to enable an urgent response to potentially fatal incidents.
• Intrusion Alarm Monitoring, which ensures control rooms are made aware of security breaches with minimal latency.
• Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Monitoring, to free control rooms from the need to monitor cash machines using security personnel.

Veracity’s provision of integrated surveillance technologies has truly enabled Zicom to multi-task and meet numerous security needs, making it favourable to a range of clients from different vertical markets. Security, monitoring and surveillance services are now provided from a multi-purpose control room, freeing Zicom’s clients from the need to operate their own control rooms whilst enhancing their security capabilities.

Scope for expansion.

What’s more, Veracity’s open platform integration software, the foundation on which multiple applications rest, allows for new technologies to be added if they are needed. Upgrading Zicom’s surveillance capabilities, should its clients’ security demands change over time, will not require a costly revision of its existing solution: far from it, as Veracity is able to simply ’add on’ new hardware and software technologies.

On-going support.

Veracity has a Delhi based office dedicated to sales and technical support. Staff are available to take care of any technical questions regarding Veracity’s surveillance solutions. On the provison of support, Mithun Desai, Operations Manager of Zicom’s Command Centre, said: “The software is easy to use and is updated regularly with latest versions. Support is timely.”