The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented levels of global business and economic disruption across all industries. The deadly virus has changed the way businesses make decisions and function. Repeated lockdowns, social distancing norms, and other safety guidelines have altered consumer buying patterns. Therefore, with so much left hanging in the air, and out of control of businesses, it’s of the utmost importance to focus on areas where you can make a difference. One such area is your commercial security systems.
Moreover, with more and more people getting vaccinated, establishments such as bars, restaurants, offices, and other commercial locations have started opening, with precautions. As a result, the need for commercial security systems is on the rise. Businesses need to ensure both customer and employee safety even in the post-COVID world.
Health Check Solutions for Businesses of All Sizes
Whether you own a small cafe or a full-fledged apparel store, you need to ensure you’re performing basic health checks, such as temperature checks, biometric scans, and so on, on both customers and employees.
COVID-19 health check solutions are designed to provide businesses with the tools they need to mitigate the potential risk of COVID-19 infection in their commercial space. Here are some health check solutions you can consider for your business:
- Ad Hoc Testing: If you feel some of your employees are showing symptoms of COVID-19, you can request them to get tested immediately.
- Assurance Testing: This type of testing is conducted periodically for the entire staff. It can help you identify COVID-19 cases early on and prevent the infection from spreading at a larger scale.
- Comprehensive Health Monitoring Apps: You can make the most of HIPAA-compliant COVID-19 monitoring solutions to track the health of employees and bring them back to work. Using these apps, you can track your employees’ vaccination status, keep your team healthy, and prevent COVID-19 from spreading.
- COVID-19 Onsite Health Screening Stations: You can build or install onsite health screening stations as your first line of defense for containing the COVID-19 infection. You can hire trained COVID-19 screeners to monitor both customers and employees. At these stations, each visitor is evaluated for increased body temperature or other signs of infection.
- COVID-19 IR Smart Scan Technology: You can also leverage COVID-19 infrared (IR) smart scan booths to monitor large groups of people at a time. IR thermal scanners can detect high body temperatures.
Incorporating Commercial Facial Recognition and Other Types of AI
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in commercial facial recognition solutions, especially when paired with thermal imaging and commercial surveillance. It not only acts as a contactless health check solution but also detects one of the most common symptoms of the virus – high body temperature.
Technologies based on machine learning are also playing an important role in the post-COVID world. Scientists are leveraging machine learning to study the virus, identify infected individuals, conduct trials and testing on potential treatments, and so on. Many businesses are also incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), some of which is built on machine learning, into the initial lines of defense both during and after the pandemic. Therefore, from scanning faces to check elevated temperatures using commercial facial recognition, to tracking the spread of the virus, many businesses are using both AI and machine learning algorithms with different levels of complexity and sophistication.
Many technology companies are pitching AI-based solutions as sanitary alternatives to biometric scanners or fingerprint sensors. AI-based facial recognition is estimated to grow as the algorithms get updated to work around facial recognition with masks.
Commercial video surveillance systems are also powered by AI to provide accurate and reliable detection of events such as loitering and suspicious activities. Video heat mapping can help in identifying areas where customers or employees are not following the social distancing guidelines.
How Commercial Security Systems Monitoring is Being Redefined
Commercial security monitoring is also one of the key aspects of commercial security systems. While businesses are working around the clock to ensure the safety of their customers and employees, they also need to focus on ensuring their assets and unoccupied spaces are safe. This is where the need for commercial security monitoring systems comes into the picture.
As a business owner, you can manage unoccupied commercial spaces, without being onsite, even when you are in isolation. You can easily access remote applications to review video footage or watch live feeds. This can help you in identifying potential break-ins and vandalism threats.
Setting up commercial security monitoring systems can prevent crimes and track burglars/thieves/vandals. Here are some quick tips to ensure your commercial security monitoring system is deterring criminals when you’re not around:
- Ensure all the angles and corners are covered. A high-mounted dome camera can help a great deal in covering more areas.
- Ensure the right lighting is installed to capture the footage clearly. Get rid of shadows as much as possible. Consider investing in IR cameras for better quality footage.
- Avoid installing cameras in obvious locations. You need to protect them from vandals.
- Install signs about your surveillance system as an additional warning.
More than all that, third-party video management products, like the ones from Milestone Systems and LenelS2, allow you to seamlessly integrate your existing video management system with your access control. This means you can have live sitemaps that show everything that’s going on everywhere. With real-time awareness like this, you can have a high-resolution photo or video instantly be captured and sent to you and the proper authorities whenever there’s an unauthorized badge swipe, unauthorized face, tampered door lock, and more. Or, when an alarm is set off, you can have real-time photos and videos sent to the first responders so they know exactly what they’re dealing with.
Check out this video to see how your commercial access control can be fully integrated with your video management system.
Why Businesses Need to Focus on Cloud Security Systems
More and more businesses are focusing on cloud security systems to deliver an all-in-one commercial security solution in the post-COVID world. The commercial security system industry is continuously adapting to newer and better ways to beat the deadly virus.
Over the course of the pandemic, cloud-based commercial security solutions have become the new normal for many businesses. They are effective and versatile. Not only this but they are also highly affordable.
When your access control, video systems, and all other aspects of your commercial security system are combined together into one cloud-based system, you get several advantages.
Your security team will be able to visually verify the identity of individuals requesting access, giving them the tools to make the right decisions, every time. You’ll also have more thorough, straightforward post-incident investigations, as you’ll have video information linked to each entry/exit event. You’ll be more efficient as well, with the ability to manage your video surveillance and access control on-site, or on the go.
Remote Access Offers Cost Effectiveness and Flexibility
In the post-COVID world, many businesses are looking for ways to reduce their costs, because of which they’ve moved to cloud-based security systems. Also, one of the key benefits of cloud security systems is their remote access capabilities. Businesses no longer need to have employees monitor security systems onsite. When commercial security systems are integrated with the cloud, end users can easily log in and view them.
Cloud Security Systems Come With Convenient and Secure Backup Options
Commercial security systems with traditional hardware backup are vulnerable to physical damage, such as fires, floods, damage to servers, and more. However, with a cloud security system, this vulnerability is eliminated. Since all the data is stored in the cloud, data backup takes place now and then. In the event of an accident, data can be recovered instantly. The reduced reliance on hardware systems also reduces the cost. With periodic automatic backups, you can access your security systems no matter where you are; all you need is a reliable internet connection.
With hybrid cloud solutions, like those from Tiger Technology and OpenEye, you can seamlessly add cloud storage and services, without any changes to your on-premises systems and workflows. So, you can manage everything locally, as well as on private or public clouds. You can optimize everything, prioritizing cameras that require local or cloud storage for immediate insights, while also protecting devices that send footage directly to cold storage for long-term retention and analysis. You can easily add cameras, change retention periods, and share content between remote facilities with a shared dataset. These hybrid systems also allow you to integrate specialized services, such as artificial intelligence (AI) without the need for additional on-premises builds. Hybrid cloud infrastructures can reduce costs, maximize return on investment (ROI), and offer operational flexibility to any organization — all while keeping data accessible and secure.
The Power of Cloud Security Systems in the Post-COVID World
As businesses continue to upgrade their existing commercial systems in the post-COVID world, cloud security systems will continue to play a critical role. Healthcare facilities and hospitals are using cloud security systems to monitor the commercial spaces remotely, with minimum staff on the ground. Real-estate business owners are also integrating their security cameras and audio controls with cloud security systems to remotely gain complete access to their commercial and residential spaces.
At ProTech Security, we have a strong history of experience, innovation, and customer service. The ProTech Security Advantage is more than 35 years of service in Northeast Ohio and a strong commitment to providing quality, cost-effective protection for homes, businesses, educational institutions, and government facilities. To see what ProTech Security can do for you, contact us today.
