Retail, banking, transportation, hospitality and other industries are looking to optimize the handling of shrinkage due to fraud, errors and theft. In the retail sector alone, both shoplifting and employee theft is a well documented cause of major financial losses.

The 19th Annual Retail Theft Survey recently quoted that in the US, the average shoplifting case involved USD128.71 in lost goods. Furthermore, one out of every 27 employees was found to steal products with an average value of USD851.00. Over half a million people were apprehended in these cases with a total of USD116.00 million in stolen items.* Across the Atlantic, the UK has reported that 'the retail industry as a whole is estimated to be losing around GBP2 billion per annum through fraud and theft.**

To help reduce this, the combination of digital video tapped into transactions is proving to be a solution that enables detection of suspicious incidents. The results are measurable. The US study, for example, showed that USD56.6 million was recovered from employee theft apprehensions. Improved procedures in hiring, training and monitoring - specifically the use of Point-of-Sale exception reporting software coupled with video surveillance - has helped.

Milestone Systems XProtect Transact 2.5 has the following capabilities:

- Track goods all the way through the store - from receiving to sales.
- Determine if items get "lost" in the storage/warehouse, are shoplifted or "mistreated" at the checkout counter (either in the sales process or as return goods).
- Follow activities visually.
- Easily produce evidence.
- Help resolve wrong-doings before they escalate.

The newest version of XProtect Transact offers improved search functions like a search list that makes browsing easier, and a new SQL database enables support for Microsoft Vista. Transactions can now trigger generic events in XProtect Corporate, XProtect Enterprise, XProtect Professional and XProtect Basis+, harnessing the full power of Milestone IP video surveillance management software.



* The State of the Loss Prevention Industry: 2007 Update

** House in order