Anything But Off The Shelf
By Matt Pillar, chief editor
September 2015 Innovative Retail Technologies
To develop a multidisciplinary IP surveillance infrastructure that would serve LP and operations, Kroger took innovation into its own hands.
Like many directors of LP in large retail environments, Karl Langhorst spent many hours in 2013 doing due diligence on a path of migration from analog CCTV to IP video. While Langhorst’s approach to $108 billion Kroger’s migration to IP video began the conventional way — an analysis of market-ready platforms from leading providers — it soon took a dramatically different turn. “Through internal discussions with our partners in R&D, we realized there was work going on inside our four walls that could hold great potential for a homegrown solution,” he says.
Led by Sr. Director Brett Bonner, the R&D arm at Kroger was working on the development of a then-unnamed interconnected IT system that would include a number of radio and IoT (Internet of Things)-based technologies to enable everything from consumer-facing shopping tools to mobile device-enabled temperature monitoring for food safety. As the conversation between LP and R&D progressed, synergies emerged. “We were mapping an efficient grid that would provide good radio communications for our R&D initiatives,” says Bonner. “Karl was mapping out a migration to IP video. And, it seemed everywhere we looked there was a camera.” That got Bonner and Langhorst thinking; instead of developing and supporting two autonomous infrastructures to meet each department’s objectives, would it be possible to build one platform that would serve store operations and LP?
“We realized there was work going on inside our four walls that could hold great potential for a homegrown solution.”
Karl Langhorst, director of LP, Kroger
Building A Foundation For Enterprise IT
The conversation between LP and R&D evolved from theory to earnest work toward what is today known as Kroger’s RSI (Retail Site Intelligence) enterprise IT architecture. Bonner and Langhorst brought in Randy Christian, who serves the retailer as LP technology manager. “From an LP perspective, the transition to IP video was born of a need for scalability because it’s difficult to add new channels to CCTV. We also sought the higher resolution that new IP cameras afford, the agility of a more portable camera infrastructure, and the advanced analytics enabled by IP video,” says Christian. “We knew we’d be running a lot of wires to support our IP camera rollout, so, at a minimum, we surmised that we’d gain some efficiency if we collaborated our effort with that of R&D.”
As it turns out, collaboration on the running of wires was just the tip of the iceberg for the combined LP, IT, and R&D team. Kroger’s LP team depends on an average of one camera per 1,000 square feet of sales floor across its 3,000 stores. That equates to anywhere from 120 to 200 cameras per store. “This sheer number of cameras dovetailed with the radio communications grid layout we were building in R&D,” says Bonner. “So, we decided to populate each camera with four ZigBee radios to support the R&D effort — which included queue management, mobile shopping applications, and temperature sensors — but which would also handle the transmission of security alerts and facilitate video analytics.” Which leads us to a noteworthy point about the cameras Kroger ultimately installed: They were designed and developed in-house. “We designed our own Linux-based IP camera with a sensor in it that enabled great sensitivity and unlimited focal range,” says Christian. “Then we designed a circuit board with great video compression, superb secondary capabilities like video analytics, and PoE (Power over Ethernet) to support all the camera could do. We also put our own encoders on analog cameras to run our Codec,” he says.
The entire camera installation is monitored by Kroger’s Ohio-based call center, where automated error reporting results in proactive maintenance and uptime. “Our tech center monitors the devices and is continually alerted when something goes offline or a server is having issues. Of the tickets that were filed following our most recent update, 90 percent were generated automatically by the monitoring system,” says Bonner. Automated reporting alerts tech support to identify anomalies and, in most cases, the cause of the outage, within seven minutes of a device-level issue. That speed of reporting helps the retailer prioritize help desk tickets so that the most urgent issues, such as those affecting the ability to monitor the front of the store, can be quickly addressed.
While the prospect of building the RSI — replete with custom cameras — from the ground up might sound cost prohibitive on the surface, it was cost-consciousness that drove the project from the outset. Now, in partnership with eInfochips, Wincor Nixdorf, and the ZigBee Alliance, the RSI platform is available for sale to the greater retail market. “When partners like Wincor Nixdorf bring us a new retailer, we work with them to create a roadmap that’s customized for their strategic goals. Since we have complete control of the source code, from cameras through remote clients to network utilities, we enable a great opportunity for rapid development,” says Bonner.
“We started with a good foundation, and we continue to build on top of it,” says Bonner. “There’s more innovation to come.” Among the immediate plans for additional functionality are ZigBee radio-enabled handheld scanners that integrate with the IP video network, which will facilitate secure mobile POS by enabling cameras to follow mobile devices throughout the store. Similarly, low-cost, low-power ZigBee radios will facilitate IP video tracking of valuable assets throughout stores.
Serving The Enterprise, Not Just LP
Homegrown IP cameras outfitted with ZigBee radios aren’t exactly standard practice in retail LP, but then, neither is the multidisciplinary innovation they’re enabling. The Kroger team’s philosophy is that the LP benefits of video are transferrable to store operations functions that directly impact the customer experience, such as front-end performance, out-of-stock remediation, merchandising effectiveness, and the general condition of the store. A sampling of the cross-departmental highlights of the system includes:
- Kroger’s VMS (video management software), called Vigil360, supports motion detection, camera mapping, bandwidth adjustable remote viewing, privacy mask, and local/ remote collaborative video investigation.
- Video analytics modules offer enhanced security and loss prevention, enabling immediate response to safety and security threats.
- Door sensors enable cameras to monitor all activity at entrances and exits and feature the ability to detect handheld devices in real time while documenting the event.
- ZigBee temperature sensors report cold storage temperature changes to store personnel, eliminating the necessity of manual temperature checks and reducing loss due to spoilage.
To speed the value of these applications to end users, the system features a roles-based interface. “The system presents itself uniquely for each individual user through roles-based access,” says Christian. “For example, if I’m in facilities engineering and my expertise is equipment, the equipment performance data I seek — and that alone — is presented to me visually. If I’m in produce, I can access only the devices monitoring produce. That’s a lot more efficient than being given a username and password to the entire system and wading through irrelevant data. The user’s permission is provisioned by role, down to the store level,” he says. He adds that Kroger takes RSI access as seriously as it does payment information. “We treat video just like data,” he says. That means all user access to the system is tracked and logged, and if a user leaves the company, their provisions are immediately and automatically suspended.
“The Internet of Things is driving the involvement of IT into every facet of the business.”
Brett Bonner, senior director, R&D, Kroger
In The Trenches Of The IoT
Kroger has been on the board of the ZigBee Alliance for five years, and Kroger employee John Osborne is currently Chairman of the Alliance. That was a significant move on the part of the retailer, creating the opportunity to share knowledge with fellow board members and tech giants the likes of Emerson, Philips Electronics, Schneider Electric, and Texas Instruments, among others. Participation in the Alliance gives Kroger a direct hand in developing the standardized wireless language that devices use to connect and interact with one another, and it contributes significantly to the ongoing development of RSI. “It’s somewhat rare for retailers to hold board positions on these standards committees, but it’s given us a unique opportunity to evaluate products and technologies and discover how they can fit into our RSI and drive innovation at Kroger,” says Bonner.
QueVision is also one of the early successes for Retail Operations and R&D at Kroger. RSI is patterned on QueVision, and the teams project even greater impact. “It’s an imaging system that measures traffic, lines, and registers’ processing speeds to advise store management as to how many registers to open or close,” says Dion Perkins, R&D engineering manager at Kroger. Implementation of the system has had a profound effect on labor efficiency, and, more importantly, it’s cut the average wait time at Kroger POS and deli lines from more than 4 minutes to less than 30 seconds.
“The system presents itself uniquely for each individual user through roles-based access.”
Randy Christian, LP technology manager, Kroger
“The Internet of Things is driving the involvement of IT into every facet of the business,” says Bonner. “At one time, phone systems were not part of IT. Now they are, and that’s what’s happening with video as well. That makes collaboration between R&D, LP, store operations, and IT paramount. Dion recognizes that. He was the human engine of development.”
While Bonner classifies the outset of the collaboration at Kroger as more serendipity than initiative, the resulting platform has been epic. The company vows that the RSI as it stands today has only scratched the surface of its innovation potential.
The Emergence of Convergence
Kroger’s historical announcement outlining the development and deployment of an internal VMS (video management system) platform is nothing short of monumental. Not only does it signify a critically innovative approach to doing business, but also it highlights something much more significant in the world of retail loss prevention/asset protection: a symbiotic, corporate-wide shift in the way business is usually done.
We have been hearing a lot lately about the convergence of IT and AP/LP. It emerged largely due to the advent of IP cameras and storage servers. It was at this point where most retailers’ IT departments felt security technology was becoming IT technology. And they were correct.
Fast forward to today, and I see a variety of effects from the causes of IT convergence while working directly with and navigating among many of the world’s leading retailers. And there are lessons to be learned, wrongs to be righted, and things to be fixed.
First and foremost, I have seen the proverbial head in the sand approach to the convergence movement. And this concerns me. This approach will never result in anything good. When I arrived as the LP leader at the Home Depot, with the responsibility to lower the retailer’s historically high shrink, my first action was to create and develop a strong relationship with IT. It was so important to me that I insisted on having a fulltime internal IT associate embedded into my team, as the leader of the convergence effort. This was 15 years ago. Was I a visionary? A pioneer? Not in my mind. I was doing what we needed to do. I quickly understood that we lacked the systemic tools necessary to drive shrink and loss improvement, and the one way I was going to get the Home Depot to the historically low shrink we achieved was through key partnerships. IT was at the top on my list.
No longer would the silos built in the past remain standing. Not on my watch.
Sadly, even today, I find LP/AP departments that have silos standing and a minimalistic relationship with their company’s IT group. Should you find yourself in this situation at your company, regardless of which side of the fence you reside, I encourage you to break down the walls and begin forming a strong partnership. It is the right and necessary thing to do.
Conversely, I have witnessed IT becoming more AP/LP centric when a commitment to do so is made. Companies like Heinens Grocery in Cleveland, OH have John Guenther as the head of AP/LP and the head of IT Security. At Walmart, the IT group is working closely with AP/LP and Global Security on a daily basis to clearly understand the critical needs, enabling IT to assist in delivering them. Marcus Young at United Grocery has worked closely to educate and empower his IT team to onboard some of the most innovative security platforms in existence today. Telaid, a deployment group focused on IT/security convergence, is an example of a solutions provider at the ready for the new era.
Because of these IT/AP relationships, amazing progress is occurring.
Which takes me back to Kroger. Karl Langhorst, Randy Christian, and their IT leadership team partnered as never before to develop a solution not only for their use but to market to the world. When barriers are broken down and partnerships are developed, it is exciting to see the outcome. That is true convergence and a wonderful blueprint for everyone to embrace.
Keith Aubele CPP, LPP is the former global VP of loss prevention for Home Depot and Director of Loss Prevention for Walmart Stores. He is the Founder/President & CEO of the Retail Loss Prevention Group based in Bentonville, AR. His company partners with the top retailers and solutions providers in the retail industry, creating profit and reducing loss.