Brad Small, Regional Manager For New Zealand & Pacific Islands
The regional manager for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands for Gallagher Security, Brad Small, moved from the University of Waikato to Gallagher as a marketing intern.
Gallagher has been in business since 1938; its longevity is attributed to its top-quality product offerings, which are profoundly reliable, and its ability to build enduring relationships with its end users and the partners who install its products.
Small explained that now, more than ever, businesses are technology savvy as they are more consistently looking to have as much control and administration over their premises as possible.
“Manufacturers and service providers throughout the security industry are answering that need by producing mobile-friendly, cloud-enabled security solutions that put the power of the security system into the back pocket of the person responsible,” said Small.
An example of this is when Gallagher released its SMB product four years ago and has continued to develop its capability based on customer feedback. At its core, Gallagher SMB is designed to let the owner, operator, or manager control their site.
When an alarm occurs, instead of a call centre following their flowchart and likely sending a guard and charging the associated costs, the user has the first option to view the alarm themselves. They can still call for a guard, but they could instead choose to view CCTV footage and determine if the guard is necessary or if it was triggered by something harmless, like a leaf floating past a sensor. Likewise, SMB lets the manager add and remove cardholders and open and close doors or set and unset alarms from the comfort of their home.
This combines two significant trends that are growing: security innovation and convenience.
Small continued that artificial intelligence within CCTV was also progressing rapidly.
“Its ability to identify objects or people that should or shouldn’t be in specified places is impressive, and I can see it becoming beneficial for retailers in the near future.”
AI cameras can also be used to identify what product the shopper has placed on the self-serve kiosk to not only speed up the transaction for the user but also to make sure that shoppers aren’t selecting lower dollars per KG items to steal from supermarkets.
Small’s most significant concern is to do with the cost to business; increased theft forces businesses to either absorb the costs or pass these onto the consumer, which means that consumers are paying more for the same products and services.
“Many businesses, including retailers, see this problem and instead invest in increased security, saving them money in the long term. It’s not fair they have to do this, but it’s often very effective.”
Read more from Brad Small below, starting on page 73:
