S1 Ep 29
Security Operations Centres - A New Era of Remote Monitoring and Support
This week, Colin Peacock is joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor to explore how retailers are evolving their Security Operations Centres (SOCs) into powerful hubs for crime prevention, safety, and store support.
Based on insights from a benchmark study of 29 retailers and a live case study, they discuss how SOCs are being used for everything from live incident response and evidence gathering to virtual store audits and lone-worker protection.
They reflect on how SOCs can help reduce losses, support staff morale, and even improve relationships with local police forces.
As the technology capabilities explode and use cases multiply, they discuss how SOCs are becoming essential tools in creating safer, more efficient, and more resilient retail operations.
Podcast summary
In this episode, host Colin Peacock speaks with Professor Emmeline Taylor about the growth and evolution of Security Operations Centres (SOCs) in retail.
Drawing on survey results from 29 retailers and a recent ECR community meeting, they explore how SOCs centralise video monitoring, incident response, and evidence gathering across tens of thousands of stores.
The discussion highlights the wide range of maturity levels and use cases, from live incident interventions and virtual store audits to remote guarding and alarm verification.
They also examine the business case, staff perceptions, and the potential for SOCs to reduce shrink, improve safety, and strengthen relationships with law enforcement.
Cleaned transcript
Introduction
COLIN:
Hello, and welcome to the ECR Retail Loss “Sell More and Lose Less” podcast series.
My name is Colin Peacock. I work with a community of experts and academics who are keen to share their latest research findings and best practices.
Every week or two in this series, I’m joined by one of those experts or academics to discuss some of the very latest insights from our meetings, discussions, and research on best practices.
This week, I’m joined by Professor Emmeline Taylor.
EMMELINE:
Hi, Colin. And how nice that we’ve colour coordinated today.
COLIN:
Yes, especially for the podcast listeners. I think they’ll really appreciate the colour coordination.
What are Security Operations Centres?
COLIN:
We had a meeting recently about Security Operations Centres.
These are where retailers bring together, in one room, all the video feeds from their stores or their distribution centres, fulfilment centres, and so on.
We’ve been tracking this for over 10 years. The change over that time has been astonishing.
It’s been enabled by the move to IP video technology and away from analogue, and also by the huge expansion in bandwidth. That means there’s now a plethora of possible use cases.
As one CEO of a company that makes video software said, it’s almost like we’ve created a sandpit for you all to play in, and it’s down to your imagination how you may want to use that.
Survey findings: how retailers use SOCs
COLIN:
I started off in the meeting with some survey results from 29 retailers, who together represented about 52,000 stores.
On average they had just under two SOCs – Security Operations Centres – and about 28 full-time people working in those centres.
We looked at what they were using them for. As the name on the tin suggests, it’s a security operation, so most of the work is security.
A lot of the work is planned. Things such as gathering evidence packs is one example of planned work.
Unplanned work would be responding to a live incident. For example, shouting to the store, and to the perpetrators, “Get out of the store!” down the audio.
So that’s a range of activities. We went through that, and then we had a retailer present their journey. I think it went back at least seven years. They showed how they have built out a Security Operations Centre, a central monitoring place.
Then we heard from the retailers. We had about 60 retailers on the call, all contributing in different ways to the discussion as and when I was able to call on them, assuming they weren’t on mute.
We did about 90 minutes in the end. It was fascinating.
What were your takeaways? What were the notes that you took down that could be instructive for those retailers who weren’t able to join the call?
Maturity and diversity of SOC models
EMMELINE:
It really was a fascinating discussion.
The first thing that I learned was that “SOCs” are not those woolly garments at the end of your feet; it’s actually a Security Operating Centre.
You presented some really interesting findings to kick us off. We had responses from 29 different businesses about how they’re utilising operation centres.
It really drove home the variance in the level of maturity. These have been around for nearly a decade, but some businesses are very much in their early steps towards developing these centres, whereas others have already begun to diversify.
They might have multiple SOCs focusing on different things, whether that’s alarms or broadcasting to criminals in store.
Centralising crime management and freeing store teams
EMMELINE:
What really captured my imagination made me think about an interview that I’d done with a store manager a few months ago.
The store manager said to me, “I was employed to manage the store, but I’m a crime manager. I spend all of my days identifying, reporting, responding to crime.”
What I love about the SOCs is the potential, when you centralise some of these functions, that in your bricks-and-mortar store staff can get on with the job they’ve been employed to do: delivering incredible customer service.
For me, that’s really what these centres should be about.
It was quite striking, wasn’t it, the variance in terms of the potential and how these centres can be operated? What did you think about that?
Use cases: from claims to virtual store audits
COLIN:
As you say, it’s everything from picking up on slips and trips claims – was that a real claim or not – through to other very different uses.
One example from a retailer was that they have 30 or 40 stores every night doing some sort of activity such as decorating or refitting. They could offer remote guards for that.
Another retailer talked about virtual store audits. How fascinating would that be?
Normally, when you have a loss prevention person turn up, they arrive and everyone looks smart and clean and everything’s working.
How fascinating to be able to dip into a store at any random time, with the permission of the store manager, to see whether things are going the way they should be.
Is the food waste being recorded properly? Are they carrying out the checks on the exit? Is the store security guard in the right place at the right times? Are the back doors being blocked?
The potential is huge. As we said before, it’s a bit of a sandpit.
Staff perceptions and “Big Brother” concerns
EMMELINE:
Definitely. And it just gives that enhanced visibility, doesn’t it? Not just over crime and security, but over really key operations of the store.
You picked up on something that we talked about quite a lot: what do store associates feel about these centres?
When I’ve spoken to individuals in store, on the shop floor, largely they’re really positive about them. They feel that extra support. They feel that there’s somebody who can intervene at the push of a button. They’ve got more communication.
But I did wonder about some of the communications to store associates that they’re not being spied on, that it isn’t about their performance.
I think it’s important that businesses get that communication right, to ensure that staff are always on side and they don’t feel that there’s a Big Brother potentially watching over them.
Building the business case and shrink impact
COLIN:
This is a really interesting point.
In terms of how to build a business case for one of these remote monitoring centres, often the Chief Financial Officer wants a financial return.
One way you can, and one way that has been proven to, get that business return is to show a reduction in the shrink number.
If you can show a 20% reduction in shrink, and we think that’s because people may respond better, may behave better, may not do things that they might otherwise do because someone can detect them, that helps.
The fear of being detected increases and perhaps reduces the opportunity that some people might take.
I do feel that’s a way some retailers are going to have to build the business case. You get this halo effect. You say, “Here we are. We’re launching, for your safety and security, coverage by a Security Operations Centre. Any concerns you might have, etc.”
Then, perhaps within the first week of that operation, just by coincidence, every store that’s now being covered has an internal theft case uncovered.
ROI, safety, and unanticipated benefits
EMMELINE:
Yes, absolutely.
In terms of that return on investment, there are lots of different ways to demonstrate it. Whether it’s deterring criminal activity or increased detections.
I wondered if there might be some unanticipated benefits as well. Thinking about that store manager, would it potentially increase staff retention? Or make staff recruitment easier because people feel safer on the shop floor, perhaps?
COLIN:
I think if you’re a lone worker, the only person in the store, knowing that there’s someone there at the press of a button must be hugely reassuring.
It probably would be something that would make you at least want to turn up for the job and be there.
It could be pretty scary working at 11 o’clock at night on your own, with people potentially coming into the store and you not feeling protected.
Strengthening relationships with law enforcement
EMMELINE:
Definitely.
By extension, one of the things that many of the presenters mentioned was that having these security centres actually enhanced their relationship with law enforcement.
They felt that the intelligence they were gathering was more robust. It was easier for them to share it.
If they did call out the police, it was usually because they had a very compelling reason to do so.
For any business case, demonstrating how you can build stronger relationships with law enforcement has to be a positive thing.
Productivity, alarm verification and cost savings
COLIN:
This is music to the CFO’s ear, isn’t it? In two ways.
First, the evidence collection. If you’re asking every single store to do it in their own different way, that’s really problematic. Doing it once centrally, in the right way, feels like a productivity improvement.
Second, many of them are also visually verifying alarms. They’re not sending out a store manager at four o’clock in the morning only to find a squirrel rustling around in the nuts aisle and setting off the alarm. They hate the fruit aisle, by the way.
EMMELINE:
Definitely. It just seems to have so many different positives.
