Iverify's new $39m video monitoring contract 'largest in the industry'

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—In what it says is the “largest video monitoring contract in history,” Iverify at the end of April announced it won a five-year contract valued at $39 million to provide guard replacement and shrink-reduction services to 529 Family Dollar stores, nationwide.

Iverify president Mike May said Iverify brought big savings to the table for the Family Dollar.

"[They are] using a robust application that uses Cernium analytics for location-based risk assessment that triggers local announcements in the vicinity of high-shrink products. Further, with sophisticated time-based analysis, it then escalates the risk profile and engages a live intervention from a protection specialist," May told Security Systems News. "They then assess and respond to a protocol based in the actual risk. This is a best case model leveraging intelligent video coupled with a loss-prevention certified specialist that responds and reduces the customer's potential shrink losses."

Mark Mellor, Family Dollar director of loss prevention, corporate campus and supply chain organization, said the company previously “had a standard DVR format in place before, but nothing interactive, and when we were looking to expand our loss prevention program, it was a natural fit to go with [Iverify]. They were the best in class and offered the suite of tools we were looking for to move our shrink reduction plan forward and to improve team member and customer safety."

According to May, Iverify will provide its "I Guard" and "I Control" products, delivering projected savings of $62.5–$70 million. The suite of services will reduce guard costs, lower losses from theft, and improve employee safety, according to May.

"We think we have developed an effective forward-leaning service that drives value and safety to the point of protection," May said.

Michael Barnes, a partner in the consulting and advisory firm Barnes Associates, which specializes in the security alarm industry, and co-sponsors the Barnes Buchanan Conference, said in a prepared statement, "Mike May has built a sophisticated team of loss prevention professionals that remotely deliver security services at a very low cost. They have driven robbery and shrink rates down by over 50 percent at a number of national retailers."

Mellor said each Iverify deployment was individually tailored to the specific location and that there would be ongoing opportunities to do more Iverify deployments throughout the chain's nearly 7,000 locations nationwide.

Iverify's May made headlines in SSN a year ago when he was on site doing a risk assessment for a client, a large, urban retail store in Detroit. While he was there a gang of youths attacked, and brutally beat a lone individual. May's quick action—prompted by 10 years of law enforcement and EMT experience—very likely saved the victim's life.