AWS Kinesis Video Streams can unlock the business intelligence in your raw video feeds
Businesses have used video for decades, primarily for loss prevention and security. However, if that’s all you’re using it for, you’re missing out. Your live video feeds can be one of your most valuable resources for business analytics data in areas like customer traffic, production flow, warehousing, and fulfillment optimization.
These technologies may sound expensive, complicated, and beyond the reach of any company outside the Fortune 500. Indeed, that was the case not so long ago. But today’s cloud-based applications put these capabilities well within reach of small and medium-sized businesses. Services like Amazon Kinesis Video Streams make it easy to stream video output from security cameras, internet of things (IoT) devices like Amazon’s Ring doorbells, and from virtually any internet-connected device that incorporates a camera.
With the real-time streaming data analysis capacity of Amazon Kinesis, businesses can actualize the analytics opportunities that were trapped in the incomprehensible lakes of untapped video data generated by video devices. The cameras already in use at your locations can produce actionable intelligence that you can use to make your operations more productive, organized, and – in the end – more profitable.
Customer tracking goes well beyond catching shoplifters
Big box stores are filled with cameras that track shoppers as they make their way down the aisles, looking for patterns of activity that have strong correlations with theft. Those customers are flagged, and the systems then follow them until they leave the store and sometimes even into the surrounding parking area. But that’s not all these systems can do.
A much more extensive application of these same technologies can be used to analyze customer shopping patterns. The video cameras installed for loss prevention can also collect data on shopper browsing behavior versus what they actually buy.
This data can be used to improve factors like display placement, for example. What products should be placed at the entrance of the store? What sells best when placed at aisle endcaps facing registers? Which in-demand items need to be replenished on the sales floor – and when – to maximize sales?
And it’s not just suitable for stores. What if car dealerships could determine the perfect time to approach a would-be car buyer? Through advanced AI and machine learning, car lot security camera footage can be analyzed against customer sentiment algorithms that allow dealerships to determine when a car browser is ready to make a serious inquiry.
Real-time video data analysis can provide brick and mortar retailers with the same kind of detailed analytics that e-commerce retailers in the online world take for granted.
Reveal the pain points in production facilities and distribution centers
Another ideal application for real-time video streaming data analysis is to streamline production and distribution centers and fulfillment facilities.
Pattern analysis of an ongoing production process can pinpoint issues such as the bottlenecks caused when a prescribed process doesn’t work quite as well in the real world as it did in planning. On the flipside, pattern analysis can spot innovation when assembly workers’ ad hoc methods turn out to be better than what the industrial engineers came up with.
Does your assembly line lose an excessive amount of one specific component due to damage during assembly? Pattern analysis can determine if faulty assembly or handling procedures may be the cause.
Distribution and fulfillment centers – in fact, any warehousing operation – can benefit significantly from video analytics-enabled traffic and pattern analysis. Traffic flow patterns can be evaluated, allowing changes to be made that will avoid disruptions and hazards that could result in injuries and lost inventory.
The loading dock is also a prime area for the application of these technologies, where procedures can be analyzed in real-world conditions and adjustments made to increase things like loading and unloading efficiency and decrease truck and driver dwell time.
Let CloudHesive show you how every aspect of your business can benefit from the cloud
It’s not just your IT department and customer service and sales force that can reap the rewards of the cloud revolution. The benefits of advanced cloud-based AI and machine learning capabilities have nearly unlimited applications when it comes to solving the most complex business problems. All with the no up-front costs and pay-as-you-go flexibility that makes AWS cloud services so cost-effective.
CloudHesive can help you make it happen. Learn more by getting in touch with CloudHesive at 1-800-860-2040 or through our online contact form.
