Card Factory has more than 900 stores in the UK and Ireland. The greetings card retailer handles most of its work in-house. This self-sufficient business model was something Head of Loss Prevention, David Pardoe was keen to replicate for installation of IP CCTV systems. To do this would require new skills; due diligence led to training company Tavcom.
Pardoe says: “I was immediately impressed with Tavcom. A key selling point for me is their absolute focus on providing the best possible training, without the distraction or bias of trying to sell kit or add-ons. The Practical CCTV Installation course provided us with a quality and well recognised nationwide qualification that would give us all we would need to install and fault-fix our CCTV systems with confidence.”
Practical CCTV Installation is a five-day classroom-based course, teaching how to install and configure high definition analogue (AHD, HDCVI and HDTVI) and IP video surveillance systems, including digital recording. Since the course the Card Factory engineer responsible for security installations has completed 65 full overt and 15 to 20 covert in-store deployments, using Hikvision products. These deployments range from four to 13 cameras including awareness monitors, depending on size and layout of the store. Pardoe says: “We know we will get a bespoke expert installation at every store, that takes in to account all the variables that can influence performance such as broadband bandwidth provision.” The company has had compliments from the police for the quality of CCTV that the retailer is able to share.
Pardoe says: “Tavcom has without a shadow of doubt been the right training partner for Card Factory and the return-on-investment has been significant. The cost to equip a store with a new security system has reduced to approximately one third, using the same specification of kit, representing a six-figure saving last year alone.” The next step for the card retailer is for more employees to take Tavcom’s Practical CCTV Installation course, as well as its Covert CCTV course (also a BTEC level three certificate).The retailer plans to enrol employees on the CTSP Register (Certified Technical Security Professional) set up last year.
