El Pollo Loco sought a solution that would allow them to better manage risk, mitigate employee theft, and eventually impact other aspects of operations. In 2010, they turned to Envysion® for a video-based business intelligence solution that eventually extended to over 100 of their restaurants across the United States.
Visibility into all Restaurants
The Envysion® solution includes about a dozen cameras in each restaurant, capturing video from nearly every area, including registers, drive-thru, offices, and prep areas. The restaurant chain can access the video via any web-enabled device from almost anywhere in the world.
“The ability for area leaders to log on and remotely manage their store from anywhere—even from their home—is huge. Not only do they have instant access to stores, but they save the time and expense of having to actually travel to those stores in person,” says Heidi Bastien, Senior Director of Risk Management at El Pollo Loco.
Insight into Suspicious Transactions
The Envysion® solution also integrates with point of sale (POS) data, creating exception reports that alert El Pollo Loco to possible theft or fraud, and allowing the restaurant chain to see video side-by-side with receipts to ensure that transactions are legitimate.
“Envysion’s exception reporting allows me to set up alerts for suspicious activity, like a series of small transactions that occur throughout an employee’s shift,” says Monika Shah, Internal Audit Analyst and Restaurant Auditor for El Pollo Loco. “We can then go back, pull all of that footage, and see exactly what’s happening.”
Extending beyond Loss Prevention
While El Pollo Loco initially focused on risk management and threat mitigation, they can see the potential of using Envysion® for more than loss prevention. WIth the power of operational audits to gain insight into process efficiency, and workforce optimization, and customer experience, the sky is the limit.