Technology: Covering All Angles

An Internet-based security system lets Benihana managers keep tabs on operations-from anywhere.

By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 1/1/2007

Benihana’s Internet-based risk-management system places cameras in areas where POS activity and cash handling occur. They record images and upload them to a Web site that managers and executives can access from any computer. When cameras detect something out of the ordinary, the system generates an exceptions report and notifies the manager by e-mail. The manager can log on to view the images that triggered the report and decide whether the event is worth investigating.

One day not too long ago, the police showed up at a Benihana restaurant. They had apprehended a suspect for passing counterfeit money, and some of that money had been passed at the restaurant. Police asked the restaurant manager for security videotape to help identify and prosecute the counterfeiter. But the restaurant was unable to help because it didn’t have any surveillance technology.

Being unable to help the police was one factor that spurred Miami-based Benihana to install Internet-based risk-management systems at its restaurants. The company installed the first system at its Miramar, Fla., store four months ago; it’s currently in use at 16 locations. The company’s remaining Benihana units, as well as its 11 RA Sushi and seven Haru Sushi restaurants, are scheduled to have the new system by the end of 2007.

Candid Cameras

This is how the system works: Cameras are placed in strategic areas around the restaurant—everywhere from the front door to the cash registers to the back door. The cameras record images and upload them to a Web site that managers and executives can access from any computer.

When the cameras detect something out of the ordinary, say movement at the front door or back door after a certain hour, or activity at the cash register after closing time, it generates an exceptions report. Managers are notified via e-mail; they then log on and view the images that triggered the report. The manager determines whether the event was benign (perhaps caused by a misaligned camera) or worth investigating.

Managers can also make notes, to be read by higher-ranked managers and executives, directly on the video clip. The notes create "cascading documentation that matches with the videos, instead of memos that float up the hierarchy," says Senior Director of Information Technology David Chun.

Most traditional surveillance systems are incident-driven, Chun says. For instance, if someone slips and falls, or if money disappears from the cash register, those incidents provoke managers to go back and review footage. The exceptions reports make the new system proactive, he says.

Internet-based systems "may be very practical, as you can check out your store from anywhere in the world," says Mark Godward, president of Strategic Restaurant Engineering, an operations-engineering foodservice consulting firm based in Miami. However, he adds, they can also be dangerous if hackers are observing a restaurant and decide to make it a target.

"We are fully aware of that concern," Chun responds. All units are firewalled, and all services to units are provided through a private network; moreover, the vendor of the digital video system has completed an Ethical Hack Test.

What Happens in Vegas

Before installing the Internet system, Benihana stores that were equipped with surveillance technology used videotape systems: Images captured via cameras went to videotape, and the tapes were played when needed on VCRs. "As these products became obsolete, we had a hard time finding them," Chun explains.

When Benihana decided to go digital, it first chose a system that specializes in Las Vegas casinos. The system yielded a large amount of detailed video and required a lot of maintenance. Plus, the system’s cameras weren’t designed for the temperature fluctuations and ambience of a commercial kitchen. "Cameras were dying or not meeting specifications," Chun says.

A search yielded another vendor more focused on hospitality. The cameras and equipment are designed to work well given the lighting and temperatures of restaurant kitchens. Plus, the vendor "had proven themselves with a number of chains," Chun says.

Depending on the size of the unit, the number of cameras deployed range from nine to 16. Cameras are placed at strategic points throughout the restaurant, among them the front door, the cash register and refrigerated storage units. "It depends on what objectives you want to achieve," Chun says. Benihana’s primary objectives: POS activity and cash handling.

Big Brother Is Watching

The casino system had another drawback: Employees weren’t aware that the cameras had been installed. That system "hides the cameras and doesn’t give managers access," Chun says. The main users of the videotape system were executives and area managers, who had access to the videos in case of an event such as a workers’ compensation challenge.

With the new system, the cameras are in plain view and managers have access to the images. (Customers are not filmed. Cameras are directed at certain areas of the front of the house but not specific tables.) Indeed, how well managers use the system, for instance, responding to exceptions alerts, figures into their year-end reviews.

Yet another difference: Benihana purchased the equipment for the older systems, but it leases this equipment. That way the vendor handles maintenance issues, according to Chun. Systems with 16 cameras cost $499 per month, with an $849 installation fee. The default system keeps images for 30 days; Benihana uses 90 days, a more expensive option.

Chun says that Benihana is still evaluating the system’s return on investment, but anecdotal evidence shows that lawsuits and workers’ compensation suits are "far lower" at restaurants using the updated technology. Planned tweaks to the system include keeping images for more than 90 days and eliminating some of the parameters that generate exceptions reports.

"We created a lot of exceptions, and it’s becoming cumbersome for the unit manager," Chun says.