Security cameras have come a long way in the past few years.  New cameras can be completely wireless, provide HD footage or better, switch to other visibility modes like low-light and infrared, and swivel around by remote control.  New cameras also use IP signals, which means they’re compatible with a basic wireless network and can send their footage to remote cloud servers for storage.  At the same time, costs have come down so that most homes and businesses in , can afford a set of security cameras with minimal installation costs.

One exciting new feature is remote monitoring.  Remote monitoring means that you can access your camera feeds using a secure app on your smartphone no matter where on the planet you happen to be.  Whether you’re in your office, out on a business trip, or off on vacation, you can keep an eye on your company and see what happens when you aren’t out in the store or watching the main room in person.  Remote monitoring can cost a bit more than a basic camera installation, but it comes with several benefits.

Employee Monitoring

The way an employee behaves can be very different depending on if they think someone’s watching or not.  They might become rude to customers, slack off when there’s work to do, steal company property, harass other employees, and cause all kinds of other issues.  Remote monitoring can help you identify these problem workers and give you an idea of what to do about them.  Also, employees are more likely to behave themselves when they know a supervisor may be watching them at any time.

Instant Alerts

Your remote monitoring app can integrate with your security alarm system to send you alerts when your alarm goes off.  This lets you see exactly what’s happening through your live feeds the moment you get the alert.  You can also get motion-detecting cameras that only start recording when they sense something moving in front of them, and these can also alert your phone so you can find out who’s entering a restricted area and watch what they do.

Liability Investigation

Many people in , like to sue companies to get a big liability settlement.  Sometimes they have a solid case for negligence, but other times they don’t.  With remote monitoring, you can pull up the relevant feed, go back to when the incident happened, and see for yourself who did what and when.  Having this information can protect you from false liability suits and let you settle other incidents immediately without needing to go to court.

Remote monitoring adds a layer of convenience and access to your surveillance system, and it lets business owners and other authorized workers see the security feeds even when they aren’t in the room with the monitor and recording device.  That means management can react much faster when an alert goes out and they have more opportunities to monitor employees when they aren’t around in person.  So when you upgrade or install a surveillance system in your , building, be sure to ask your security company about remote monitoring.