New Blog Location with New Posts

I know this blog is young, but in its short life we have picked up a number of fans. Have no fear! I did not desert you. Instead, we at Agilence have decided to consolidate our multiple blogs into one (and actually added a new and exciting blog/RSS at the same time!)

So, from this point forward, you can follow this blog, along with Pedro Ramos' blog at ReThinkLP

And, is that isn't the coolest thing, this is! We are in the process of launching a new blog that is a weekly list of some of the shrink activities that our customers have found using Agilence software! We did our first post a couple weeks ago, but I am preparing to go back 8 weeks and post 3-10 items per week!!!

You can find this at: Weekly Shrink Activities

Hope you enjoy it and I will see you over there!!!

Workplace Fraud on the Rise

The video below is not all about retail fraud, but a lot of the conversation discusses it.  According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, workplace theft is approaching $1 trillion dollars and rising.

Best Practices for Shrink Management

Agilence will be hosting their first webcast today at 1pm ET, titles “Best Practices for Shrink Management”.  This presentation focuses on Pedro Ramos’ experience as the VP of Loss Prevention at his prior employer and discusses the plan he implemented that reduced shrink by over 30% chain wide.  His former employer, Pathmark, was recognized for having leading shrink numbers in the industry.

Interested in attending this webcast?  Register Now!

Pedro’s Blog

My esteemed colleague, Pedro Ramos, a 23-year veteran of the LP space is now blogging and tweeting.  Check him out:

rethinkLP – Pedro Ramos Blog

Pedro’s Twitter Feed

Microsoft Recognizes Agilence

Agilence was the subject of a recent blog post by Rodney Bowen-Wright at Microsoft.  Rodney is a director of business development and a part of the emerging business team.  Rodney does a great job of summarizing Agilence and our core technology.

Agilence is currently built using all Microsoft technologies including:  Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft .NET Framework, MSMQ and Microsoft web services.  Agilence is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

The blog post is worth a read! 

The Role of the LP Executive is Changing

That is the title of an article in Security Director News on Wednesday.  The article was based on a speech by Paul Jones, VP of Asset Protection for the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), at a Milestone Symposium in Las Vegas.

The article is quite short, but I thought this paragraph was important: 

Why? Budgets and staffing levels are being reduced yet shoplifting, employee theft and organized retail crime are problems that continue to proliferate retailers worldwide. These days, LP executives are being asked to not only control shrink but develop executive protection, brand protection and crisis management plans in addition to shrink reduction and control programs.

That is a pretty good summary of the role of Loss Prevention in any retail environment.  Its no different than any other role in any other company.  As organizations reduce staff, those that remain have to pick up the slack.  The problem for LP is that their job of controlling shrink is getting harder every day.  Just because people are buying less doesn’t mean they are stealing less too.

In fact, its the inverse that is true.  As sales go down, shrink goes up in a recession.

Social Media in Loss Prevention

One of the outcomes of the FMI LP show was that the folks there need to be able to search across multiple social networking sites to find not only people, but instances where their companies show up.

So, I have done a little searching and it looks like Yahoo is looking into this as well.  In fact, I am pretty sure the next big internet start-up will be searching social networks.  (If I had the money, I would start this right now!!!)

Anyway, here are a couple of sites that might help the folks in Loss Prevention do their jobs more effectively.

• Wink.com – Wink lets you search across multiple social networking sites and also includes background checks.  I quick search of my full name revealed 5 results including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Delver.com – Another interesting site that is more for social networking users.  You put in your name and it finds you across multiple social networking sites and creates a sort of family tree of your friends.  This could be beneficial for finding accomplices.
• imvivo.com – This one looks to be very promising.  Entering my name returned over 57 records.  These included:  press releases were I was quoted or mentioned, my blog, eSnips, Amazon.com profile, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook, other blogs where I was quoted, even a comment I posted on an article at Forbes Magazine.  Even more impressive, it seemed to figure out that I go by RODSTAR (see my twitter) and found only those profile names that were mine.  So, it found me on www.delvalreefclub.org as an example.  It found a printed article that I was interviewed in that appeared in Government Computer News and it found the wedding registry from my wife and I (5 years ago).

I’m Vivo wins for now.  But, they get a few errors here and there on the site and a search for “Big Y” (as in the grocer) came up with everything from Big Brother to the Big 3 automakers.  It will pull results from inside PDF files which is cool.

But, the one that may win out is the one used by PR firms.  It is Radian6.  I just signed up for a demo myself.  So, I will report back at another time.  But essentially, Radian6 will find out who is talking about your brand!  And, though it is a paid service, it might be a good one for not only LP folks, but your marketers and advertisers as well.