Goodwill North Carolina Standardizes on Brivo® ACS
Eastern NC organization improves productivity while increasing security
Bethesda, MD, February 18, 2009 – Brivo Systems, LLC, the leader in Web applications for access control and security systems, today announced that Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina has standardized on Brivo ACS WebService™ for their 29 retail program centers. ASG Security introduced the Brivo system to Goodwill and oversaw the extensive system installation program.
“Before Brivo, we had a standard lock and key system,” said Charles Bailey, Director of Human Resources, Safety, and Security. “Each manager had to manually open the store and then turn off the alarm. The problem was we didn’t know who had entered a store and we would have to do a lot research to answer some pretty simple questions on access.”
The employee entrance doors at all 29 retail centers are monitored by the Brivo system. Fifty-eight Store Managers, six Area Managers and select senior staff have key fob access to the stores. Seven days a week, each morning when a Store Manager opens a retail center an email alert is sent to the relevant Area Manager and then to the Area Managers’ boss, the Director of Donated Goods.
“The great part about it,” commented Bailey, “is 9:00 comes around and we know the status of every one of our stores. If an Area Manager sees one of his or her stores isn’t open, they’re on the phone solving the problem. We’re spread out over half of the state; I can’t have an Area Manager in every location. The Brivo system gives us the accurate, instantaneous information we need. About a month ago, we had a big snowstorm here. On that day, we could sit and monitor the emails coming in to know that all our stores opened on time, we didn’t have employees sitting in the parking lot waiting for a manager, and our customers were being served.”
Goodwill also utilizes their Brivo system to monitor cleaning operations. Cleaning staff for all 29 locations have access cards and upon entering, usually after hours, an email alert is sent to the relevant Area Manager and the Director of Building Services. Not only can the Area Manager confirm that their stores are being cleaned, the Director of Building Services can analyze access control data when paying cleaning service invoices.
“This was a pretty big decision for us,” continued Bailey. “ASG introduced us to the Brivo technology through a live demonstration online with Brivo Inside Sales staff. They showed me how easy the alerts process was, it was awesome.” After all the stores have been installed, Bailey continues to be impressed, “We’re too large and too spread out, we needed a tool to empower us to know what is going on at all times. Brivo is as simple as it gets. None of us have time to waste and now the information we need is right at our fingertips.”
Bailey and staff also use the Brivo system for security investigations. “If a high value item comes into the store and then disappears, the Brivo system tells me who has entered the store during the period of interest. That’s very helpful.”
Goodwill of Eastern North Carolina also shifts managers around or uses one manager to temporarily cover another store or territory. “We used to have three different security systems; it was a mess,” Bailey recalled. “Now with the press of a few keys I can add or delete access throughout the network of stores, plus our managers don’t have to learn a new system—those are big benefits.”
As Goodwill continues to expand in eastern North Carolina, Brivo will expand with them into each new location. “The Brivo system has enabled our staff to manage the stores remotely and manage them better. We’ve saved a lot of time at the senior level, we have more accurate information, and we’re providing better customer service.”
For more information on the Brivo Online Access Control System, contact Brivo toll–free at 1-866-692-7486, option 1 or email sales@brivo.com. To view a demo, visit www.brivo.com/demo.
About Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina
For more than four decades, Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc. has been a leader in an era of change, providing jobs and job training to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities and disadvantaging circumstances. Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina is one of 182 autonomous Goodwill organizations in North America and 48 associate Goodwill organizations in 34 foreign countries.
About Brivo Systems
Brivo Systems, LLC, is an online physical access control system provider for organizations that need to protect and remotely monitor buildings and perimeter entry points using Internet and wireless technologies. The company’s hardware products and software services enable businesses to control physical access to offices, warehouses, remote/unmanned buildings, or sensitive areas such as computer rooms, where real-time control and accountability of entry are important. The company's Web-hosted solutions are based on open technologies that connect dispersed facilities to the Internet using secure, wide-area communications.
Brivo is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Duchossois Group.
About the Duchossois Group
The Duchossois Group is a privately held holding company, headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois, which owns AMX, The Chamberlain Group and Milestone AV Technologies. Duchossois also holds strategic interests in Churchill Downs, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHDN), and a number of other diversified businesses.
For more information about Brivo or the Brivo Access Control System, contact Brivo toll-free at 1-866-692-7486, option 1 or by email at sales@brivo.com.
