At the car dealership Mercedes-Benz South West, a legacy CCTV system was starting to show its age. Finding the right footage when required, and maintenance, were complex.
And while the business has been growing, four dealerships in Exeter, Plymouth, Truro, and Taunton, the CCTV struggled to scale with it. With grainy footage from their PTZ analogue cameras, especially at night, the dealership and the outside remote monitoring service struggled to monitor activity or review incidents. William Ross, Group IT Manager, says: “It was a constant battle. For a car dealership, that’s a real problem. Our stock is high value, and we need to be able to investigate incidents quickly, whether a car is accidentally damaged on the forecourt or if someone tries to gain unauthorised access.”
Multi-site business
Weak passwords and unclear user permissions made access to their CCTV system difficult to manage and meant avoidable cyber risks. Retrieving footage from the on-premise digital recorders was a slow, manual process. Staff might have to scroll through hours of low-resolution video to locate a single event. Being a multi-site business amplified these inefficiencies. The dealership turned to Richard Flenley, Sales Manager at AlertSystems, an integrator partner of SEiNG Cloud CCTV. Richard says: “For sites like Mercedes-Benz South West, cloud just makes sense. They needed flexibility, stronger security, and an easier way to manage multiple locations. As an integrator, it’s invaluable to have a cloud offering for when customers need a solution that removes complexity and keeps everything centralised.” SEiNG is a managed Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) platform that’s designed to work with any ONVIF-compliant camera. This means customers are not locked into a proprietary system; instead, they can harness features like AI analytics, remote monitoring and smart filters – even with the cameras they already have.
“From an integrator’s perspective, a cloud platform that works with our choice of camera means we can recommend what genuinely suits the customer. With SEiNG, we’re not locked into a single ecosystem – we can use the right cameras for the job and still deliver all the benefits of a managed Cloud platform.”
Phil Davies, Director of SEiNG, adds: “Our partnership with AlertSystems shows the value of working with a cloud platform that’s flexible and easy to deploy. We’re always looking for integrators who want to offer their customers more – whether that’s better monitoring, smarter analytics, or more support, without being locked into a proprietary system. SEiNG makes that possible.”
In the case of the Mercedes Benz dealership, Richard selected static cameras with infra-red lighting. A plug and play SEiNG gateway box was used to connect these new cameras to the cloud and provide buffering as an added layer of protection against network failure. Being a managed service, SEiNG took care of the onboarding process, training, and monitors the system.
William says: “This took a huge load off our IT team. We didn’t have to worry about configuring accounts or learning a new system from scratch as it was all ready to go from day one.”
And Richard adds: “Offering SEiNG as a fully managed service means we can deliver a hassle-free experience for our customers. It reflects well on us as an integrator because the system is always monitored and maintained, so our clients see immediate value and reliability without us having to intervene.”
Measurable cloud CCTV
Since starting use of SEiNG, Mercedes-Benz South West has seen tangible improvements across security and operations besides. All four dealerships can be monitored from a single dashboard, giving William real-time visibility and streamlined management. He has peace of mind knowing physical security and cybersecurity are covered: end-to-end encryption, granular access controls, two-factor authentication, and single sign-on keep data secure, while integration with a 24/7 monitoring centre and instant alerts ensures staff and premises are always protected.
Staff can locate footage and track incidents through SEiNG’s case management tools, saving hours compared with legacy recorders. The managed service also saves staff time, removing the need for manual software updates, system maintenance, or configuration. William adds: “SEiNG has transformed the way we manage security. Investigations are faster, monitoring is easier, and our teams can focus on what really matters – supporting our customers.”
