Pressed Energizes Digital Transformation with Managed Services from Interface
Blaine LaBron, VP of Digital Commerce and Technology, and Kathleen Rogers, VP of Stores at Pressed talk about how Interface enabled Pressed to delight customers, improve employee safety and productivity, while cutting the cost of retail operations by half.
Pressed, a rapidly expanding cold-pressed juice and plant-based snack chain, has chosen Interface to implement a suite of managed IT services across all its 100+ locations in the US.
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Pressed began in 2010 and has since been expanding rapidly. In order to keep up with the growth in store footprint, Pressed needed a radical overhaul of the IT infrastructure.
- Improved Connectivity: Pressed had a plethora of network vendors and the IT operations were complex due to non-standard network hardware and maintenance processes. Downtime at the stores lasted for days and troubleshooting was cumbersome. These issues negatively impacted sales, employee productivity, and customer experience at the stores.
- Easier PCI Compliance: Securing customer payment data and offering more ways to order dramatically increased the risk of data loss, compliance violations, and privacy breaches. Pressed needed to ramp up its security posture and reduce the effort needed to stay compliant with regulatory standards such as PCI.
- Standard alarms with video verification: Pressed had subscribed to traditional alarm monitoring services and employees had to visit the store even during non-business hours to verify alarm events. Pressed had to also bear the cost of penalties imposed by local law enforcement every time there was a false alarm.
- Store performance analytics: Store performance data was limited to the POS system and accessing videos from the security cameras to review store operations was time-consuming. Pressed needed a better way to access videos from the stores to train employees and improve customer experience.
Pressed chose Interface to first revamp the network infrastructure and improve cybersecurity. Interface upgraded the alarm solution and implemented cloud-based video management and analytics solution to uncover business insights from videos.
Interface first rolled out a comprehensive network and voice solutions across 100+ Pressed locations. The solution comprised a tamper-proof, PCI-compliant network box with in-built router, firewall, Wi-Fi access points, wireless WAN failover, SD-WAN, and VoIP router.
Kathleen Rogers, Vice President of Stores, Pressed
Improved Cybersecurity
Interface took responsibility for ensuring all Pressed locations met the cybersecurity guidelines as defined by the Payment Cards Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
The PCI compliance service offered by Interface included assistance to complete the self-assessment questionnaire wizard (SAQ), validating all tests for compliance using a combination of automated security vulnerability scanning tools and on-demand testing (ASV scans), and training all employees processing customer orders on security practices.
According to LaBron, “Before Interface, staying PCI compliant was challenging as we had too many systems and inconsistent security practices. With Interface, our data security posture is definitely much better and we are fully PCI compliant.”
Video Management System (VMS)
Interface rolled out a cloud-based video management solution that enables store managers and corporate staff to easily access any security camera footage from any connected device.
A simple to use mobile app delivers video recordings from all store locations with searchable content assets that can be securely shared with password-protected links with co-workers or with law enforcement for any investigation.
“Before Interface implemented VMS, it took several days to access video recordings. Now I can quickly find videos, ensure that our employees follow customer service protocols and the store operations are aligned to our standards,” says Rogers.
Video Analytics
Interface implemented a cloud-based video analytics solution that’s designed to uncover critical store operation insights using the security camera footage.
Pressed is using the video analytics solution to gain a variety of real-time insights such as customer footfalls, ordering and service times, staffing requirements, the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns in driving footfalls, and conversion rates.
According to LaBron, “Video analytics allows us to map real-time customer demand patterns to staffing requirements. This helps us to make informed decisions about staffing in our stores to deliver the best customer experience.”
“The Interface video analytics system allows us to actually see the foot traffic outside of our stores and the conversion rate into our stores. This helps us determine if digital signage is effective. Video analytics is proving to be a gamechanger for Pressed,” says Rogers.
Video-Verified Alarms
Interface upgraded the legacy alarm systems and took over ongoing alarm monitoring for all Pressed locations. The upgrade included video verification of alarm events enabled by integrating security cameras with intrusion detection devices.
With video verification of alarms, Interface’s remote monitoring team can view security camera footage at the location where there is an alarm event. They can determine if this is a genuine alarm or a false alarm. In case there is a genuine security breach, Interface’s remote monitoring team informs law enforcement and the designated Pressed employee.
“The video-verified alarm monitoring service has cut down false alarm penalties. Every time an alarm goes off during non-business hours, Interface monitoring centers can verify and dispatch authorities if needed,” says LaBron.
Inspiring the Next Wave of Growth
“We brought on Interface to optimize our costs at a store level and help us accelerate innovation. Interface allows my team to actually focus on customer experience and productivity without having to worry about our network and security operations.”
“Pressed is a growing company. To scale 40+ stores a year, you need partners who can facilitate our growth. By bundling managed services across all facets of store operations, Interface offers us predictable monthly costs and service levels. Most importantly, Interface has helped us uncover valuable business insights to improve our operations and delight our customers,” says LaBron.
“The customer experience with Interface has been fantastic. They’re there for us 24 hours a day, fixing things before we even know there’s an issue and providing support whenever we need it. Pressed is a pretty cool brand and Interface powers a lot of our innovation, “ adds Rogers.
