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Intrusion Detection: NAVCO Security Helps Dutch Bros Coffee Streamline Security

Dutch Bros Coffee was founded by two brothers in 1992 as a pushcart, selling coffee in Grants Pass, Ore. Today, Dutch Bros Coffee is a high-growth operator and franchisor of drive-through “stands” that offer cold and hot beverages at more than 640 locations in 14 states.

Prior to working with NAVCO, Dutch Bros Coffee relied on their onsite teams to identify problems with their security systems and equipment malfunctions, as well as to call in a technician to address them. As a result, issues were sometimes left unnoticed or unaddressed for extended periods, creating the potential for losses and liability issues.

“We were also dealing with our camera systems going down and becoming disconnected due to system-network issues or needed camera updates,” Jason Schmidt of Dutch Bros says. “This was leaving our stores and people open to risk and leaving us with no way to monitor or see what was happening at our locations when we need to.”

Schmidt and the Dutch Bros Coffee team reached out to NAVCO several years ago for assistance in designing a solution to help with securing their locations, employees and valued customers. The plan was to use the cloud products of DMP and OpenEye, as well as to hire and develop a dedicated NAVCO remote-services department in Dallas to help the whole country.

Schmidt and the Dutch Bros team chose the DMP Virtual Keypad solution as a cloud-managed access and alarm application so they could easily manage access and codes for employees across the country.

Traditional motion sensors were included to backup door contacts and any other possible entry points, along with glass-break sensors help deter and prevent unwanted access into the building. Moreover, a panic button was included to quickly request help in a distress situation.

Incorporating the OpenEye cloud-managed video system gave Dutch Bros views of all points of interest with known issues in and around the location. This total solution provides coverage of the point-of-sale locations, the safe, the exterior doors and the drive-thru.

The goal was to have enough high-quality video to provide actionable evidence in case of a crime and to protect against any legal action, while also allowing easy remote monitoring and management of the system.

The new process of remotely assigning new-employee credentials for both the DMP and OpenEye cloud-based systems helped save time and money. It also allowed law enforcement to speed up their investigation process.

Having NAVCO’s remote-services team in Dallas allowed Dutch Bros to outsource the bulk of the remote-management work to NAVCO, while still being completely in control of their locations.

Because of the capabilities of both the DMP and OpenEye technologies, NAVCO can complete firmware updates for and reboots to the deployed Dutch Bros systems without dispatching a service technician. This shortens downtime to as little as five minutes.

If a technician does need to be dispatched, it is now an “intelligent” truck roll because the problem has been verified. The technicians who are dispatched are prepared with the parts needed to resolve the issue, often on the first visit.

“Now, we’re able to remotely solve many issues without needing a technician to set foot onsite,” Schmidt says. “Our percentage of truck rolls has gone down drastically, which has helped reduce costs.”