Biometrics has long been associated with generously budgeted projects and securing highly
sensitive areas. However, the advantages of biometrics in authorizing and tracking large client
data bases has shifted this technology from upscale to low-end applications.
Biometrics has long been associated with generously budgeted projects and securing highly sensitive areas. However, the advantages of biometrics in authorizing and tracking large client data bases has shifted this technology from upscale to low-end applications.
Speeding Up Vishvas Foundation's Registration Process
Bayometric's biometric technology has helped Vishvas Foundation, a nonprofit organization, improve its registration process leading to cost savings and better customer service. Vishvas Foundation is an international umbrella organization with more than 36 schools and colleges and manages free schools, orphan homes, women's workforce development centers, computer centers, medical foundations, eye foundations and hospitals in India.
The foundation conducts seminars in deep rural areas of the country. However, with thousands attending the course daily, it became increasingly difficult to keep tab on the visitors using manual forms. This often led to duplication of data causing delays and wastage of time and money.
Bayometric's fingerprint-based visitor registration solution, which runs on VB6 and SQL server, has helped improve the registration process by providing quicker identification of the attendees. All data is centralized on a secure server, and automated handheld devices with identification modules are used. All data is updated in real time.
According to the foundation, Bayometric's technology is compatible with most scanners available on the market, thus making it a cost-effective solution. The foundation has high hopes for the visitor attendance application since savings on resources can already be seen since incorporating the biometric visitor registration solution.
Management Solution for New Jers ey Department of Hum an Serv ices
A biometrically enabled homeless services management system was built for New Jersey Bergen County's brand new Housing, Health and Human Services Center to provide more accurate identification of homeless individuals who are seeking and receiving services from the county and feed more detailed data to the larger New Jersey state database, a repository of homeless population information that helps serve the community through food, clothing and housing programs.
By providing more accurate identification and eliminating duplicate records, the county is able to better support funding requests and grant applications, further enhancing services provided to the homeless community.
The county required a solution that would take advantage of the existing New Jersey Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) while providing more accurate reporting about the true number of individuals for whom the county was providing services. Using finger image scanners from Futronic Technology and a fingerprint matching algorithm from Neurotechnology, Fulcrum used the framework to develop a Web-based application which communicates via Fulcrum's proprietary services interface to start tagging biometrics collected from the various DHS service sites.
All the data is then merged into singular records that resolve back to individual identities inside the HMIS. The end result of the solution is an unduplicated count of persons served by the various programs — data that is difficult to obtain without a unique identification, yet which is invaluable for counties in requesting grants and funding from various state and federal agencies.
Although the new biometric system for Bergen County is currently based on finger scans, it has the option to become multifactor through the flexibility inherent in the Fulcrum framework. A series of Web-based controls and services allow the framework to expand and adapt as system requirements change and to provide secure, rapid deployment of Web-enabled solutions.
Microbanking Deployment In India
Gemalto introduced smart-card technology with biometric authentication for Financial Information Network & Operations (FINO) in India. The Gemalto solution securely stores transaction records inside the smart card to enable microbanking and simplifies access to financial services for the rural population of India. Currently, an estimated 500 million people in the rural areas are either not served or are underserved by the finance sector (according to the paper “A blueprint for the delivery of comprehensive financial service to the poor in India”).
Each FINO card developed by Gemalto can hold up to 15 different types of secure applications that facilitate financial services such as deposit remittances, savings, loans, insurance and e-purses.
In addition, the card acts as an electronic statement to log all transactions with the ability to store the last 150 transactions, with up to 10 transactions per service. Transactions are validated using biometric authentication, which provides one of the highest degrees of digital security available today. Transactions are approved after fingerprint information is read using low-cost readers and then verified by the card microcomputer at business correspondents' facilities and at selected retail outlets and partner premises.
“One of the biggest challenges in the microbanking industry is the huge amount of paperwork and human effort traditionally involved in supporting microtransactions and credit-scoring potential customers,” said Manish Khera, CEO of FINO. “High costs coupled with low returns did not make microfinance viable beyond a certain threshold, thus hampering growth.”
Digital security is usually associated with developed markets, added Dr. Martin McCourt, President of South Asia for Gemalto. “This FINO deployment is an example of how smart-card technology can be used to bring banking services to the world's unbanked, helping them to help themselves.”