You Can't Sell Biometrics, Can You?

Pete Townshend of the legendary rock group The Who should take note of the changes occurring in the biometrics market. After all, his band's song "Who Are You" is a natural for an ad campaign for any company in this vertical. (I know Gateway Computers already uses the song in their commercials, but hey, Pete could probably use the money right now!) And although five years ago a TV ad for a biometrics company may have seemed unrealistic, today it probably wouldn't surprise any of us. Why? "The frequent press coverage of biometrics has helped build awareness and acceptance of the technology," stated Peter DiMaria, founder of Accu-Time Systems (ATS), a manufacturer of biometric data collection terminals. "Biometrics is an ideal way of preventing identity theft, and because of that, more companies are embracing the technology."

DiMaria isn't the only one predicting a growth spurt for biometrics. Research from Frost & Sullivan (San Jose, CA) indicates the world silicon chip fingerprint market will experience growth through 2006 with revenue rising from $5.1 million in 2001 to $424.6 million in 2006. Of course, fingerprint recognition is only one type of biometrics. However, production volume and competition is increasing for all types of biometrics, which is good news for VARs who have been trying to sell this technology.

"Increased volumes will lower the cost of biometrics, which will lead to this technology being added to more [time and attendance and access control] terminals," explained Haddon MacLean, president of time and attendance systems vendor Synel Industries (Toronto). "Biometrics will become easier to sell and integrate for VARs."

Time And Attendance Still Rules
Time and attendance terminals are probably the most common biometrics-related equipment VARs sell. The sales pitch for this type of hardware has always focused on the advantages of eliminating buddy punching, the cost of ID cards, and passwords. Not much has changed, really. Any customer would be hard-pressed to refute such advantages, especially with the price of biometrics dropping, too. Yet, not everyone welcomes a biometrics solution. For example, four years ago, when the Philadelphia school system decided to install ATS biometric time clocks, many educators cried out about privacy issues and the district's perceived lack of trust toward its employees. Certainly any VAR with an ounce of biometrics know-how can tell you the whole privacy and fear of "Big Brother" argument is pure hogwash. These devices don't use the same fingerprint technology the FBI uses to track criminals. The other concern voiced by the school district's employees (and maybe some of your customers) was regarding the possibility of being exposed to sickness and disease by touching the devices. The city's health department quickly quashed that concern. In the end, an ATS VAR installed 284 biometric time clocks in 268 schools within the district and at four administrative buildings. All are still in use today.

Sell Security, Not Just Access Control
Access control is another application for biometrics that has existed for years, but has only been implemented at large companies due - again - to the high cost of the technology. Today, companies of all sizes want to restrict access to their facilities, and they want to know who is on-site at any moment. Biometrics is the only way to guarantee both conditions are accomplished. In fact, DiMaria said VARs should sell the fact that biometrics offers both physical and intellectual security. "Physical security protects tangible assets like valuables and even people, while intellectual security protects data and programs stored on networks," he explained. "A customer will feel safer knowing that anyone can't just waltz into their place of business."

Know Your Types Of Biometric Authentication
When selling biometric access control technology, VARs should know the difference between one-to-one and one-to-many authentication systems. One-to-one authentication compares a password or PIN with an encrypted biometric template. One-to-many identification compares a live biometric (e.g. fingerprint) with a database containing many stored biometric images. "One-to-many systems work best, for now, in companies with 500 or fewer employees," DiMaria said. "If the terminal has to search a database of more than 500 names, the few seconds of processing delay could be annoying to users."

MacLean said the main advantage of one-to-many systems is the elimination of badges and passwords, which decreases the amount of time spent at a terminal. "One-to-many systems require more memory [than one-to-one systems] and will increase in popularity as memory management and response times improve," he said. "With the increased sophistication and functionality of today's terminals, it is easier to include secure access control with a time and attendance system. This functionality allows VARs to use access control as a value-add for customers' time and attendance, human resources, and payroll applications."

Biometrics is one of those technologies touted for years as "the next big thing," but has only offered sporadic sales for VARs. In light of the aforementioned changes in the technology, maybe Townshend should try hawking the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" for some biometrics ad campaign.