Soft-drink giant deploys biometrics

Soft-drink giant deploys biometrics

Johannesburg-based Fingerprint Identification Technology (Fingerprint-it)
has announced that it has installed a biometric control and tracking
system for the continent's largest soft-drink company at its main canning
plant in Wadeville, SA.Fingerprint-it chief executive officer Bryan Kimmel
says the soft-drink vendor is now using fingerprint biometric readers and
Fingerprint-it software to track all activity of independent truckers
entering the canning site. Sagem supplied the hardware solution for the
system.The system, he says, manages the entire canning plant and warehouse
and verifies the identity of any third-party trucker entering the site,
tracking their time on the site, what they pick-up, who is responsible,
who verified it and when they left.This produces an "unforgeable",
time-stamped and lasting record of all activity on the site and
effectively reduces the opportunity for illegal access or on-site fraud
and crime to zero, Kimmel notes."In the past, truckers often arrived at
the site with old or forged orders, loaded trucks and left, before anyone
realised that there was a problem," he adds.Kimmel says that Finger-it is
particularly proud of this deal, as the client is an international giant -
the world's leading soft-drink vendor - with the ability to source
technology and solutions from all over the world."What really tickles me
though is that they did, in fact, choose a large international company to
begin with and recently had to throw out the system because it just wasn't
up to the job. This makes me very proud of the products and software we
provide."Fingerprint-it has also, in conjunction with Sagem hardware,
recently installed an access- and time-control system at Crown Mines.
"There is hardly a harsher environment for a biometrics system to operate
in than mining," Kimmel explains.The system that was implemented was
specifically designed for harsh African conditions, such as mining and
manufacturing, which require a robust design, he says.Kimmel predicts that
the biometrics industry will continue to expand in a world where security
keeps climbing higher on the list of priorities and argues that, as far as
security goes, biometrics is the only answer.Biometric solutions can be
used with many applications, including access control, time and
attendance, computer network access, Internet security and criminal
population management. Fingerprint-it is about to release South Africa's
first biometric credit authentication and payment system.

Posted: 7/28/2005 11:05:04 AM

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