Our identities are our keys to the world. Whether you’re joining a gym or boarding an international flight, almost everywhere we go requires some form of identity verification. In many cases, however, the check-in process is extremely antiquated, relying on painstaking paperwork and meticulous manual effort at every step of the process.
Think about the last time you checked into a doctor’s office or visited the DMV. Proving that you are who you say you are likely consisted of filling out a form, handing over your ID, and waiting around for a worker to visually validate your info.
With pain points like wasted time to security issues to unreliable or inconvenient data storage, the current identity verification paradigm has long been ripe for disruption. Thanks to recent evolutions in scanned ID and cloud computing technology, however, organizations of all kinds are beginning to revolutionize their approach to this process— and it’s needed now more than ever.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the simple act of shuffling paperwork around is a borderline safety hazard, and industry leaders are being forced to rethink everything about how they operate. Fortunately, this innovative group of technologies has begun to gain significant traction, and there are numerous examples of organizations using them successfully in the field.
Magic City Casino
When it comes to gambling and gaming, identity plays an especially central role. Whether you’re joining a member’s club or verifying your age, casino-goers are typically required to validate their identity in order to enjoy the full range of entertainment experiences. Magic City Casino, a Las Vegas-style gambling venue based out of Miami, is intimately familiar with all of these identification processes— but they certainly haven’t always had it easy. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, placed enormous pressure on the casino’s typical identity verification routine, requiring the venue to consider major changes in order to keep things running smoothly.
Near the beginning of 2020, Magic City’s identity-checking process was largely manual and labor-intensive, particularly when it came to verifying whether guests had previously visited their gaming facility. As COVID-19 conditions worsened, however, new healthcare guidelines and restrictions forced the casino to rethink their approach— and fast! Partnering with OCR Solutions, Magic City opted to implement a modernized, digital ID scanning setup, complete with a robust, cloud-based data management system.
With this new verification architecture, Magic City was able to quickly and safely begin using scanned IDs for 100 percent of their visitors, populating waivers and identifying repeat customers with unparalleled ease and security.
Even better, the customizable database offered by OCR Solutions proved to be incredibly versatile, and in the following weeks, Magic City decided to expand their partnership by extending this system to various other areas of their business.
All in all, thanks to the quick turnaround and high-quality customer service from OCR, Magic City was able to rapidly and effectively implement these new processes, keeping their customers safe and satisfied.
NightKey
With large crowds, comes complexity— a fact that the hospitality industry understands all too well. Millions of travelers and tourists circulate the globe on a daily basis, toting identity documents of all sorts, from passports to proof-of-age cards. NightKey, a premium identity management platform used throughout Australia, offers a line of hardware terminals used for verifying these documents.
Although the platform was originally utilized primarily by nightclubs looking to monitor patrons and troublemakers, the COVID-19 pandemic has led them to shift their focus to the hospitality industry. By helping hotels and hostels, like Youthshack, perform contact tracing amongst their clientele, NightKey sought to provide the essential software infrastructure for this critical healthcare necessity. Amid an evolving identification landscape, however, NightKey initially faced a number of challenging technical obstacles.
One of the biggest issues NightKey first encountered was the level of variation in the format and structure of these documents. Having originally developed their proprietary line of hardware terminals about 15 years ago, their systems relied heavily on legacy ID-scanning algorithms, which extracted identity data based on the visual “template” of the document itself. This made the platform rather inflexible, as with each new form of ID NightKey encountered, their algorithms required extensive restructuring and redevelopment.
Seeking to streamline their platform for this new age of identity, NightKey approached OCR Solutions, recognizing their unique, software-first approach to scanned IDs and management. Rather than fixating on hardware-based solutions for analyzing the format of common ID templates, OCR focused on emphasizing a flexible software suite, allowing the platform to accurately capture data from dozens of different document types.
Between improving accuracy, increasing speed, and reducing the need to constantly upgrade their platform, NightKey’s new-and-improved offering helped cement their position as one of Australia’s leading identity management platforms, all thanks to the customizability and flexibility of OCR Solutions software.
How to Utilize Scanned ID and Cloud Technology
The implementation process for an advanced, cloud-based identity technology can be highly configurable, but details depend on the use case. It begins with understanding the kinds of documents you’ll likely encounter when in the field, then customizing your hardware and software selections for compatibility with these formats. Fortunately, industry experts like OCR Solutions, have deep experience in both of these domains, boasting cutting-edge capabilities that accelerate and streamline every aspect of identity capture and verification.
With a powerful, proprietary Optical Character Recognition engine, built from the ground up, to incorporate a high degree of customizability and flexibility— OCR’s industry-leading CaptureMax software can be modified to read dozens of distinct document types.
CaptureMax has attained unparalleled performance, scanning large volumes of IDs as much as 10 times faster than any other system on the market. Although this configuration process can be complex, by partnering with OCR’s subject matter experts, organizations can dramatically reduce the turnaround time, making the process far easier for you and your team.
When it comes to meeting complex identity needs in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, you’ll need a partner you can rely on. If you’re ready to take on the most important transformation in your organization’s lifetime, reach out to OCR Solutions.
