Biometrics have seen a wide application in businesses of all types, ranging in function from employee time and location tracking to security enhancement. This technology carries the potential to revolutionize business processes and simplify management efforts.
Biometrics leverage characteristics that are unique to each individual person’s physical body, allowing for far stronger security without the added complications traditional passwords impose on the user experience. Although biometrics as a whole are widely applicable to a variety of use cases, the types chosen should be considered with care before implementation.
Both emerging and established biometrics types can serve your business’s needs. The following varieties leverage different biological traits, yielding strong variations in usability:
- Face Recognition– Facial anatomy or the layout of anatomic structures such as eyes, nose, and lips on a person’s face can be analyzed and interpreted to authenticate their identity. This form of biometrics has been put to use in retail, law enforcement, and more thanks to its relative simplicity and accuracy.
- Voice Recognition– Vocal frequency can also be harnessed as a unique identifier. This authentication method can be applied with success across voice-only channels. Increasingly low false accept rates and false reject rates in this area have steadily improved this option’s applicability across sectors. However, voice recognition is not the most accurate option available.
- Fingerprint Recognition– Fingerprints are tough to forge. This makes them perfect for biometric authentication. ROI is often quickly obtained via fingerprint scanners thanks to their relatively low costs.
- Eye Recognition– Your individual eye patterns are unique and can therefore be scanned with repeatable results. Although this process is proven to work and among the most accurate under ideal conditions, it is more difficult than other options to use. Retina and iris scanning accuracy is contingent on the environment to some degree as light pollution can alter results.
Although the options above have been on the market for a while, there may still be a bit of friction in implementing these within your organization. Estimating and fine-tuning factors such as usability and ROI can be tricky for the uninitiated.
Access to consistent, qualified customer support is crucial for most implementations. This cheat sheet should help you account for all of the variables that play into the use and maintenance of advanced biometrics systems.
Do Your Research
Before you begin planning out your biometrics implementation, you should acquaint yourself with the technology’s capabilities. Do you know which type of biometrics best suits your business objectives? Are you sure the options you have in mind are the most cost-effective to implement in a reasonable amount of time? Answering questions such as these can help you hone in on the ideal option for your company.
Choose Your Biometric Type
Biometric options such as those mentioned above present unique strengths that best accommodate specific use cases. The most widely adopted of these are fingerprint and facial recognition. The latter of these has developed enough in recent years to serve new purposes.
Face recognition is the tip of the iceberg for facial biometrics as the technology is now capable of so much more. Besides merely matching faces to preexisting images in a database, facial recognition can now be employed to detect faces in a given scene and extract information regarding facial attributes as well.
Modern facial recognition technology can actually determine a person’s gender, age, and mood with stunning accuracy. For businesses concerned solely with security enhancement, face recognition is one of the best options to choose. With facial biometrics, purely electronic know your customer (KYC) processes can be leveraged with anti-spoofing measures built into a fully automated solution.
Prep Your Team
Before any new software can be implemented, it is imperative that stakeholders at your company be informed. In fact, all members of your team should be prepared for the paradigm shift that new technology can bring about.
For example, those who will be required to interact directly with biometrics solutions must be onboarded ahead of time to ensure your implementation is successful. Intensive workshops can help bring key team members up to speed with your new system, while also allowing you to address important concerns in a low-pressure environment.
It is especially critical that you address job security concerns among team members as you prepare to roll out new solutions within your organization. Many may fear job loss as a result of procedural optimizations. Explaining how biometrics software improves accuracy and productivity among existing personnel while minimizing the need for additional hires, can help dispel these fears.
Choose the Right Partner
It helps to have a hands-on perspective when working with a new provider. Here are a few important things to consider when it comes to picking the perfect biometrics partner:
- Cultural Alignment– Both your business’s and your partner’s goals must mesh for the relationship to work over the long term. Communication is key to making this happen. Clarity and consistency are integral here. Evolving team goals should be shared with partners at the earliest opportunity. Doing so can help curb misunderstandings and cut down unnecessary costs.
- Relevant Experience– Biometrics solutions can span multiple industries and applications. It is essential that you partner with a biometrics provider that can accommodate the unique needs of your industry. Established companies like OCR Solutions offer purpose-built solutions for different sectors in addition to overarching options designed for wide applicability.
- Scalability– A biometrics solution that does not scale could threaten your organization’s growth over time forcing you to find another solution when the need arises. Choosing a partner that can provide scalable tools that grow with your business is vital to its long-term success with your company.
Strategically Plan
With a proper partner in place, you can pave the way for perfect deployment by planning ahead. Your plan should account for each of the following implementation stages:
- Before– From choosing the right solution to determining who should have access to it once it is in place, a bit of foresight can go a long way in improving your implementation’s chance of succeeding. Working with an experienced partner that can provide detailed guidance early on can help simplify this step substantially.
- During– The time it takes for your implementation to go live can extend beyond initial assumptions. Plotting the course for your next biometrics deployment can help keep surprises to a minimum. Consider whether or not your team will be needed to help complete the initial setup as well.
- After– Make training a priority and plan out processes for both existing hires and new recruits to help ensure your team is knowledgeable enough to take full advantage of your new biometrics implementation.
Have a Support System
Shifts in the way you do business can create ripple effects throughout your organization. As processes change, additional obstacles can arise. These may also be difficult to foresee. Ensuring you have a support system in place from the start can soften transitional bumps along the way. Just the learning curve employees face in getting up to speed with new tools could be enough to warrant having a strong support system. OCR Solutions provides such support and much more.
With OCR Solutions, you can count on your biometrics implementation being backed by completely human customer service. We eschew both support tickets and general support automation to provide tailored assistance as needed. Our experience in crafting powerful imaging solutions for established brands such as AT&T helps guide our approach to new projects, big and small. The customizable software we offer is intended to help your company scale efficiently and consistently long term.
