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.