IT solutions company arivia.kom has increased its foothold in the European market with international acclaim for the service quality of its subsidiary, Face Technologies.
Madrid-based communications multi-national Business Initiatives Directions (BID) awarded Face Technologies the International Star Quality Award, gold class, for service excellence.
At a glittering event at the BID convention held in Paris, France, from 23 to 24 January 2005, BID president and CEO Jose E Prieto presented awards to representatives from more than 10 countries, including Face Technologies, the sole South African representative.
Other award-winning companies were from India, Morocco, Portugal, Venezuela and Brazil, among the more than 70 countries present at the event. BID has annually awarded businesses around the world for their quality and excellence for the past 28 years. Candidates for the awards are independently assessed through online surveys with more than 165 companies worldwide receiving awards.
Face Technologies has a reputation for successfully delivering turnkey, niche identification solutions for governments, using the latest advancements in biometric and smart card technologies. The company has provided social service, transport, identification, voter and security solutions to the governments of SA, Namibia, Botswana, Zanzibar, Zambia, Uganda, Lesotho, Tanzania, Malawi and Poland, to name a few, and has taken the decision to enter the European market and export their skills to emerging economies in Europe.
The company launched into Europe with the awarding of a multimillion-rand contract with the government of Poland, for the development of a central, computerised register of vehicles and drivers permits. This contract is particularly auspicious since the European Union gained 10 new member countries, including Poland, on 1 May 2004.
Face Technologies director and arivia.kom executive George Stander explains: "The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war brought significant changes to the European geopolitical order. As a result, the European integration process has rapidly accelerated to include the central and eastern European countries. In this new context, these countries face very different political and economic situations, and enormous investment is required if the applicant countries are to meet the standards and comply with European Community legislation when they join. Thus, the Polish government recognised the requirement to modernise its transportation database. Due to our record of accomplishment and our technology partnerships in Europe, we were selected as a subcontractor to Softbank SA, a Polish IT company."
According to Stander, the BID award is recognition from international players that Face Technologies is a force to be reckoned with, and a quality organisation. While Face Technologies is brand independent, it has always given preference to world-class products such as SAGEM on biometric projects, and partners with the best technology suppliers in the world such as Thales (France), Dermaloc (Germany), Identis (USA) and NEC (Japan and USA).
"In the field of biometrics and smart cards, Face Technologies is as cutting-edge as can be," comments Stander. "Let`s just say we use not first-world, but future-world technology. We are the company that introduced the first handheld, mobile card verification device to the Department of Transport last year, a completely home-grown innovation using the most advanced technologies available."
To further add weight to its reputation in Europe, Face collaborates with French company Oberthur Card Systems in an exclusive distribution agreement aimed at developing smart card-based markets through a wider coverage and relevant solutions.
"Our technology partnerships gives us access to leading smart card and related technologies, and will act as a conduit into the broader global market where our solutions and intellectual property can be introduced, " says Stander.
"The recognition we received from BID, among the hundreds of global businesses represented at the awards ceremony, merely confirms our conviction that there are great opportunities in markets outside Africa - where we have provided solutions to most of the continent`s governments - and that our solutions can compete with the best the world has to offer."
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Arivia.kom is a leading South African IT company operating throughout Africa, with a proven ability to implement customised, integrated IT solutions and provide services at whichever global location clients may specify. Its end-to-end services and solutions generate significant business advantages for its clients. It has a thorough understanding of the market sectors on which it focuses and an impressive track record as proof of its capabilities. http://www.arivia.co.za.