The global and local biometrics markets will remain robust and exhibit healthy growth next year, industry experts predict.
Biometrics as a technology came of age this year, according to Cape Town-based Transmetrix`s marketing director, Charlie Stewart.
"We expect very big things to happen next year, especially within the public sector. Many tenders have already been sent out this year by local municipalities, which are trying to clamp down on financial abuse and fraud.
"I suppose this reflects the desire of national government to cut out not only large-scale financial abuse, but also smaller elements, such as employees stealing time or not delivering on jobs," Stewart comments, adding that another four or five tenders for biometrics solutions are due to be sent out early next year.
In the private sector, he says, small and medium enterprises have been first to experiment with recent biometrics technology, while large corporations have remained more sceptical.
"Big corporations burnt their fingers about three or four years ago when many invested in biometric technology that was unproven. Now this sector is also showing an interest and we expect big enterprises to start buying big-time next year," Stewart says.
In terms of solutions, he predicts that most interest will be in logical access biometric solutions, which control access to PCs and Web sites, while the growth in payment systems is expected to be slower.
"Globally, there will be an increased focus on biometrics in the developing world, especially in terms of time and attendance systems. There has been less of an emphasis on this in the developed world, so, in many ways, the developing world is more advanced in terms of time and attendance system implementation," Stewart adds.
Meanwhile, Bryan Kimmel, director of Fingerprint-IT, believes that more competition will come to the local biometrics market from China and Korea, driven mainly by improved quality and cheap pricing.
"Previously, there was much biometrics technology from the US and Europe on the local market, but it was expensive. Products from China and Korea will create more competition for local players and that is good. Competition is always good to stimulate a market," he says.
Kimmel also sees the cost of biometrics hardware decreasing, coupled with an increase in software prices.
Locally, he says, time and attendance and access control implementations have reached critical mass, and adds that there is large-scale growth expected in the Internet security, credit certification and payment system space.
"SA is moving well into the credit certification space, but we are still nowhere in the biometrics payment system space. No-one has yet linked fingerprints to bank accounts in this country, but I see this as a definite area of growth."
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