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Beget leaps ahead in local biometrics

Beget makes it easy to get under its ­clients’ skin with local biometric solutions designed for conditions in Africa.

Beget Holdings is a BEE-certified, JSE-listed company specialising in the development, manufacturing and marketing of technology solutions. The design principle of Beget is to make its products user friendly and easy to implement and operate. Over the years, the group has gained experience and expertise in GSM technology applications, middleware solutions, thin-client Internet programming as well as biometric solutions.

On the biometric and GSM front, according to Delme Hawkins, CEO of Beget Solutions, the company started its foray into the GPRS world in 2003 when it developed GSM modems for banking clients. While engaged with these clients, the company realised the market was also in need of mobile clocking systems that could be used in remote areas by industries such as mining and construction.

Delme Hawkins is the CEO of Beget Solutions

Since then the company has made significant inroads into the local time and attendance (T&A) as well as access control markets. Beget designed and developed its own biometric devices, linked to its modems to facilitate remote identification and access functionality without losing touch with head office for payroll and HR requirements.

Although the devices designed by Beget are able to work whether connected or not, the company also developed a dual SIM card to facilitate failover connectivity if one mobile operator is unavailable. Today the company is producing the fourth generation of its biometric solutions, with the fifth generation due out in 2010.

“The product was originally developed to be mobile, making it ideal for industries like construction, agriculture, etc, but we soon realised that the penetration by our competitors into the other industries was limited, so we decided to tackle the entire market and go head to head with any other product in the market,” says Hawkins. “In addition, we could offer clients an advantage as we were the only company offering a truly mobile biometric solution.”

Another advantage Beget has over its competitors, both local and international, is that it manufactures locally and offers a 48-month swap-out warranty. When compared to the usual six to 12-month warranties on offer, this makes Beget unique. “Within the warranty period, we swap any faulty device out anywhere in the country,” Hawkins adds. “What is more, we also fully insure the devices for clients.”

More than fingerprints

In industries like construction and mining, a common problem with biometric readers is that workers fingers are often in poor shape, wet or damaged. This prevents a fast recognition of the person, if there is enough to recognise them at all.

Fortunately, the company has exported its products to France (among other countries) for years and its partner in Europe introduced Beget to finger vein scanners based on Hitachi technology. This technology has been used in Japan for four years and in France for the past year.

Finger vein scanners ignore the details on the skin, identifying the person from the pattern of his/her veins. Near-infrared rays penetrate the finger and are absorbed by the haemoglobin in the blood. The areas in which the rays are absorbed (ie, veins) appear as dark areas like a shadow in an image taken by a CCD camera. Image processing can then construct a finger-vein pattern from the camera image. This pattern is then compressed and digitised so that it can be registered as a template of a person’s biometric authentication data.

Speedy recognition and authentication results from a technology that cannot be forged as it makes use of internal biometrics. Additionally, the device is a non-contact scanner, making it less vulnerable to dirt and damaged digits. Moreover, it requires a live finger because the technology requires blood to be flowing in the veins if it is to capture the required images.

“Beget now has the African rights for this product,” explains Hawkins, “and we are already inundated with requests for information from existing and potential clients. Within the next year or so, we will build vein scanner technology into our mobile devices to take this superior biometric identification technology to the remotest places. We will also offer customers the options of different scanners for different needs, depending on their requirements.”

Service delivery

Hawkins says Beget’s differentiator is not only its technology, but also the service it delivers. Many South African companies automatically opt for international brands as they are automatically assumed to be better, whether experience supports this or not. “We strive to provide a prompt, professional service throughout South Africa, clearly differentiating Beget from its competitors.”

Beget also trains and certifies partners in various regions to take care of customers and deliver the service levels required in its drive to deliver similar levels of service around the country. And the company is also entering new markets in Botswana and Namibia, where it has received positive responses from both partners and potential customers in these regions.

Another way in which Beget ensures service levels are maintained across the various markets it serves is by offering its software over the Internet. On the one hand, this allows customers to access their applications and information no matter where they are; and it prevents Beget’s applications from interfering with other installed software. On the other hand, it allows Beget to service a customer’s problem remotely and fix it immediately instead of sending a technician out to fix it in a day or two.

Beget has grown organically over the years and stood its ground against both local and international competitors. In its favour, Hawkins says, is the fact that there is a huge market for biometrics as more companies realise the benefits these technologies can offer when integrated into day-to-day organisational operations. That being the case, Beget expects to expand significantly in the biometrics/access control markets over the next few years with solutions that leave its competitors in the dust.

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