Interview with Claude Galipeault, Chief Business Development Officer, Digitus Biometrics Inc

FB
Would you please provide our readers with the company’s background?

DIGITUS
Approximately 10 years ago, the company began in England, where the technology and development started with Chris Marsden-CTO. In 2005, the company, with all its IP moved to the United States and basically, there are three gentlemen, Chris Marsden, Dave Montgomery and myself, Claude Galipeault, who own the company along with a handful of friends and family members.

FB
Would you review your product line up for us please?

DIGITUS
Certainly, we’re a manufacturer of, primarily, biometric access control products and we have three variations of these products. One is the stand-alone product, which is really geared towards protecting a single door. Another product is one which will integrate with existing access control systems with an industry standard Wiegand output. We also sell a network version of our product, which is managed by our central management software in a network configuration. The product is IP based, so there is no physical restriction to the scope of a single system. And in network configuration, all the user enrolments and management of the units and capture of data are done by our central management software. We also have a time and attendance solution, and though that’s not our direct focus, it is available.

FB
You have successfully deployed the Digitus Access Control System in over 200 installations in the past five years, would you elaborate on this and provide a typical example, please?

DIGITUS
Our main focus is within three verticals; those being government, -in particular military, educational establishments, and healthcare and research facilities, each of which demand a high level of security. Most of our installations would fall within one of those three verticals; however we do have installations in other categories. One installation includes several buildings on a military base in the Savannah area, which require a high level of security.

FB
You also mentioned a time and attendance solution; would you care to enlarge on that for us?

DIGITUS
Sure, the one major issue with standard time-attendance products is the potential for employee fraud. For example, if an employee is running late, he may call his buddy asking him to swipe or punch my card. Obviously with a biometric solution, you eliminate the ability for buddy punch-ins, because if an employee is not there to clock in with his own live finger, it is impossible to “trick” the system.
We also provide a comprehensive software package which has the ability to collect data from multiple sources (sites or areas within a factory) and produce comprehensive HR reports.

FB
So there’s a very clear return on investment (ROI) associated with that solution, correct?

DIGITUS
Yes there is; we did an installation here locally, for a staffing company, and they indicated that their payback happened in approximately six weeks; because they saw an immediate decrease in the payroll expense.
There have been independent studies conducted, —and this is not Digitus’ research, but is completely independent of us—which indicates that five to ten percent of payroll, as an average and across all sectors, is fraudulent. With the implementation of biometrics in that area, you eliminate the opportunity for fraudulent clock-ins. Though time and attendance has not been a strategic focus, Digitus was also chosen to deploy its time & attendance solutions at the Naval Academy in Maryland.

FB
Has this been a good year for the company?

DIGITUS
Yes; we’re experiencing good growth and so yes, it’s been a very good year and if I may, I’d like to give you some anecdotal evidence; sales across the board for many companies in technology- and this is public information- if you look, you’ll see that many companies have been down, year over year, revenue-wise. And yet, if you look at some of the publicly held security companies, they’ve held their own. If they’re off at all it’s minimal, in terms of top-line revenue; and some are actually experiencing some growth. Therefore, I suppose that the conclusion which can be drawn from all of that is that, while corporate America and the government continue to tighten the belt on infrastructure expenditures, there is continued spending on security related products and, at present, it appears to still be going strong.

FB
That’s good to hear; now, what can we expect to see from Digitus Biometrics in the year ahead?

DIGITUS
Well, essentially, we’re deploying several newer versions of our technologies. We’re anticipating that in the near future we will be offering a PIN card and fingerprint, which has actually been off-the-bench now and into Beta-testing. This is a solution which meets the current Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 201. As you well know, FIPS 201 moves all the time, the target, the requirements and standards. However, we have that product coming out, we estimate, within the next three months.

We have an IT-server-cabinet, with full biometric protection. We’ve taken that device, which as you know, a server-cabinet is a “dumb” cabinet, and we’re able to now monitor everything from telemetry, power consumption within our system, as well as access control. This is also an IP based product, so, if you have any kind of intrusion, or any duress feature activation, that information immediately is reported through the management software.

So, we have a lot of new things coming out. Our goal is to make an effort at having development be two versions ahead of the current product in the marketplace in order to be proactive for our customers and provide them with features which are ahead of the standard for the industry.

FB
My next questions concerns the biometrics industry as a whole, -what do you see as some challenges that this industry is confronted with at present?

DIGITUS
Well, basically, my view on that issue is that people are trying to understand biometrics; it’s a matter of education, really. There are a great many people who make the mistake of getting the incorrect technology for their application. We’re focused on developing solutions that are conducive to their application, not just provide a product; our software and systems offer many sets of features and options allowing us to be able to deliver that to our clients.
I believe that one of the things, as well, is that we need to bear in mind that not all biometric products are equal. There are products on the market whose performance is giving biometrics in general a bad reputation. So that would be another one of the hurdles that we will need to overcome.
To put it bluntly, there’s biometrics, and then there’s biometrics; the buyers of these products very often do not have the perspective to appropriately evaluate what they are truly buying.

FB
Okay; and were you to have the ability to see five years into the future, what might you hope and/or anticipate that the biometrics industry will look like then?
Where do you see foresee this technology being present and possibly being used as a commonplace feature?

DIGITUS
I believe that five years down the road it will be more widely accepted and I also believe that Digitus Biometrics will be “the” standard for access control applications throughout the world.

FB
Yes indeed- a most optimistic response! Is there anything else you’d like to add in summary?

DIGITUS
Well, one thing we believe is worthy of mention is that Digitus Biometrics Inc., is actually the first Access Control System that has been invited by the BTF to be evaluated, and to be a perpetual participant in evaluating biometrics in terms of all our new features.   

www.digitus-biometrics.com