Interview with Mr. Tomaz Bergant, President & CEO, TAB Systems Inc.

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Please provide our readers with a brief background of the company

TAB
We have been working in the field of visual recognition for more than a decade. We started with a small group of developers and the belief that access control would advance to relying more on personal recognition than pin codes or proximity cards.TAB Systems has always been about working closely with our customers to continually adapt and improve upon the smarti family of products.
Many of the advances we have integrated into the solutions came from great ideas from our customers asking, “Can smarti do this …?” My thought processes have always been along the lines of “Why not!” Of course our developers play the largest part by making these innovations come to life.These wishes translated into new capabilities that are today the backbone of the smarti software.
In addition to the core access control, this developed into time and attendance, and automation functions, also video intercom was integrated, and many other capabilities have been and continue to be added over time.
Today, we work with partners on five continents and smarti is translated into fifteen languages.

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Can you please describe your product line up for us?

TAB
Since the launch of smarti® we have developed seven separate units. The current product line up starts with the Diadem unit. Its primary role is high security access control but it also comes with complete software for time & attendance and building automation. It is the rugged workhorse of the smarti family approved for government and military use. It works in almost any climate condition indoor or out and is water and dust proof. The Diadem unit received Detektor’s Highly Commended Product Award in 2008.
The Electra is meant to be a value priced indoor solution primarily for time & attendance and for basic access control combining biometrics with integrated RFID. The ELECTRA won at the IFSEC 2009 Security Industry Awards. In the past few months we have also developed a new graphical user interface which turns this unit into a low cost solution for building automation.
The Felix was designed for home security & automation but it can also be used for time & attendance. It has built-in WIFI and it comes with a programmable remote control. In September 2009 Felix won the Merlion Award in Singapore at Safety & Security Asia.
At IFSEC in the UK this year we are planning the official worldwide launch of a new rugged high security unit called smarti® Guardeon. The new unit combines our core biometric access control with a built in proximity card reader and a myriad of other features that will make it an easy choice for user across a wide range of categories. The Guardeon has also been named one of the six finalists in the Best New Access Control Category at IFSEC.

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How did you decide on the combination of face and voice biometrics for your products?

TAB
Biometrics can seem quite intrusive to the end users. This can make implementing a biometric solution meet with some resistance in many companies. Facial and voice recognition are touch free and seem somehow to be more acceptable to users. In effect it is similar to how a security guard would act – checking what we look like and how we sound against a known entity. Also, we felt that as facial recognition by default always includes a camera, it would allow for many more capabilities in terms of monitoring and recording access and unexpected events.

FB
You have won many awards in the past several years for your technology including product of the Year in the Access Control category at the 2009 IFSEC Security Industry Awards. Can you please tell us about this?

TAB
Particularly in recent years, we have been fortunate enough to receive a great deal of recognition from the industry. One we are particularly proud of is the award you asked about, the Best New Access Control Product at the IFSEC Security Industry Awards 2009.The three straight years prior, we made it to the finals and finally last year we won, which is appreciated all the more as IFSEC is the largest security trade show in Europe.
The Merlion 2009 Award for building automation in Singapore was special for me as well because it showed that we are succeeding in areas other than just access control.

FB
Can you review the industry vertical markets that you are concentrating on?

TAB
In cooperation with our distributors, we have been working in a range of verticals, but focusing on Finance and Banking, IT, and Military/Government. I think these are traditional areas of use for higher end biometric access control.
A special emphasis has been placed on informing the key system integrators in these segments as to the range of capabilities of the smarti family of products, and how those capabilities can make their job of specifying easier. More and more is being asked of technology in these types of projects. The breadth of functionality of smarti gives these integrators an advantage to adapt to the changing needs of their clients as the demand for greater capabilities arises.

FB
Please review a recent deployment for us.

TAB
A short while ago, a bank here in Slovenia wanted to equip a vault in one of their branches with a biometric system which would control access and ensure entry of only one person at a time. We employed a small buffer space between two safety doors controlled by smarti to accomplish this. Of course there are quite a few sensors connected to the smarti system which guarantees that the two doors can never be opened at the same time.

FB
What are some of the challenges you face in your deployments and how do you overcome them?

TAB
Probably the most frustrating challenge is one of legislation. Some countries have adopted restriction on the use of biometrics for access control or time and attendance. We have some ways to overcome this, but clearly this is not an ideal situation for us. Another challenge we often face is getting users to understand this is far from just a typical reader. Educating them on what the capabilities are and how to utilize them is a constant effort. I would say also that until they have experienced using facial recognition in particular customers can start out sceptical.

FB
Where geographically are you seeing the greatest growth?

TAB
The Middle East and Western Europe are our most mature markets, though we still have some holes in our distribution networks we are working on filling.

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Has this been a good year for your company and what can we expect to see from you in the coming year?

TAB
Well, even with the launch of the Guardeon, we will certainly look to continue to innovate. We have some things on the table now, but not to the point of disclosing them yet. Additionally, we are working hard to ensure that our distributors are successful with smarti, and we will continue to try and fill in the holes in our distribution network. 

TAB Systems Inc. develops and manufactures smarti®. smarti® combines multimodal biometric access control based on facial and voice recognition with a myriad of other features (time & attendance, building automation, video intercom, IP phone, video surveillance…) that makes it an easy choice for users across a wide range of categories. Products and Services: Facial Recognition, Time & Attendance, Voice Recognition, Physical Access Control.