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Product Leadership in Biometric Authentication — Why It Matters to You

There is a myriad of considerations when selecting a biometric authentication vendor. Technology, business practices and innovation all play a role, and it can be difficult to understand the relative importance of each.

Product leadership within the biometric authentication industry is a key indicator to finding the best vendor for your business. Companies recognized for their product portfolio have a strong understanding of the market overall, as well as the vision to design high-value solutions that propel the industry forward.

The analysts at Frost & Sullivan independently assessed the product attributes and business impact of the top global biometric authentication solutions to identify which companies and products represent the apex in product leadership. Their evaluation included not only the functionality of the products, but also the level of customer involvement in the development of solutions. 

HID was awarded the 2023 Best Practices Product Leadership Award for its best-in-class biometric authentication solutions. According to Frost & Sullivan, “HID focuses on creating customer value via robust quality, innovative technology and knowledge leadership.”

HID stands apart as the market leader due to its portfolio breadth and customer-focused strategy, which enables it to consistently bring best-in-class fingerprint readers to market.

— Frost & Sullivan, 2023 Best Practices Product Leadership Award

The following criteria are the driving forces behind product leadership. Understanding why it matters to you provides clear guidance to finding the best biometric authentication solution for your environment.

Criteria #1: Customer-Driven Features

Accuracy, stability and ease-of-use are key criteria to the selection of biometric devices. HID was recognized because of the quality of its products, its broad portfolio and ability to partner with customers to develop the next big idea.

An excellent example of customer-driven innovation is the modular solutions approach HID developed in response to customer requests for simpler integrations without costly system replacements or new platform migrations. Customers are now able to implement the right-sized solution today, and incrementally add more functionality later.

“HID incorporates client and market feedback into its product roadmap to maximize short-term growth opportunities while providing a path to future revenues,” noted Frost & Sullivan.

Why It Matters to You: Working closely with customers ensures the solutions developed have the functionality required at the right price. A customer-first approach empowers stakeholders throughout the value chain, from customers to front-line employees and executive leaders, to ensure its products and solutions meet the real-world requirements of customers, partners and regulators.

Criteria #2: Innovative Technologies

Quality, durability and reliability are cornerstones of product leadership, but customers also need the latest technologies to unlock new features and stay ahead of the competition. Among HID’s technology differentiators is a higher level of resilience against spoof attacks with the HID-patented multispectral imaging (MSI) technology and advanced Presentation Attack Detection (PAD). The HID Lumidigm® line of fingerprint readers bears the ISO 30107-3 PAD Level 2 compliance designation, demonstrating its ability to offer the highest global standards for PAD and biometric recognition performance.

Partnering with Paravision, HID also delivers a reliable facial matching algorithm through ethically-trained AI and machine learning (ML) for unbiased facial recognition. Matching algorithms with AI are trained to recognize faces using extensive ethically sourced, opt-in datasets, which include a variety of gender, age and racial characteristics, to ensure sufficient diversity of data and prevent matching bias.

Frost & Sullivan also highlighted HID’s camera identification system. Built in with AI and MSI, the camera enables accurate face matching and identification in any lighting condition. It also offers on-edge facial recognition, which does not require a link to a server database, accelerating the matching process and reducing the risk of a security breach.

Additionally, HID offers higher quality print image capture than other providers. HID’s livescan tenprint and palm scanners are the only scanners in the market available with 500 and 1000 PPI capture resolution, significantly improving the matching rate for mission-critical applications, such as law enforcement criminal booking.

Why It Matters to You: Companies recognized for a high standard of innovation strive to develop faster, more secure solutions with ever-greater accuracy. A complete suite of biometric authentication solutions developed by industry leaders ensures that customers have the freedom to select the right technologies for their environment with the agility to grow.

Criteria #3: Industry Knowledge Leadership

Understanding the unique needs of vertical industries ensures biometric authentication solutions are developed to match the market needs. Examples of industries leveraging authentication for competitive advantages include:

  • Banks around the world are using biometrics to prevent fraud, protect customer data, increase efficiencies and deliver superior user experiences. 
  • Retail establishments require a reliable system to drive accountability around cash register access and time tracking.
  • Healthcare leverages fast, accurate identity verification of clinicians and patients to improve workflow efficiency, curb fraud and enhance patient safety.
  • Air travel focuses on reducing friction, minimizing administrative burden and enabling airlines to offer services that optimize the passenger experience, all while maintaining security and privacy protections.
  • Government agencies require fully compliant biometric authentication solutions for identity enrollment and verification, including government-issued ID authentication and compliance.
  • Law Enforcement needs reliable, rugged biometric systems for criminal booking, background checks and crime investigation to keep citizens safe and the community secure.
Why It Matters to You: It’s important to create a balance between positive user experiences without sacrificing data privacy requirements. Every industry has different business priorities, budgets and operational requirements. One size does not fit all when it comes to biometric authentication solutions. Collaborating with vendors who have in-depth industry knowledge and experiences ensures solution suites are tailored to the unique needs of these each industry.

Criteria #4: Global Business Growth

The business impact of top global biometric authentication vendors was assessed in the selection process for the 2023 Best Practices Product Leadership Award. Frost & Sullivan considered each vendor’s financial performance, operational efficiency and growth potential. Customer acquisition and retention efforts figure highly into customer-centric growth potential.

HID’s pursuit of disruptive technologies, value chain compression, industry convergence and new business models creates an environment that results in product leadership. This commitment to quality is pervasive in the company culture. Frost & Sullivan concluded, “With a deep-rooted history of purpose-fit innovation, HID shapes the industry’s trends, impacting its role in the market.”

Why It Matters to You: Financially and operationally healthy companies provide the stability, reliability and innovative thinking required for effective long-term solutions for enterprises. When an entire organization is collectively focused on the same goal of quality products, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, the business grows and serves as an innovation leader in the industry.

To learn more about HID’s product attributes and business impact of the global biometric authentication market in the award evaluation, read the full 2023 Best Practice Product Leadership Award report.

Read more about the topic on selecting the right biometric authentication vendor in the recent HID blog post: Top 5 Attributes for Selecting the Right Biometric Authentication Vendor.

Roland Fournier leads the Product and Solutions team for the Biometrics Business Unit at HID's Extended Access Technologies business area. Roland has an extensive experience in all phases of product management and product marketing servicing identity and workforce management, security, wireless and networking marketplace. Prior to joining HID, Roland was Senior Director of Product Management at IDEMIA where he was responsible for Product Management for civil identity and biometric solutions servicing the public sector. Before that, he held product management positions at Kronos and RSA Security.