News

NCR unveils fingerprint recognition solution

November 29, 2005

ATLANTA - NCR Corp. announced in a news release its comprehensive strategy for helping retailers and consumers address information security and privacy issues through fingerprint recognition.

"We are seeing increased interest in fingerprint recognition as retailers, their employees and consumers learn more about the convenience and benefits offered by this technology," said NCR vice president for assisted service solutions Greg Egan. "With properly planned and managed deployments, retailers can expect measurable business improvements from employee-facing as well as consumer-facing applications."

Employee-facing uses of fingerprint recognition - including time and attendance, controlled access to POS systems and manager approvals or transaction overrides at the POS - offer revenue recovery and operational efficiency opportunities for retailers. For example, the cost of time and attendance inaccuracies, which can be reduced through the use of biometrics, has been estimated at between 1 percent and 8 percent of payroll.

Employee applications can also help stores smooth the way for consumer-facing solutions, such as biometric payment at the POS or self-checkout.

"In preparation for the rollout of biometrics technologies to consumers, retailers often first introduce associate-facing applications such as time and attendance to get employees used to this advanced technology," said Robert Garf in an Aug. 24, 2005, AMR Research Alert.

In addition to biometric payment, fingerprint recognition can improve other consumer-facing applications, such as age verification, payroll check-cashing or frequent shopper programs, in conjunction with assisted-service or self-service solutions.