http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=114184
Local fingerprints on world stage
Ziaur Rahman
Md Hasan
It may be hard to believe fingerprints, a traditional substitute for signatures, could craft business worth millions of dollars.
TigerIT BD.com, a local IT company, is bagging work worth millions from the global market by selling its Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), an identity solution. It is a process of automatically matching one or more fingerprints against a database of known or unknown prints.
Local companies may also adopt the innovation after knowing the US Federal Bureau of Investigation intends to work with TigerIT for the ID solution.
Local software makers are neglected in regards to obtaining deals from the government and private entities for providing technology solutions. However, confidence rose after TigerIT successfully provided voter IDs for 80 million people with the help of the Bangladesh Army in 2007-08.
TigerIT provided software solutions to build the national database.
“Our success could be a positive example for local software makers who fail to convince local policymarkers,” said Ziaur Rahman, chairman and chief executive officer of TigerIT, in a recent interview with The Daily Star.
Local IT firms fail to tap international markets due to a lack of recognition, he said. “There is no other alternative to having local reference in getting work abroad.”
He said the size of Bangladesh’s IT (information technology) market will grow rapidly as the government announced a target to create a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ by 2021.
In Bangladesh, more than 300 firms are developing IT-based solutions, but most failed to compete in the local market despite performing smoothly in global markets.
Several local IT firms are providing IT solutions to multinationals across the globe. But the sector could strengthen in Bangladesh if the government patronises local IT firms, as in India, Rahman said.
He said local firms in India get priority over foreign companies. “We should change our traditional mindset that foreign solutions are always better than the local ones,” he said, adding that Bangladesh should go for foreign technology solutions that are not available here.
TigerIT is software maker specialising in ID and fingerprint-based solutions. The company’s AFIS fingerprint matching solution ranked number one in the Minutiae Interoperability Exchange (MINEX) test by the US based NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology).
The TigerID AFIS is a set of services that can reside on a single server, or be distributed across an array of servers, depending on the anticipated transaction volume.
With the close of a successful chapter in making voter IDs in Bangladesh, TigerIT ID solutions are now being used in the US, EU and African countries.
TigerIT also engaged in providing ID solutions to Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Africa, Canada, Columbia and some other parts of South America.
“Our software solution is being used by 22 states in the US under a government e-commerce project,” Rahman said.
TigerIT has developed an application by which the US government collects online reports from homes for disabled citizens on utilisation of government funds.
More than 100 Pizza Hut outlets in the US are also providing sales services by using TigerIT’s solution, said the company chief.
Besides, TigerIT also developed a cell phone browser, which has become popular in the US, Rahman said. It is now in talks to sell the cell phone browser to the EU.
“The Nigerian Army also selected us for their ID project,” said Rahman.
In regards to recognition from the US, Rahman said, “We are now the number one in fingerprint matching solutions. We see this success as a step towards being a global player.”
He said the FBI has also expressed interest to work with TigerIT after receiving the recognition.
TigerIT has recently submitted a bid for the machine-readable passport (MRP) project in Nepal.
“We want to become a global leader in ID solutions,” said Rahman. However, he said like other local IT firms, he also faces hurdles in exporting solutions to the global market.
Bangladesh produces more than 2,000 programmers a year. “We are even more advanced than India in making IT solutions, especially high-end products,” he said.
On company revenue, Rahman said: “We are doing business worth millions of dollars.”
hasan@thedailystar.net
