Biometrics for Retail

1. BIOMETRICS FOR RETAIL POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION BAYOMETRIC MARCH 12, 2017 Written & Compiled By Danny Thakkar CEO & Co-Founder

2. “ The global biometrics market will increase to $15 billion this year from an estimated $7 million dollar just three years back. ” BIOMETRICS RESEARCH GROUP, INC. The parent organization of BiometricUpdate.com

3. POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION INTRODUCTION Biometric technology is identifying individuals based on their unique physiological or behavioural characteristics such as fingerprint, iris, voice, face etc. Due to this characteristic biometric technology is highly accurate and reliable. There are many types of biometric technology such as fingerprint recognition, voice recognition, iris scanning etc. Biometric technology has been successfully adopted in industries such as law enforcement, banking security, border control, healthcare etc. and its adoption in POS solutions within the retail industry is also increasing quite rapidly. be user friendly and agile so that transactions can be handled quickly leading to profit maximization. Thus modern day POS systems need a sophisticated technology which can assure reliability, security, accountability and quickness. Biometric technology such as fingerprint identification can meet all these criteria without sacrificing precision. According to Biometrics Research Group, it is predicted that the global biometrics market will increase to $15 billion this year from an estimated $7 million dollar just three years back. According to another technology firm Frost and Sullivan, it is predicted that almost half a billion people will be using biometric technology equipped smart phones by 2017. So we can see the tremendous potential of biometric technology and its adoption in retail POS will surely provide faster and more secured ways of managing the business transactions. The biggest benefit that biometrics could offer the retail industry is POS payment authentication because traditional methods such as passwords or PINs are considered obsolete and vulnerable to security breaches. Fingerprint POS at ration shops in India (Photo: The Hindu) In the retail industry, employees traditionally used swipe cards or password and PINs for logins. But these identification methods are now considered outdated and expensive. Often employees forget or lose their PINs or ID cards leading to unnecessary expenses and productivity interruptions. This in turn could cause a great financial loss to the business owners. Using passwords or ID cards also lead WHY ARE BIOMETRIC POS SYSTEMS NEEDED? Modern day point of sale software systems have evolved over the years and so have the transactional complexities and nuances of the retail industry. These software systems should Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

4. POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION to buddy punching and payroll frauds. Buddy punching is another common problem in the retail industry in which one employee clocks into the POS system for an absent or late employee using their ID cards or passwords. Biometrics is a more accurate method of identification as they cannot be shared and integrating it in a POS system can help eliminate the loopholes of traditional identification systems. Biometric based systems such as fingerprint recognition can eliminate the problems of buddy punching and allow for more secure manager approvals. Thus integrating biometric technology in a POS system can add a lot of value to the customer by boosting accuracy, security and increasing the overall efficiency of the business. possession. Biometrics, on the other hand is almost fool proof as it is based on the inherent characteristic of the individual. Fingerprints are unique to each individual and even identical twins do not have the same set of fingerprints. Hence it is the most accurate form of identification and implementing fingerprint recognition technology in POS systems will ensure peace of mind to the retailers and faith in the POS systems. They will be able to conduct their retail operations smoothly and efficiently while at the same time increasing employee productivity. HOW CAN INTEGRATION OF BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY BENEFIT POS SYSTEMS? Even though retailers would like to believe in the honesty and integrity of their workforce, they still need to adopt loss prevention technologies in their POS systems that will help curb fraudulent transactions, safeguard their business and enable profit maximization. A report by the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that American businesses lose a lot of money due to employee dishonesty which amounts to more than $50 billion annually. The magnitude of this amount indicates that it is indeed an arduous task to prevent losses happening due to employee thefts. Hence retailers cannot rely on conventional methods to manage inventory or employees as they have many loopholes and cannot provide effective security against frauds. FINGERPRINT BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY IN POS SYSTEMS Today's retail industry is fast paced and demanding. Business owners have to continuously deal with problems such as payroll theft and POS shrink. Hence they look for secure solutions which can maximize their return on investment (ROI) and allow tracking the workflow thus eliminating time theft and fraudulent transactions. And at the same time, these solutions should also be cost-effective. More and more retailers are choosing to integrate biometric fingerprint recognition in their POS systems as it is affordable, convenient and the most widely used biometric identification method. Biometric technology such as fingerprint recognition adds an added layer of security to POS systems which ensures that only the authorised individual can access his account Swipe cards or passwords can be stolen and transactions easily carried out by the individuals having these stolen cards or passwords in their Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

5. POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION and must also be present physically at the time of transaction. Fingerprint recognition is highly reliable as it is based on the inherent characteristic of the individual and also extremely difficult to spoof under normal conditions. Thus it eliminates the problems associated with swipe cards or passwords which can be shared among employees and helps in maintaining a concrete audit trail of each transaction. Deploying a biometric fingerprint reader at POS systems helps to seamlessly tie employees to each sale and ensures accountability of every discount, return or gift card transaction. Thus retailers now have more control over employee activity and are able to audit trail every completed sale to the sales person. Hence cases where unscrupulous employees scam or rip off retailers through false returns and phony transactions can be totally eliminated with the help of biometric enabled POS systems. Moreover, there are expenses associated with replacing a lost or stolen card. Resources also need to be spent in resetting a forgotten or compromised password. The IT help desk might have to spent unnecessary time in resetting forgotten passwords or PINs of employees. A report by Gartner Research estimates that IT help desk spend as much as 40% of their time in resetting forgotten PINs. This leads to a huge time drain and affects productivity levels. Integrating biometric fingerprint recognition in POS systems will remove any need for password management and instead allow retail establishments to focus on their core competencies. Employees can securely and accurately clock in their time with a quick scan of their fingerprint. So the need for scanning cards or entering PINs are totally eliminated. A biometric enabled POS system will enable accurate identification of employees and retailers no longer need to worry about employee identity theft. Biometric fingerprint readers allow accurate capturing of employee time and attendance data which is critical for efficient workforce management. For hourly employees, the time calculations are straightforward and transparent. It is more secured than card based systems which have many loopholes such as buddy punching. The benefits of integrating biometric technology in POS systems are immediately realised in terms of reduced time and attendance fraud and better adherence to corporate policies by allowing secure manager approvals and transaction overrides. Shoppers can also benefit from fingerprint recognition while making payments at POS terminals. Nowadays, many brick and mortar businesses such as cafeterias are using fingerprint solutions in their POS systems that enable their patrons to make payments quickly without the need to remember passwords or cards. Employee time theft and employee retail theft are the areas contributing to the highest percentage of point of sale shrink over the past few years and the numbers continue to rise. INTEGRATING FINGERPRINT RECOGNITION IN POS SYSTEMS Touch N Go is a developer friendly biometric solution that allows easy integration of Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

6. POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION fingerprint recognition technology into existing point of sale systems. The unique nature of the integration methodology of Touch N Go allows for very quick fingerprint integration. In fact, fingerprint integration into existing POS systems can be accomplished with just four lines of code and does not take months or hours. Even with no prior experience, Touch N Go allows fingerprint recognition to be integrated into applications instantly and with no learning curve. quality fingerprints get enrolled. Thus retailers looking to rapidly adopt fingerprint recognition technology in their POS systems can take advantage of the many features of Touch N Go biometric solution. CONCLUSION We have already discussed the various benefits of biometric technology integration in POS systems. Biometric fingerprint identification is a cost-effective solution and has proven to be both durable and reliable. It is a highly accurate system that ensures only authorized individuals will have access to POS terminals, networks and applications. Within the first few months of fingerprint integration in POS systems, unauthorised manager overrides are stopped and employee time and attendance fraud are eliminated completely. Sophisticated users clearly recognize the immense benefits of investing in biometric technology. The return on investment (ROI) is tangible in terms of increased employee productivity, improved time and attendance tracking and customer satisfaction. Retailers can have a detailed perspective of their business which allows them to run their operations securely and efficiently. Touch N Go provides the highest level of security and a solid identity management infrastructure for existing applications. The GUI is completely pre-developed and ready to use and hence developers are not required to spend any time on this component. Also, the client and server installation takes just a few minutes. Touch N Go has support for a variety of programming languages such as C, Java, .NET etc. and programmers also have access to the inbuilt applications and source code in different languages. It has features such as fingerprint deduplication and fingerprint quality checks. These checks are performed in the background to ensure that duplicate fingerprints do not get enrolled in the system and also only the best Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

7. POINT OF SALE BIOMETRICS INTEGRATION AUTHOR DANNY THAKKAR CEO & Co-Founder Danny Thakkar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bayometric, one of the leading biometric solution providers in the world. He has been in the Biometric Industry for 10+ years and has extensive experience across public and private sector verticals. Currently, he is chief evangelist for Touch N Go. Bayometric sales@bayometric.co.uk 1743 Park Avenue t. 877.917.3287 (USA) San Jose, CA, 95126 t. 408.940.3955 (INT)

8. COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2017 Bayometric LLC. All rights reserved. This white paper was written, designed, and created by Bayometric. Information contained in this whitepaper is the copyright of Bayometric. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published, and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references to Bayometric LLC, without the permission of the copyright owners. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and Bayometric LLC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to any warranty that the use of the information herein will not infringe any ownership rights or any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. REFERENCES 1. Biometrics Can Enhance POS Security – Retail Pro Blog 2. Tips on Cleaning up Employee Theft to Increase Company Revenues – Martin Investigative Services, Inc. 3. How Biometrics is Changing the Retail Industry – APS Group 4. The Benefits of Integrating Biometrics with a POS Solution – M2SYS Blog