One of the world’s leading identity management and biometric systems integrators, Texas-based Fulcrum Biometrics, has demonstrated its confidence in southern Africa with the establishment of a local office which will be headed by ICT veteran Rob Griggs.
“We originally established our headquarters in the US and later expanded with a software development and sales facility in India,” says Fulcrum founder and CEO Ken Nosker. “From these humble beginnings, we now proudly service customers in over 100 countries around the world. Over the last few years, the demand from Africa for biometrically-powered security and identity management tools in a host of market sectors has increased tremendously.
“It became clear to us that Africa was the next growth market in biometrics and has led us to the decision to establish our third global company presence in Johannesburg,” Nosker says.
In recent years, Fulcrum has worked closely in Africa with biometric industry experts Dave Crawshay-Hall and Charlie Laxton. This relationship has now culminated in Fulcrum Biometrics Southern Africa (Pty) Limited being formed. Fulcrum USA are shareholders with Nosker on the local board, with Griggs and John Taylor complimenting the team.
“We have long admired Ken and the depth of own-IPR biometric solutions Fulcrum have developed,” says Griggs. “While they have won several significant projects in Africa already, an established local office team with proven African experience and easy access to this huge market will propel Fulcrum to another level in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Charlie Laxton, now based in New Jersey with Warren Lahoud, spoke confidently of the commercial opportunities: “Fulcrum has immense buying power from global hardware OEMs and have integrated those products into their Fulcrum Biometric Framework (FbF) and this own-IPR software solution platform is enjoying great success. Their buying power, FbF and extensive technical and project management capabilities, will surely differentiate Fulcrum in Africa.”
Today, Fulcrum Biometrics is a single point of contact for anyone selecting, integrating, and deploying biometrics-enabled systems and security solutions. They are committed to the growth and expansion of the biometrics industry and to developing new and exciting biometrics applications in areas such as identity management, policing, security, micro finance, e-government, retail, healthcare, non-profits, banking and many other verticals.
As biometric identification intersects with the rapidly growing global security challenges, Fulcrum will continue to enable its clients to realise the full benefits of practically applying this powerful technology.