Siemens Bundles ID Management and Biometrics

May 12, 2008

Effective 1 June 2008, Siemens will bundle its identity management and biometrics business at Siemens IT Solutions and Services in the new unit Identity Management and Biometrics. This will make Siemens the only provider to offer solutions from a single source and help it meet its goal of growing faster than average in this dynamic market. The newly formed unit combines the Siemens IT Solutions and Services biometrics center in Graz, Austria and the solutions for identity and access management from the Siemens Healthcare Sector.

Biometrics clarifies the question of identity: Who is a given person? Identity management controls the rights of users of IT systems: What rights does a given person have? "We have something unique to offer the market," says Gerd Hribernig, future head of Identity Management and Biometrics (IMB), "in that we jointly develop our biometric solutions and identity management and combine them with IT integration and operation." One particular advantage of consolidating the two fields is that Siemens is now able to offer these optimally aligned solutions to all customers on a cross-sector basis.

Analysts estimate that the annual demand for suitable solutions will grow by an average of around 15 percent by 2010, while Hribernig anticipates annual growth of some 20 percent for his unit. IMB is starting with annual sales in the high double-digit million range and approx. 130 employees – 80 of whom already belong to Siemens IT Solutions and Services, with 50 coming from the Siemens Healthcare Sector.

The solutions used by Siemens in its projects include biometric solutions for recognizing fingerprints, hand vein patterns, facial shapes and voices. This enables individuals to identify themselves without the possibility of error in the public sector and to log into IT systems of businesses and organizations. Coupled with identification and login is the question of which data and systems the user is authorized to access and which are restricted. The corresponding rights are automatically issued, rejected or revoked by the Siemens product DirX on the basis of previously defined authorizations and defined functions – such as sales manager, procurement or project member. When an employee switches to a new position in the company, their access rights are immediately modified accordingly. Automatically issuing rights improves productivity, lowers error rates and administrative costs, and makes it easier to observe and monitor the increasing number of compliance requirements worldwide.