Banks Should Adopt a Paperless System for Account Opening: Here is why

Banks are very much prone to experience fraud because customers provide fake or duplicate documentation. One of the reasons is the time-consuming process to fill up forms. Data collected from customers aren’t always reliable or uniform (not consistent) across banks. The most valuable way to overcome this challenge is for banks to adopt the paperless system of account opening.

This way the bank can onboard customers quickly, seamlessly, and digitally. This smooth onboarding process would even attract more customers. Adopting the paperless facility alone can increase your market presence.

Customers have unique numbers like NIN, BVN, passport details, driver’s license, and more. This unique information can be used to gather data like Name, Phone number, Date of Birth, Address, and other details. These details are indeed stored in a centralized location in form of your unique information. Furthermore, this information is authenticated with the relevant bodies or agencies, before the bank can collect and store the information for their verification functions.

When a customer needs to open a bank account, the bank certainly needs the biometric of the customer. For example, as a customer in the account opening process, you provide your NIN number. The bank captures your thumb impression with your NIN number which is interfaced online with the banking system. Employing a paperless tool, when your data is captured, a paperless system automatically downloads all the customer’s related data from the NIN server to the bank system as required by the bank such as Name, DOB, Gender, Address, Phone number, etc.

Bank staff can verify all the details in real-time and open the customer account immediately in a quick time without any issues. Below are various benefits of the paperless system:

The paperless tool can be used by agents for quick account opening either at a bank branch or customer location.
Customer consents are taken online for accessing their information from the
Account numbers are shared instantly and provided to customers.
Paper system can reduce turnaround time for account opening with such an online process and reduce paper filling activities by the customer, as everything is digitalized.
Mobile banking credentials ATM cards, Internet banking, are synced in real-time with the account number of the customer sent digitally to customer email / mobile number during account opening process.
This process will reduce fraudulent activities and reduce false -documentation during the account opening process as all information is verified by the system and can be re-used by the bank for their purpose.

Data captured are uniform across the customer onboarding with paperless account opening. Customers are provided with a hassle-free account opening experience in real-time and get onboarded.

Bioregistra is a platform that creates simple web and mobile forms to collect all kinds of information in every industry.

Biometrics Could Help the Gaming Industry with Cybercrime and Age Verification

The popularity of online gaming is rapidly growing these days, especially now that biometric is involved. First of all, there are plenty of interesting games, created for literally everybody’s taste. Second, as we still can’t do many of the things we would do under regular circumstances, we kill the boredom of staying at home by playing Cluedo online.

In case you still haven’t sailed into a magical world of gaming platforms, we would like to tell you that it gives you much more than the ability to play games. Okay, yes, that is the first thing. But as you are playing with/against people from all over the world, you have the chance to chat, exchange experiences, etc. Maybe, you can even meet a new friend.

Whereas there are plenty of benefits of the online gaming industry, we need to admit that there are some potential downsides, too. For example, the issue of security is one of the things a lot of people find concerning.

A common way to protect our data online is by using passwords and PINs, right? But is it enough!? Let us tell you why we believe it isn’t. The vast majority of us have to remember many other things besides our passwords. So, in order not to forget them, we often use the same password to log into different places online. Alternatively, we create different passwords and jot them down on some piece of paper that we can’t find a few days later. These things complicate our lives, but make the work of cyber criminals seem like a piece of cake.

After reading this, it is clear that we need some other way to protect ourselves from identity thieves and other fraudsters. But what can we do? Fortunately, the gaming industry has come up with the idea to use biometrics as an identification tool.

Why is Security Important for Online Gaming Industry?

Some of you may think, “But what is the big deal with in-game theft? It is not like it creates real damage!” it is a misconception. Of course, the problem is not related to games at all. If someone steals your tokens or something like that, it is sad, but the harm isn’t big. However, people who steal identity in popular gaming networks are not doing it for gaming assets in general. Sure, some may have fun by tricking the system to get awards, etc. But the real reason why they are doing it is to gain access to bank accounts, etc.

How Can Biometrics Be Helpful?

Biometrics are physical or behavioral features of humans used to identify a person more easily. Examples of biometrics are fingerprints, facial patterns, voice, etc. Each of them is considered unique to an individual, and it is possible to use several to make sure that the identification is 100%accurate.

Since there can be only one person with a certain type of fingerprint or retina, it is safe to say that biometric check systems will be pretty hard to fool. That is why the online gaming sector sees the adoption of this security system as a good way to prevent data and security breaches. If this system gets adopted, people will not have to memorize tens of different passwords or PIN codes.

Not so long ago, many thought of biometrics as something that exists only in science fiction movies. But it isn’t the case anymore. In recent years this technology rapidly evolved and is used in our everyday lives. Many interact with it without even knowing it. Hence, it is about time that the gaming and gambling websites start to use it for online casino slots or other games.

Biometrics is widely used by law enforcement, particularly the FBI and similar agencies, which use it in criminal investigations. They have used it for both offline and online crimes.

So, a biometric algorithm works by choosing specific parts of each fingerprint or retinal scan. The data is then encrypted and stored. No matter how much you try, you can’t replicate or reconstruct again the whole image. That means that no one can in any way use your fingerprints, etc., to make any scam.

As far as the online gaming business is considered, there are some changes, too. Innovative Technology (ITL) released an API that uses biometric to perform facial recognition of the user. It can also assess the age of the person who wants to join the platform. It is an intelligent identification system that can be compatible with most smartphone cameras and other software. It is the perfect tool for protection against identity theft. However, this is not the only reason why the gaming industry starts using it. The gaming industry statistics record an incredible increase in the number of minors who engage in online gambling. They are spending even more time using the Internet because of the pandemic-related restrictions. However, since they are not supervised, they use times allocated for schoolwork to play video games. The age assessment tool is thus phenomenal for preventing underage individuals from engaging in gambling and similar activities.

Besides gaming apps and websites, API will have another purpose. It can also be used by companies who want to have an option to verify the identity of people who are working from home. Of course, there is hope that we will see the end of this horrific pandemic soon. However, there is a chance some companies in the IT sector will continue having some employees working remotely. In case that happens, this will be a pretty practical solution.

Conclusion

That is all about innovations regarding security in the gaming industry. Despite what some people think, the reality is that we never know the person who is interacting with us in cyberspace. And while we are there only to play games, others may have different ideas in their heads. A biometric identity verification system is an excellent way to protect both users and companies from such people. Have you ever heard about biometrics? What do you know about it?

Author’s Bio:

Thomas Glare is a passionate writer who mainly deals with cyber security issues to help readers gain significant information on how to deal with cyber-attacks. With a desire to help through writing, he is providing quality and insightful articles to his readers. Hence, Thomas will continue gathering important details to share with his readers!

5 Important Benefits of changing from Paper to Digital forms.

We can never say it enough — Paper forms are not doing your business any world of good. Digital forms, on the other hand, will truly offer you a chance to do more. In the1990s, there was a lot of excitement about the paperless office. Several critical technologies — such as reliable mobile devices — were missing at that time. Today, becoming a paper-free office is achievable.

Digital forms, also known as web forms, are a useful tool to help you and organizations to cut down on paper and printing expenses. They also have the potential to contribute to the decision-making process. In addition, web forms deliver these benefits:

The flexibility of use – Most web forms work on multiple platforms on mobile and desktop which allows for flexibility.

Alleviate the burden of paper – A million digital forms can fit into one device, unlike paper forms. Imagine having to carry a million paper forms around to collect data.

Real-time integration – The best business digital forms take data collection a step further by enabling you to integrate with your existing business workflow. You can only imagine the amount of manual burden that this eases from you.

Avoid paper storage fees – If your company is spending money each year to store records off-site, it is time to address that expense. Digital storage is inexpensive, especially when compared to a traditional records management provider.

Serve customers efficiently – One thing that scares people is having to fill forms, especially long ones. Simplifying it by going digital will make it a lot more bearable for your consumers to fill and give you the attention you require.

The benefits of digital forms are numerous. However, there are a lot of digital forms out there and you’d be truly spoilt for choice. The best digital forms for business are those that provide you with all or almost everything you need to succeed with data capture in one place, while also allowing you to add your own requirements.

So, if you’re looking to automate your business forms with one of the best digitization tools out there, look no further than BioRegistra to create some of the world’s most flexible digital forms to collect just about any data needed including texts, pictures, signatures, fingerprints, and other biometric data.

Click Here to Get Started.

Seamfix Officially Launches BioRegistra

SEAMFIX, Nigeria’s leading provider of identity management solutions, officially launched BioRegistra on 17th October 2017, with media, stakeholders and several dignitaries from the private and public sectors present, to coincide with her 10th year anniversary as leaders in identity management and seamless technology solutions.

BioRegistra is cloud-based state of the art platform developed for individuals, corporates, and government, among others to assist them to capture data, store the data, and have access to the data at any time they desire.

The innovative data capture and data management platform, allows a fully automated process that guarantees seamless execution of all KYC business processes, thus enabling faster customer on-boarding and increasing customer satisfaction.

Speaking during the launch, Chimezie Emewulu, SEAMFIX MD, reiterated that BioRegistra was conceptualized to deal with the challenges of accurate data management. Nigeria’s major challenge is gathering needed data for accurate needs and assessment. With BioRegistra, this challenge is history as the platform can be used to capture all forms of data – animate or inanimate.

BioRegistra provides data validation and all-time accessibility from any part of the world. The intelligent quarantine engine is designed to detect fraudulent and fictitious records and prevent them from being processed. In terms of security, the captured data is hosted on a world-class, secure, reliable and trusted cloud platform, so you have no reason to worry about information safety.

Seamfix calls on government and companies to start making data-driven decisions for improved efficiency and this cannot happen if data is still locked in files and paper archives. Traditionally, we fill paper-based forms in loads of situations when we are applying for different things; from our letter of identification at the local government areas to affidavits at courts to even marriage registries. BioRegistra eliminates this manual process because it enables capture of data into a central database with real-time analysis.
It is better, more efficient and cost-effective.

“BioRegistra is a demonstration of the customer-centric approach adopted by the company to ensure that users derive maximum value from the platform.” – Chibuzor Onwurah, Executive Director of SEAMFIX stated as he unveiled the product to the audience.

In today’s business climate, insightful data is king. Informed decisions are made based on data. BioRegistra is designed to deliver this insightful data into the hands of discerning individuals, corporate organizations, and governments in real time.

Here are some highlights:

BioRegistra Captures 2000 Government Staff in Katsina State

Seamfix achieved yet another milestone on August 21, 2017, when BioRegistra, our unique data capture platform, was deployed for capturing the data of 2000 reinstated staff of Local Government and SUBEB in Katsina State. These staff members had been disengaged by the previous administration of the State, and upon reinstatement, the authorities decided to automate their data capture. BioRegistra partnered with Skye Bank to render this service.

BioRegistra is an innovative identity management platform that enables individuals and corporate organizations capture and retrieve any form of information – biometric configurations (textual biodata, fingerprints, portraits), security configurations, accounting records, etc. Using BioRegistra, the captured information is saved on the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. The flexibility and dynamism of the platform make BioRegistra easily adaptable for specific identity management needs.

Beyond data capture and access, BioRegistra performs other core technical functions like data validation, verification, exporting and updating. It is customisable, affordable, convenient and fast.

BioRegistra is a product of Seamfix, and so this is significant for the brand. The capture in Katsina was recorded as smooth, peaceful and safe. Honourable Abdul Kadir Zakka, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, visited the project site on the first day and commended the efforts of the BioRegistra team.

Data capture of LG and SUBEB staff in progress.

BioRegistra is available and ready for deployment for any kind of data capture. We are here at www.bioregistra.com. So, pay us a visit. We can as well be reached through support@bioregistra.com or +234-01-342-9192.

Evolving an Efficient Data Capture System in Government Organizations

One of the things usually unaccounted for in government, and often the source of outrage by the masses, is a number of resources spent (wasted) in public administration. Sometimes it appears there is a certain pleasure derivable from duplicating offices and processes to the detriment of the masses. The line between the portfolio of one government officer/office and another is sometimes not clearly defined in Nigeria, which results in repetition of processes and activities.

Take for instance the idea of processing through immigration and customs and other government offices before traveling outside the country or entering it. The documentation usually required by each of these organizations is the same and as such, there can be a central database that is accessible to such concerned organizations. Such database would also be accessible in the long-term so that a person does not have to start processing or showing all the documentation over and over again each time he or she wants to travel.

Maintaining a database like this makes it easier for government organizations to store and access information in a central location, accessible to all concerned, and this saves time that can be used more productively. It also saves up a cost for the government and citizens.

In Nigeria, for example, some things are done so repeatedly they begin to wear people down. One is forced to ask if there is some sort of pleasure we derive from stress? Go to schools and see how repetitive the registration process can be. Go to government offices and see how records are filed and lost. But we cannot remain like this, not in our world where automation has made life much easier.

Some of these problems can easily be solved by BioRegistra which has features that enable easy and flexible data capture anytime and anywhere for the convenience of both the government agencies and the people. Data captured on BioRegistra is stored in the cloud and can be accessed anytime and from anywhere, making it a viable data capture solution to harmonize the repetitive activities of some agencies of the government. Once information about a particular individual is stored and shared with relevant organizations, it can be easily accessed by any of them from anywhere.

Life is that easy. There is no need to make it more complicated and more stressful than it should be.

On Digitization and the World of Endless Possibilities

Life experiences prove time and again that it’s really not about what we do but how we do what we do. How do you go about capturing students’ information? How do you collate information about your staff and clients? How do you process academic results and deliver them promptly to students? How do you recharge airtime on your phone?

In the end, the how is what separates the boys from the men. You can only do things how best you know to do them, and if you do not closely follow advances in technology, you will not know how best to innovate around your business processes. You will be stuck doing things the hard way. Again, the how is the key!

When we first started thinking around BioRegistra at Seamfix, we were concerned about the fact that organizations spend a lot of time, energy and resources trying to capture different kinds of information. Data capture was slowing organizations down.

But these things can be done in the blink of an eye. In fact, it is easier and faster to preserve, access and share data anytime and anywhere once we digitize the process.

Why will a student who wants to obtain his transcript travel all the way to his university to get it? Why can’t he stay wherever he is and just click some commands and enter some information and have his transcript delivered to him straight away?

Why do organizations still use paper files or feed into systems manually when they can digitize the entire process?

Why do estate surveyors and valuers still use paper to capture the details of their clients when all they need is a mobile application that enables them to capture such information with ease and access the data whenever and wherever they need it?

This is the thinking behind Seamfix’s move to digitize business processes. We want to make life easy for people. We want to make processes faster. Above all, we want to evolve the most efficient way of preserving and accessing information.

With BioRegistra, all kinds of data (biometric, security, accounting, etc.) can be captured and accessed from anywhere.

With iTranscript, alumni members of universities can request for their transcripts and have it delivered to them anywhere in the world.

In UNN, for instance, we have been able to technically unlock the value of data hidden in their over 40 years academic record that we have digitized, and we are now able to track a lot of information; courses students pass the most, courses they fail the most, success trends for various courses especially difficult ones, which lecturer is supposedly more productive based on success trends, etc and all these are simply because the transcript data has been digitized.

When Nicholas Evans, author of Mastering Digital Business, said that “by digitizing a traditionally analog business model or process, we’re effectively turning it into bits and atoms and enabling an infinite variety of possibilities,” he was right. It is really about possibilities.

What possibilities can we see?
What more can we do?
How can we improve our business processes?
Where can we save more and more time and resources?

These are burning questions that every entrepreneur and business executive have to carefully think about and answer before any meaningful progress can occur in their organizations.

FMCG’s Product Survey Challenge- Any Solutions?

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) are generally considered by economists as an integral part of the story for Africa’s fast rising socio-economically. The FMCG is also arguably one the largest industries globally, thriving on meeting consumers constantly changing needs. Thus, product surveys are constantly done, studying the market for Customer Knowledge/preference, to enable targeted manufacture and distribution of goods. Achieving this customer knowledge involves doing Below-the-line marketing, surveys, questionnaires, etc.

The Challenge of the market is the limited platforms available today are expensive and not easily configurable to meet the exact needs of each of these FMCGs. Thus they engage more in below-the-line-marketing. One of the major characteristics of below-the-line marketing is the engagement of customers on a one to one basis and the engagement with people in rural areas. These FMCGs always end up with systems which must be connected to the internet to use, thereby making it difficult for them to connect with those in the rural areas.

Furthermore, some of these FMCGs will prefer to migrate these data after capture to their 3^rd party analytic systems for further analysis but cannot; as what is available wouldn’t permit data transfer and retrieval using APIs.

Solutions have seemed utopian until BioRegistra. BioRegistra is the Solution of Product Survey data collection. BioRegistra is a textual data capture system, that can be used online and offline, and allows data retrieval with its set of API.

What this means is that users can configure textual information, publish a link for users to fill out the form or do the data survey capture themselves using the windows and android capture apps. The owners of such published projects can then run a report of these captured records and view analytics from the portal. This enables them to make informed decisions easily.

Users are also able to capture data even in remote/rural areas where there are no network connections. This data comfortably sits on the device and gets synced to the backend whenever the user has a network. Data captured can then be easily integrated to other systems for further use, or reports generated and exported in multiple formats.

Questions on how this can work for your specific industry are welcome as comments. Also see more or contact us on BioRegistra.com

How ISP Companies Can Use BioRegistra to Register and Verify Her Subscribers

Introduction

An Internet Service Provider involved in providing internet service to individuals, with location nationwide.

Challenge

As a regulatory requirement, Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements had to be done for her customers before Internet source is supplied to them. This is to ensure they don’t fall foul of NCC regulation which requires that valid subscriber details are captured.

The challenge was the availability of a system that could easily help them configure what they needed to capture based on the KYC requirements, and also be sure that any detail captured by their field agents are valid and pass the NCC specifications.

There was also the need to ensure that these captured data could be retrieved in a format accepted by NCC and could also be integrated to their CRM for their subsequent Customer follow up and marketing activities easily.

Solution

BioRegistra’s core value is its ability to allow users dynamically configure forms that can then be used to register people and data generally. The ISP was set up and with its Registration feature, was used to capture her customers during sales.

BioRegistra also does a validation on biometric information real time; it validates that the portrait capture is a real face with both eyes open, no cap covering the face, etc, and also checks that the fingerprint quality is high. With this assurance, the ISP was able to send her field agents to capture subscribers when making sales, with the assurance that every captured record will be accepted by NCC.

With the set of APIs offered by BioRegistra, she was also able to conveniently and instantly retrieve the captured data to be used in other third party CRM systems and was also able to receive theses captured data in XML format, a format ready to be sent to the Communication regulatory body.

How Security Services Companies can Leverage on BioRegistra

Introduction

Security Services Companies offer different security services, one of which is recruiting and outsourcing security operatives to Individuals and Corporates. As part of its processes, they recruit staff, train and send them to other companies, and from time to time need to verify that personnel seen on site are actually recruited by them and not impersonators and that they attend work daily.

Challenge

Here lies the challenge; recruiting these staff means their data needs to be captured and printed for ID card issuance. Also, identifying these operatives after they have been deployed can prove difficult as impersonators can easily assume the identity of an operative – the sites just assume the Security service company has replaced or added a new operative. Furthermore, it becomes a problem for these operatives to be tracked. At the end of the month, the Security service company is expected to submit a report of their operatives’ attendance. With sites scattered all over the country, it’s nearly impossible to always do physical checks and is inconsistent and inefficient too.

Solution

The simple solution to this is BioRegistra. BioRegistra’s registration, identification, time and attendance functionalities enable it to solve these problems easily.

With BioRegistra, Security service companies can create registration projects that can be used to capture all her operatives using the Android or Windows desktop capture apps. These data can then be retrieved using API to be printed on an ID card printer. The system also ensures that the quality of the captured portrait is checked real time to ensure it meets ID card standard.

Subsequently, users will be required to clock in and out of work every day using either their fingerprint, their live selfie or a unique ID assigned to them after they have been captured, this can then be run at the end of a month to get the report of their attendance from the BioRegistra portal regardless of their location.