SIC Biometrics plots scale-up path from under-the-radar prominence | Biometric Update

SIC Biometrics is surely among the most influential hardware providers in the industry to remain an unfamiliar name to some within the industry.

The company has an established product portfolio and customer base, and now more resources than ever before to scale its operations and reach new markets, after being acquired by DNA Partners just weeks ago.

The company was founded in 1999 in Quebec, Canada, and has found receptive markets in Europe and the U.S. The company introduced a biometric match-on-card product in 2008, and more recently has teamed up with big players to distribute mobile identity solutions. SIC’s list of partners and customers makes its position within the market clear, as CEO Eric Talbot unravels the company’s history for Biometric Update in an interview.

“Apple came and asked us to make a fingerprint sensor they could attach to a sensor for border control,” he says. “That’s when we switched from a mobile card to a USB or an Apple-protocol connected device, and then added the PIV card and then the CAT card.”

Apple and SIC helped each other establish footholds in the U.S. government market, and SIC has gone on to establish relationships with the NSA and other federal agencies.

DNA Partners Managing Director Jean-Marc Bougie, on the same call, describes SIC’s “unique portfolio of products” as “best-in-class technology,” and says the company is recognized internationally for having “the most up-to-date technology.”

SIC designs and manufactures complete systems for biometrics capture, across a range of modalities. The company develops its own firmware and builds the hardware, utilizing best-in-class scanners and algorithms from partners like Integrated Biometrics, IriTech and Iris ID.

“In the market, as I see it, we have the widest portfolio for mobile devices,” Talbot says. “You talk about scanning a passport, scanning an iris, we have all kinds of scans on all three platforms. So, the core of SIC is multimodal mobile biometrics systems, where we develop all the firmware that runs on the board, the boards, and then we have an ecosystem of subcontractors manufacturing the different components for us.”

DNA found that most biometric hardware suppliers had “what I would call more legacy hardware. It hadn’t been updated, it wasn’t up to the highest standards,” says Bougie. Not only did SIC meet the most exacting standards, the company also had the kind of management team DNA looks for, he adds.

This is important to DNA, because, according to Bougie, “we are a lot more hands-on than most traditional private equity groups in that as partners we’ve run businesses, we’ve scaled businesses.”

He sees a great opportunity to do the same with SIC. Together, they plan to “broaden the customer base and ensure that we’re able to get the product into the right hands. Historically, SIC’s been under the radar, I would say.”

The company was well-known to insiders, which has steadily generated businesses, but it did not aggressively pitch its products to service providers in the past, Bougie says, presenting an opportunity.

“What we’re finding is that many system integrators who have used other suppliers in the past are recognizing that those suppliers have not kept up.” Further, some that decided to build technology in-house have realized that they are not playing to their own strengths. Some have spent a lot of money and time, and were not very agile, Bougie says. With DNA’s experience, network and capital, it can identify potential to scale rapidly and enable rapid growth.

Some of the public sector projects SIC has been involved with could not be publicized, because of their sensitivity. Talbot refers to supplying 5,000 units with IB sensors for major government programs, and mentions U.S. Post Offices, TSA PreCheck and FBI background checks as initiatives that have been rolled out with SIC technology.

“We were not able to talk about it but everybody knows SIC provides the tablets for Idemia,” Talbot says.

The U.S. Marshals and DEA are customers, and 4,000 devices have been deployed for rapid ID checks in the field by U.S. law enforcement.

The company will also showcase products for the DOD at Identity Week, this week in Washington, D.C.

SIC serves these customers by drawing on its 24 years of experience, and getting “as close as possible to end-user,” Talbot says. These close relationships allow the company to see what works for one client, like the U.S. Marshals, and then adapt it to its other customers with similar needs.

The deployment by the Marshals also furnishes a story that Bougie says demonstrates Talbot’s passion and “why we just had to do this transaction with him.”

Talbot recently flew to Washington to meet with representatives from the Marshals, and on arrival, one senior officer who Talbot did not know came up to him and gave him a big hug, thanking him repeatedly.

He recounted how his office had recently used the SIC product to identify people found during a bust, and identified wanted individuals. Based on this information, they searched the premises and rescued two children found imprisoned in the basement.

Close collaboration with both third-party suppliers and end-users drives a lot of the development the company does, Talbot says. One example is the smart power management system SIC has developed for iris biometrics scanners, which are only powered on when needed. This extends battery life, and keeps the devices in the field for longer without requiring a recharge.

The devices are also built with rugged materials, high-quality cases and everything else, Talbot says. Despite this, SIC is able to offer devices for $6,000 or $7,000 that compete with devices sold for $9,000. This is in part because they are manufactured in Canada and developed by a small management team.

“We are a small team but with a very strong ecosystem which are ISO suppliers and have high capacity,” Talbot says.

Because of this, SIC frequently has experiences like at the recent forensics show in Reno at IB’s booth, where it showed off products which were recognized by professionals who were not necessarily themselves familiar with SIC.

Talbot and Bougie have specific targets in mind for expanding SIC’s customer base. “There’s a number of integrators that they haven’t worked with in the past, or who they have flirted with, but have not been keen that are now knocking on the door,” Bougie says.

“There is one senior executive that was running the biometrics division of a large integrator, and moved to another international integrator,” he continues. “When he walked in, he said ‘My goodness! You guys are still trying to sell these legacy products? They’re horrible! I’ve got to introduce you to the one and only organization that has best-in-class.’”

The glowing recommendation is based on “miniscule” rates of returned products and performance issues, Bougie says, which in turn are due to “not cheaping out” on the products for a higher profit margin.

All products are fully tested and “tweaked to the Nth degree,” so they can make sure those who protect the public against terrorists and predators are “armed with the right product.”

In addition to new clients, Bougie sees room for SIC to grow deployment with its existing client base. Only 3 percent of one police force served by an integrator partner has mobile devices, for example.

Talbot sees national ID initiatives as a possible major biometrics enrollment opportunity, along with border control and in-field identification. Hospitals could also pivot at any time for patient ID, and he suggests that vein biometrics have significant potential for both healthcare and banking applications.

The portfolio SIC has built up was always Talbot’s goal, “but I didn’t want to have a team of 60 or 100 people in different countries,” preferring direct contact and a small team.

“The next chapter of SIC is to have Eric Janosz and his team to build relationships and grow the company on the strong base and the agility that we put together.”

“People may not have heard about SIC in the past,” Bougie adds. “They’ve definitely seen the product, and they’re going to see more of them.”

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