Hi-Tech Human Touch

Tuesday 30 December 2008 , , , 0 Comments



FingerTec has two slogans. “One Finger Solves It All” and “Hi-Tech Human Touch”. The former is straightforward and the latter reflects our corporate image and it has an underlying meaning underneath the obvious. The two slogans are being used in most of our marketing materials or asserted on FingerTec logo to summarize our business strategies and philosophy as a whole.

A New Paradigm: One Finger Solves it All
In fact, the very first and now defunct slogan of FingerTec was “Security At Your FingerTips”. My rationale to detach it from FingerTec in 2005 was because I realized security was not the only industry the fingerprint technology can serve, besides it conveyed a symbolic message that we narrow the business further down to a tiny spot just as fingertips.

One Finger Solves It All is an opposite of Security At Your Fingertips, which reversed the narrow-in concept to a widen-up. And, it also meant although our business originates from one small little finger (refers to fingerprint technology), it can be broadened to all industries, and encourages explorations to some unknown areas. In other words, with an open mind, we can expect a whole new world created from our little world.

Followed by the paradigm shift, a concept of standardized product with an open architecture, a SDK (System Development Kit) that allows third party system’s integration, slowly contributed to construct a new business model, and the night starting to dawn. 

The Next Level: Hi-Tech Human Touch
One Finger Solves It All utters our ambitiousness, but what’s a business for without blood and soul? When the curtain moved-up in 2007, Hi-Tech Human Touch emerged on-stage to play a bigger role.
In fact, I’m not satisfied with the term “customer satisfaction”. It becomes a most widely spread business dogma that offers very little creativity, and eventually produces no less vulgar services and mediocre products.

Customers PAID for satisfaction. This is basic. If you couldn’t justify their minimum expectation, you would eventually bid goodbye to your business. For example, we watch various movies, read many books, listen to a lot of songs, pay for all types of services, use myriad of products; I assumed some of them was below our expectations, quite some was satisfactory, but only a rare few touched our inner hearts and stayed to become our sweet memories. Why movie “Titanic” became a classic while a lot of other movies did not? 


Where is the sensation? Where is the touch and feel? Customer satisfaction is insufficient in today’s business. You (the brand, the business) would be forgotten soon enough once they stopped using your service or product.

From I'm Satisfied to I'm Touched 
Human touch is a higher expectation. You have to be more than satisfaction.  A questionnaire that receives a check for the box, “Yes, I’m satisfied” from customers can’t be considered genuine because it’s a leading question and normally it’s a polite response from a customer to your effort of finding out your service level. Rarely would you come across customers who would feedback, “I’m touched”, because by saying that, it’s devotion from the bottom of their hearts.

Products from factory may reach satisfactory level; but it hardly reaches the level of “I’m touched”，because human elements normally are deduced from the process of factory’s operation.

To achieve Hi-Tech Human Touch, we have to cover the tiniest details of considerations based on customers’ experience.  So far we have achieved our expectation to some extends, but it’s still a long way to go.

I believe excellent shouldn’t be self-claimed; customers have the final say. 

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

FingerTec has two slogans. “ One Finger Solves It All” and “ Hi-Tech Human Touch”. The former is straightforward and the latter refle...

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An Old Outline, A New Chapter - A Year Without End (Forecast in 2009)

Saturday 13 December 2008 , , , , , 2 Comments



We shall complete the year 2008 with a profound sales growth at 75% for FingerTec products.

But, how about the coming year when recession deepened and the globe would be enveloped with a long sigh? Would it be a rough journey for all? Especially when the   business community would share the common gloomy economic outlook?

In fact, I resent the excuse of blaming the economic landscape if our business did not perform or under-perform. 

I recalled when the economy was in a very good shape; we performed terribly due to immature products, pre-matured markets and clogged sales strategies. The absence of the success elements, one may conclude.

As a start-up company in biometrics industry, some failures were inevitable. However, if the failures were endless, we had to wave the business “good-bye”. To me, it’s really not entirely the fault of the external economic environment. The good news is FingerTec passed this test with flying color.

Due to volatility of the IT industry, I believe core-competency within a company gives larger impact than the external economy landscape. By culminating core-competency, it means even when you get hit; you won’t fall.

How shall we open a new chapter based on the old storyline? Here is the storyboard, and I believe despite the downturn, we shall make our way to be nominated for the Best Motion Picture in 2009, and taste yet another successful year by your contribution, and share the fruit (of success) collectively.

1.      Market Expectation in 2009

We aimed at a growth rate of 50% in 2009.
Our confirmed Global Exhibition Schedule in 2009 so far:
Dubai, UAE:  InterSec 2009, 18-20 January
Moscow, Russia: MIPS 2009, 13-16 April
Taipei, Taiwan: Secutech 2009, 22-24 April
Mexico City, Mexico: Expo Seguridad Mexico 2009, 21-23 April
London, UK: IFSEC 2009, 11-14 May
Sao Paulo, Brazil: Exposec 2009, 12-14 May
Florida, USA: America’s Fire & Security Expo 2009, 28-30 July
Mumbai, India: China Sourcing Fair Bombay 2009, 21-23 November
HK: China Sourcing Fair HK 2009, 12-15 October
Beijing, China: Security China 2009, Dec 2009


2.      FingerTec New Products in Line
Hardware: Keylock 8800, H2i, TA300, TA100T , i-Kadex and etc.

     H2i - artist impression


TA300 - artist impression


TA200T (Touch Keypad)



Keylock 8800 - artist impression


i-Kadex -artist impression

Software: TCMS V2 web version. Delayed, but definitely will be available in 2009.

DigiPay: A Payroll software that can be integrated with TCMS V2, or go separately as a standalone product. This product would be released in early 2009 with Malaysia version, and it will be extended for use in other countries later on.

Existing products: We will keep on improving in features and quality.

3.       External: Sales & Support System Enhancement

Finally, a simple formula equally important to Einstein’s e=mc2 :-)is derived.
1 program x 2 objectives x 4 modules x 8 websites = Success
Fully understand the formula, and know how to apply it, you will get high score in your marketing exam, too.

One Program: FingerTec Global Reseller Program to bring everything under one roof;
Two Objectives:  To make the selling of FingerTec faster, and to make the technical support of FingerTec easier.

Four Modules
Marketing Module
Product Module
Training Module
Support Module
 
Eight Websites
The seven websites ranging from sales, marketing material, warranty, user, technical tips to training are on standby to serve all the time. And the new member, product website, to make it eight, would join soon to meet the customers. 

Of course, a good system has to improve and to enhance at all time, including in 2009. And the localization would be the main task lies ahead for the eight websites in conjunction with our official website: www.fingertec.com. 

4.   Internal: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System Enhancement
The CRM system was implemented since September in 2008. We will continue to improve the system to cover marketing and technical support including repair and warranty claim workflow in 2009.  This year, we will fine- tune our system to allow resellers to check on their purchase history, readers’ information, and warranty expiry date when they log in using their own account.

I believe that to better equip ourselves is to serve our customer better. I will deliver this promise.

5.     Branding Strategy Enhancement
Pursuing the practical branding strategy, branding that makes everything easy!   Besides products, we will continue to make exhibition made easy, product display made easy, and etc. We’re about to release a 40-second commercial video, “FingerTec, The Committed Brand” with a jingle to impress everybody, stay tuned!

The R&D, the brand name and the product of FingerTec is actually started since 2000. But, its image, its larger value was only started to emerge in 2005. The same year, when we had given the product, the brand name, a LIFE.  

Since then, the years have been without an end. 

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ


We shall complete the year 2008 with a profound sales growth at 75% for FingerTec products. But, how about the coming year when rece...

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TA100 DIY Launch in Jakarta Next Month!

Friday 12 December 2008 0 Comments



Located at the Hotel Peninsula, Jakarta, FingerTec in collaboration with Retailindo Tech will be launching the much awaited time attendance products, TA100 DIY in Indonesia on the 15 of January 2009. Sincerely yours and her humble assistant, Tamy will be there to witness the grand introduction of this true standalone fingerprint time attendance product.

We hope Retailindo rocks the show because we will not be assisting in anyway on that day, on the stage. Our mission is to witness Retailindo, Mr Eviek and Ms Sui Ping make history. Don't get us wrong, we do help before the show though. We want the event to be as local as possible with no interruptions from outsiders, international people like us. :-) And once TA100 DIY takes off in Indonesia, we want to promote this product aggressively in South Africa and Mexico.

Anybody thinks their market love this product, email me at ana@fingertec.com and let's discuss on plan to conquer.

What's the fuss about TA100 DIY anyways? It's TA100 series but WITHOUT any software. All settings are done at the terminal itself and the reports can be saved in USB Flash Disk for printing. It's easy as ABC. TA100 DIY is suitable for offices with employees with less than 50 staff and those who are not interested in software (obviously!).

So, how many you want to order?

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Located at the Hotel Peninsula, Jakarta, FingerTec in collaboration with Retailindo Tech will be launching the much awaited time attendance ...

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There’s No Regret

Tuesday 25 November 2008 , , , , 0 Comments


"....though I never thought that we could lose, there's no regret, if I had to do the same again, I would, my friend, Fernando", and there goes a part of Abba’s famous song, Fernando, which presents a vision of nostalgia of two veterans reminiscing in old age about a war of liberation that they participated in during their younger days.


The old bittersweet memories revisited me over a feature-film “Mama Mia”, adaptation of the beloved musical Swedish super-band Abba screening in theatres recently.


Some friends asked whether I would start the Biometrics business once again if I have the chance to go back to the past. They all had seen me suffered and witnessed the struggle for the business to turnaround, thus, the question is, was it all worth it?

Business is very much similar to a war, but at the same time very different from a war. The battleground in business and war are both merciless and cutthroat. However, in a war, winning suffers lost of lives and losing always claims more. War is about life and death and one may end up in a sudden full stop. In contrast for a business, you may accept defeat and your lost of investment; but you may still have the chance to return to conquest your losing ground bit by bit so long as your fighting spirit is still burning.

Life was hard in my early days back in 2000, during the development of our biometrics products. The endless challenges, one after another, both technology and market struggles, failure after failure. A series of tasks, to reduce FAR (false acceptance rate) and FRR (fault rejection rate), to improve reading speed and 1: N verification, to achieve user-friendliness, cracking many scientists’ heads over the years.

Investment drained in vain and staff started to leave when the sunlight was not in sight. Our business only started to dawn in 2005, not before a cruel bloodshed and corpses of our defeated models piled in our labs.

Let us bear the pain, do not extend it to our customers! This is my conclusion after 5 years of suffering.

And two objectives were derived: To help our resellers to sell FingerTec products easier and to reduce resellers’ support costs and time. To achieve these 2 objectives, 4 modules that include Marketing, Training, Products and Technical were introduced in our Global Reseller Program. To deliver the 4 modules, 7 supporting websites were established to cover requisition of marketing materials in hardcopies, useful sales information in softcopies, training materials in softcopies, user technical guides, technical tips, accessories, and warranty claim, all are ready to serve its designated purposes.

And the presence of our products in 90+ countries worldwide finally rewarded us a small piece of success story.

Of course, life must goes on, so does a business. And the newborn model, FingerTec TA100 DIY, making its debut this month to further deliver simplicity, and with the missionary objective to put the resellers and the SME/SMI customers at ease. Off-the-shelves-kind of product, one might say.

So, there’s no regret. And, there’s no envy too of me seeing someone signing a multimillion contract for a single project. I choose to have multimillion pleasant customers using FingerTec products to claim a single victory. And, I was contended and would continue to deliver a simple message to my customers: With FingerTec, everything is easy!

So, my reply, “If I had to do the same again, I would, my friends.” And it’s definite.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

"....though I never thought that we could lose, there's no regret, if I had to do the same again, I would, my friend, Fernando&...

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Machines That Promote Honesty

Monday 3 November 2008 , , , 0 Comments



Bleak is the word precisely described the present world’s economy.  The crisis started from the sub-prime mortgage problem, snowballing and eventually resulted in the avalanche of the equity market, the collapse of the banking system, and a series of disconcerted governments’ bailout. The impact seemed enormous, almost affecting all industries when the credit line blowing cold. Another Great Depression is around the corner, some economists commented.

Internet Bubble: Back to Basic
When the Internet bubble bursts in 2000, some calls, “Back to Basic” instead of “Business-to-Business”, one of the buzzwords during the Internet boom. Back to basic, seemed to be the solution when something turned sour. The basic list includes basic business logic, basic profitability capabilities, and basic corporate management system and etc.

Could we use the same medication, “Back to Basic” this time? I think it is a YES. Greed is the driving force pushing capitalism into another extreme, and too much of lies behind the greed painted the false image of prosperous.

Consequences of Greed
When there is more truth, it is fewer lies. And when one gets closer to the truth, meaning one would be far away from the lie, and the greed desire would be less possible.  Would anyone still bite an apple if he knew worms are wriggling inside? The truth is, in the financial market, vultures hovering the sky looking for the next prey. If investors obtained the true information, he would be more cautious.  

There is a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln that goes like this: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Instead of awareness coming too late after the house being burned down, shouldn’t we have a better system or corporate governance to ensure truth must be told beforehand? If yes, how?

I am not an economist, so I don’t prolong the topic. I just relate this basic principle to what FingerTec products try to achieve: no lie and be honest.

Honesty is a Virtue
When conventional punch clock system or card access system were introduced to the market, the problem of buddy-punching or proximity card being passed around the office or to outsiders had never been solved. Why? It was simply because the devices offer convenience to employees to commit lie. When this happened, truth is never shown in any companies’ financial report especially factories where staff’s working hours matter.


FingerTec video: Ghost Story

Honesty is a virtue. Some might be cynical when I’m telling that FingerTec promotes honesty when it prevents buddy punching by deploying biometric technology. Of course, the best honesty should come from one’s inner self, and should not be imposed by external force. Just like no bosses like to be fooled by employees, they shouldn’t become vulture themselves. 

I strongly believe that honesty is the basic principle before any solution for all kinds of crisis.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Bleak is the word precisely described the present world’s economy.   The crisis started from the sub-prime mortgage problem, snowball...

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Turkey: Tug-of-War with Eternity

Saturday 1 November 2008 , , , 0 Comments

                                   A bridge linking the European side and the Asian side

Istanbul, aged two thousand years old but still a vibrant cosmopolitan city, and one of my must-visit top destinations, here I come. 

The Istanbullus are very much in their own center of gravity, receiving foreign visitors in (luke) warm manner; and some turns cold shoulder. Perhaps, 6.5 million tourists (in 2007) flooded Istanbul city make them less enthusiasm for foreigners.  

There is a bridge over the Bosphorus Strait linking the European side and Asian side, the interface and the mixture of civilization has inevitably engulfed Istanbul in an endless tug-of-war between the East and the West, between Islamic and Christianity, between ancient and contemporary, and between certainty and uncertainty of their own identity. It seemed like the Turkey's application to enter the European Union (previously the European Communities) has also becoming a long march of tug-of-war since 1987.

The rise and fall of the Roman Byzantine Empire and later by the multicultural Muslim Ottoman Empire nourished the culture in Istanbul, produced Mr. Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2006. His writing has a lot of reminiscence of the glorious past and depicting his brought-up city like a thin air of melancholy.     

And Istanbul is situated at the hilly location where the modern asphalt roads and the old cobblestone pavements are free flowing up and down according to the land structure. Some alleys snaking and sloping into the residential apartments are even very steep. 


Mr. Noharuddin Nordin, CEO of Matrade (right) dropped by our booth

Surprise!! Our former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam (middle) came to the Booth. Mr. Tamizi, representing  Matrade on the leftIs this guy, Fatih Gemi (staff from the opposite booth) resembling the model in our poster? 

The 12th Musiad Exposition is well organized, unexpectedly attracted quite some foreign visitors from the neighborhood countries besides the domestic's. The Trade Show is in conjunction with the International Business Forum (IBF), hence it brought along a lot of decision makers. 

Despite the wide range of industries covered in this Exhibition, FingerTec received quality inquiries from Kosovo Republic, Pakistan, Algeria, apart from the locals. Thumbs up also for Matrade (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation) for their excellent works in arranging a Pavilion for Malaysia's exhibitors. 

The second day after the Trade Show, I have a meeting with one of my prospective customers in his office in Perp Tic. Merkezi in Okmeydani Istanbul.  It is a very large 13-storey complex that housed approximately 5 thousands mainly electrical or electronic products merchants' offices. It is common for buyers and sellers to involve in tug-a-war in business dealings in Turkey, and the whole process took me a 6-long hour. At the end, I gulped at least ten cups of Turkish Tea over their hospitality. 


Turkish Tea, Turkish delights

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

                                   A bridge linking the European side and the Asian side Istanbul, aged two thousand years old but stil...

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Global & International: A Subtle Irony

Wednesday 29 October 2008 , , 0 Comments



Synonym?

Many people always use the word “Global” and “International” interchangeably, as they view these two words as synonyms to one another in definition. However, further analysis on the meaning of these words discerns the apparent differences. While their differences may seem trivial to many; it is crucial to FingerTec.

Both “Global” and “International” terms are interwoven and inseparable in FingerTec’s marketing and support system. “Global” amplifies “once and for all”; it is obvious in our online platform, marketing materials, products design, software application, System Development Kit (SDK), multilingual platform, packaging and etc, all to serve the world as one with single activity.

Extension of Globalization: Localization

The globalization strategy spun into localization when we start to term it with different regional markets. The localization strategy is an extension of our very core globalization system which if multilingual, it is definitely originated from English; if features added, we would compile them under one software or hardware platform as selectable options for users.

Inter-National: Nation-to-nation
What about “International”? I detach the word by adding a hyphenation in between to become “inter-national” for easier comprehension. Yes, it is all about “between two countries”. Nation-to-nation, border-to-border, it has a lot of differences when goods and money change hand due to different government policies.

Some countries require Certificate of Origin (CO) for goods importation; some requires an independent organization such as BIVAC to inspect goods prior to release of cargo; some requires a formal sales contract for every shipment to prevent under declaration of goods value. And for payment transactions, some countries disallow Telegraphic Transfer; some only accepts Letter of Credit and some prefers Euros than US Dollar for international trade.

Cope with the Varying

How well a company can handle the varying transactions and logistics issues in ensuring smooth, prompt and cost effective product delivery determines the successfulness of the company in its overseas business dealings.

In summary, “Global” is a strategy to achieve “once and for all” that applies to one world, and to reduce job duplications; in contrast, “International” is a strategy to adapt to the varying factors of bilateral trade effectively.

Simplicity vs Complexity
It is bizarre for the two words that carry almost the same meaning can lead to the opposite ways in marketing strategies. In short, “global” moves towards “simplicity”, and “international” heads towards “complexity”.

The only route to reduce complexity is to reduce tangibility of your products. Selling or providing intangible services or products such as the ones provided by Google, you're free from all the hassle in transportation and border control, which you can forget about “International”, and concentrate more on “Global”.

Envy of Google making a huge profit by offering online services? Such service might seem far-fetched for FingerTec, in your opinion, but we're closer than you think. Stay tuned for FingerTec’s next development.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

S ynonym? Many people always use the word “Global” and “International” interchangeably, as they view these two words as synonyms to o...

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10 Things Uniquely India – At least from my observation

Friday 24 October 2008 0 Comments

Last week I was in New Delhi for the second time, attended IFSEC India 2008 with our partner, Compax. Here are 10 things I observed which are uniquely India!
10. Auto is the king of transportation
The auto can get you almost anywhere at the cheapest price and the fastest way. Hop on any of those and enjoy the traffic of Delhi!

9. There’s something about Indian guys hair
Even the cartoon characters have Indian hair and the sideburns. Not a single strand is out of place and it stays neat throughout the day. They must have received some kind of training during childhood on hair maintenance.

 8. Healthy snack is everywhere
Nuts, peas, dhal, rice with onions, green chilies and tomatoes combined is heavenly. Sweet potatoes, refrigerated water everywhere. What’s not to like?
7. Natural mouth freshener
As natural as you can get…

6. Crowded redefined
Nearing Diwali, the Indians started to shop and in places near the Jama’ Mosque, India gives me new definition of crowded. And it was C.R.O.W.D.E.D!!!!

 5. Honking is a culture
You honk to avoid people banging you, you honk to avoid being banged, you honk to say you are there, you honk for fun, and you honk just because you are alive.

4. Cricket is life
I went to India Gate and saw every guy in Delhi trained and played cricket. Soccer is just netball for Indian guys. :-)

3. Negotiation is in their blood
When people said INR 1000, I said INR 5000, and I thought I was good. This is how you SHOULD do it.
You: How much?
Seller: INR1000.
You: What? This thing for 1000 rupees? INR250!
* If they didn’t budge, just walk away. You will get seal the deal in 5 seconds.
2. Vegetables are in huge demand!
Even the ice cream experts is a pure vegetarian. My friend from Chennai told me about this new development, “Chicken is a vegetarian”. And we argued the whole night about this new development and we plan to continue this argument next year.

1. Hospitality is No. 1
Indian hospitality is No. 1, the first time I went and the second time around. Thank you guys for the warm welcome and the lovely stay. India rocks! That's me in Indian traditional attire. Happy Diwali to all my Indian friends and clients.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

Last week I was in New Delhi for the second time, attended IFSEC India 2008 with our partner, Com pax. H...

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