Imageware Systems Inc's Comment on Competition and Industry Peers
The Law Enforcement and Public Safety Markets
Due to the fragmented nature of the law enforcement and public safety market and
the modular nature of our product suite, we face different degrees of competition
with respect to each IWS Law Enforcement module. We believe the principal bases
on which we compete with respect to all of our products are:
the unique ability to integrate our modular products into a complete biometric,
LiveScan, imaging and investigative system;
our reputation as a reliable systems supplier;
the usability and functionality of our products; and
the responsiveness, availability and reliability of our customer support.
Our law enforcement product line faces competition from other companies such as
DataWorks Plus and 3M. Internationally, there are often a number of local companies
offering solutions in most countries.
Secure Credential Market
Due to the breadth of our software offering in the secure credential market space,
we face differing degrees of competition in certain market segments. The strength
of our competitive position is based upon:
our strong brand reputation with a customer base, which includes small and medium-sized
businesses, Fortune 500 corporations and large government agencies;
the ease of integrating our technology into other complex applications; and
the leveraged strength that comes from offering customers software tools, packaged
solutions and web-based service applications that support a wide range of hardware
peripherals.
Our software faces competition from Datacard Corporation, a privately held manufacturer
of hardware, software and consumables for the ID market, as well as small, regionally
based companies.
Biometric Market
The market to provide biometric systems to the identity management market is evolving
and we face competition from a number of sources. We believe that the strength
of our competitive position is based on:
our ability to provide a system which enables the enrollment, management and
authentication of multiple biometrics managing population databases of unlimited
sizes;
searches can be 1:1 (verification), 1:N (identification), X:N (investigative),
and N:N (database integrity); and
the system is technology and biometric agnostic, enabling the use of biometric
devices and algorithms from any vendor, and the support of the following biometric
types: finger, face, iris, hand geometry, palm, DNA, signature, voice, and 3D
face and retina.
Our multi-biometric product faces competition from French-based Safran, Irish-based
Daon, 3M and Aware Inc., none of which have offerings with the scope and flexibility
of our IWS Biometric Engine and its companion suite of products or relevant patent
protection.
